Well, we are wrapping up our study of Colossians today. We're in chapter four, verse seven, down to the end of the chapter. And a lot of A lot of individuals will be mentioned here. It almost reminds you of the end of the book of Romans, where there's so much personal greetings to individuals who were in Rome. 10 mentioned by name. And so we're going to do a little bit of a personality study today with some of these individuals that are listed here. If you're a student of the Bible, if you love God's word, Some of studying God's word is almost like detective work, you know, because you pick up a little hint over here like, oh, wait a minute, that explains this over there, you know. And you get some of that in this tail end of the letter. And so I hope it's encouraging to you and insightful. But let me pray. And then I'm only going to take this a third at a time, because I divide this into three. Well, the divisions are naturally there, but three divisions. But let me pray. Our Father and our God, we pause before the reading of your word. And Lord, we need you. We need your help. Lord, we want to plumb the depths. of what's contained in what seems to be simple verses. And yet Lord, there's so much here for us to know and to grow by. And Lord, we need spiritual insight and only you can provide that. So Father, we pray that you would change us for the good because we spent time with you and in your word. And Lord, we thank you for that in Jesus name, amen. So I'm going to divide this into three sections, sending emissaries, sending greetings, and then sending encouragement. And if you're looking for, like, where's the practical application, Pastor? That's your practical application right there. You can think as a church, or maybe as individuals, are you sending emissaries into the world? Could be your kids, could be working with your grandkids. Are you sending greetings to people that need to hear from you? And thirdly, are you sending encouragement to someone and how are you doing that? So think along those lines as we look at the text, but beginning with sending emissaries, and this is Colossians chapter four, beginning in verse seven, and I'll read it to nine. Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother who is one of you. They will make known to you all things which are happening here." So we already have two individuals named here, Tychicus, and you can pronounce these guys' names any way you want. I'm calling them Tychicus. So Tychicus, and he is sent to come along the church's side and to be an encouragement to them. That's what the Greek means. The word there that Paul uses is parakeilo. or para kaleo. Para means alongside, and kaleo means to call. So literally, the word means to call one to come alongside. And that's what he's doing with Tychicus, that I want him to come along your side to be an encouragement to the church, to bring word from the church. Ken Hughes, on that word, illustrates it this way. He says, I see this exemplified every time my church has a roller skating party, and the parents put their little ones on skates for the first time, and mom and dad skate with their child, holding on to his or her hands, sometimes with the child's feet on the ground, and sometimes in the air. But all the time, the parents are alongside them and encouraging them. That's what the word really means. That's a good illustration of what Paul's asking Tychicus to do. And Tychicus must have been the man for the job. I mean, Paul hand-selected. He has others, but he hand-selected who he was going to send. And you'll see that throughout the epistles, throughout the book of Acts, as men are dispatched, as the apostle sees fit through the Spirit to go and to do this and to do that. So Tychicus is that man. I also wrote down here that Tychicus is the mailman. He's carrying this letter. He's the one that's to deliver this letter to the church in Colossae. In Ephesians chapter six, verse 21, it says, but that you all also, and it sounds very much like this letter, by the way, but that you may also know my affairs and how I'm doing. Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister in the Lord, will make all things known to you, whom I have sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know our affairs and that he may comfort your hearts." So he carried the letter to the Ephesians. So he's Tychicus the mailman. He's probably carrying the letter to Philemon. And there's a letter mentioned to the Laodiceans, depending on what that actually was. We'll talk about that when we get to that part of the book here. But it could be that he carried a letter to the Laodiceans too. So that's an important job. I mean, Paul is writing letters that Peter is already calling scripture. So, I mean, these are important documents, and Tychicus is the one who's selected for this. Now, to understand, when somebody was dispatched in such a way to carry a letter, within the church or even without the church, there's more going on there. And I thought R. Scott Pace did a really good job in his commentary. So listen to this. This is the job that Tychicus has been given. So he says, in the first century, messengers were more than mail carriers. They were personal emissaries who also served as official representatives of the senders. Their role included delivering the letter, publicly reading the message and providing oral commentary on behalf of the author. Paul deputized them in this way by noting, Tychicus will tell you all the news about me, verse 7, and along with Onesimus, quote, they will tell you about everything here in verse 9. So they're both commissioned, as Scott Pace says, they were deputized, if you will, commissioned to the work of being personal emissaries of the Apostle Paul, carrying this letter. Tychicus is said to be useful in the ministry of Paul. So I think Paul had a special love for this man. And if you've ever been in any function of leadership at all, to have somebody you can rely on, and you can say, look, I'm going to entrust this to you. I need you to carry this out exactly like I'm telling you. Tychicus was that man. In Titus 3.12, it tells us that Paul was considering sending Tychicus, he wasn't sure yet, it could have been Artemis or Tychicus, to Crete to relieve Titus, because he had a work for Titus to do. Did you notice in the scriptures how men serve for a time and then the Holy Spirit will tap Paul or one of the apostles on the shoulder, so to speak, and say, hey, we have another assignment for you. Good job here. It's time for you to pull up stakes a little bit. I'm going to put somebody else in that place and we're going to have you over here doing this ministry. Maybe heading off into the mission field. Whatever that task was. In 2 Timothy 4.12 it says that Tychicus was sent to Ephesus. So he's been dispatched many times to many places for many purposes of the Lord. He's also one of those delegates that you find in Acts chapter 20, verse 4, that's carrying the love gift to Jerusalem. They were struggling in Jerusalem, and churches would pick somebody to be their representative. And that was Tychicus in Acts 20, verse 4. And then we see Onesimus. We know so much about him because we just recently studied the book of Philemon, right? And even though it doesn't say outright and exactly what we conclude from reading that book and from reading other passages such as this. is that Onesimus was a household slave of Philemon, and that it likely had stolen something and took off running and ran away. And somebody led him to the Apostle Paul in Rome, and the Apostle Paul led him to Jesus Christ. And so now he's not just some pagan slave of Philemon's, he's a brother in the Lord, he's a Christian. And that's how he's described. He's faithful. He's a beloved brother. He's one of you. In the original language, that means he's one of your countrymen. He's from Colossae. And he's Paul's spiritual son. Can you imagine? Philemon, verse 10, I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I've begotten while in my chains. And I gave him the gospel. I watched a rebirth took place there. And now he's like my spiritual son. In verse 12 of Philemon, he says, I'm sending him back to you, therefore receive him, that is my own heart. Listen to the heart cry of Paul. And then in Philemon 15 and 16, he says, for perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever. You thought you lost your slave, you thought, I had this guy, and now he's gone, he took off. You're gonna receive him back, not just for a lifetime, but for eternity, because he goes on and says, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. You see the transformative work of the gospel in the life of Onesimus, who's probably a thieving slave who ran away, and now he's elevated to the station of not only being born again a Christian, but one of Paul's intimate emissaries that he's sending back to go back to that family and back to that city where he once left. But now he's a new man. He can be used mightily over the Lord in that context. So sending emissaries and then secondly sending greetings. And here we have quite a few. And down, I'm going to read from 10 to 15. When you get down to 15, I'm not going to talk too much about Nymphus yet. We'll pick that up in the next point. But there are six in all that are sending greetings here. Three are of Jewish background, Jewish converts to Christianity, and three are Gentiles. Okay, so we'll divide these in two and look at three and three, but we have six here. And let me begin in verse 10. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, with Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, about whom you receive instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him. And Jesus, who is called Justice. These are my only fellow workers for the kingdom of God, who are of the circumcision. They have proved to be a comfort to me. Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has a great zeal for you, and those who are in Laodicea, and those in Heropolis. Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you. Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and Memphis and the church that is in his house. So we'll start with the three Jewish brothers. And there's almost a microcosm of the church right here in this section of scripture, isn't there? I mean, we looked in the book of Ephesians at how much of that book is trying to stress that there's one body in Christ, right? There's neither slave nor free. There's neither male, female, barbarian, Scythian, Jew, Gentile. We're one in Christ. And you see it right here in this text. So these Jewish brothers, they're Christians, they're brothers in Christ. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, he's seen a lot in the Bible. We don't think of that name that much. You might hear that, and I don't know if I've even heard of that guy before. He's mentioned quite a bit in the book of Acts as one of Paul's traveling ministry partners in the book of Acts. He's at Ephesus. where the riot broke out. Remember that? They were making idols and their industry of making money off of idols because they would make these little idols of Artemis. They actually still do it to this day. When Karen and I were there, they were still selling Artemis idols. And a riot broke out because their income was being taken away because people were converted to Christ and they didn't want these little idols. And a riot breaks out. Well, Aristarchus is there. in Acts chapter 19 verse 29. It says they actually seized, in that verse, Gaius and Aristarchus. They were Macedonians and they were Paul's travel companions. That's who this man is. He is one of the delegates. We mentioned the other, but he's one of the delegates that are sent to Jerusalem in Acts chapter 20 verse 4. He's listed there as one of those that were entrusted. These were men you could trust with money, that they would safely safeguard it all the way to Jerusalem to give the gift. He sailed with Paul on his dangerous journey to Rome. He's mentioned there in Acts 27 verse 2, that he travels with Rome. And you remember what happens as they're traveling to Rome, they run into a Nor'easter. And they're shipwrecked. And it appears here that Aristarchus is there with Paul on his journey to Rome. And of course he's here. He calls him my fellow prisoner. It could be that he just chose to be in that situation with Paul to be his helper while he's there with Paul. So that's Aristarchus. Then he mentions Mark. And here's one of those little, you're a Bible detective, right? You get your little sleuth magnifying glass and whatnot. Says Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. What a nugget of truth that is. And we all go, oh, that makes so much sense now. When we look back in the book of Acts, what's going on there? Who is this gentleman named Mark? Well, he's mentioned by name 10 times in the New Testament. He's known as John Mark, right? The man with two names, like Saul, Paul. He has a Jewish name, John, and he has a Roman name, Mark, right? So he's John Mark. In Acts 12.12, it says, now when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, and this isn't Jesus's mother, Mary, this is Mark's mother, Mary. So when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark. where many were gathered and praying. Pause on that to think about this young man, Mark. He was probably a young guy. And he's got a mother hosting a prayer meeting, a prayer vigilant, if you will. Because what? Peter, at that time in Acts 12, Peter was arrested. Peter's in jail. They're praying for Peter's release. And you think, well, where do you go? I want to get with the brothers and sisters to pray for Peter's release. So you go to Mary's house. And you say, isn't that the mother of John Mark? Yeah, John Mark's mom. That's where you go. And there they were praying. It's a wonderful story. You ought to read that today. I like that. We know that Rhoda answered the door and all that great stuff. But his mother hosted a prayer meeting. Now think of what an impact that would have on John Mark to have a mom like that. He accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. You see that in Acts 13.5, when they arrived in Solomus, they preached the word of God in the synagogue of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant. This is John Mark, right? His Jewish name, John. And he's there as their helper, as their assistant in the ministry. For unknown reasons, and we can only surmise and guess, he departs from them in verse 13. Now, we see him with them and begins the journey with them in verse 5, only a couple verses later, and he abandons them. And it says, now when Paul and his party set sail to Pathos, they came to Perga and Pamphylia, and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. Now that rubbed Paul the wrong way. Paul did not like that. This isn't just like John heard word that his mother was sick. Nothing like that. I think Paul would have inserted, or Luke, who's recording Acts, would have inserted there that something happened. They said, yes, we laid hands on him, we sent him on his way. He basically turned tail is what he did. And you could tell because the way Paul reacts to this. So when you get down to chapter 15, And you see in verse 37, it says, now Barnabas, now they're ready to go on the mission trip again, right? Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark. But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work." And when you get somebody who is determined in one direction, it says, Barnabas, and then somebody who is insisting in a different direction, and that's Paul, you've got problems. And I love that the Bible shares this with us. It's not just modern day Christians that once in a while have a great disagreement about things. And it says that the contention was so sharp that they parted from one another, and Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus. So they're parted company now, and Barnabas is now with John Mark. Remember what Barnabas means? Bar means son, right? Barnabas means son of encouragement. He was an encourager. When the church was afraid of Paul because he had once persecuted the church, it was Barnabas that brought him in and said, hey, he's okay. He's with me. He really is converted. So Barnabas was an encourager. It doesn't say, it doesn't follow them, it follows Paul. So we don't get to see what really went on with Barnabas and Mark. But I have to believe that his cousin Barnabas, now we know because of the book of Colossians that they're cousins, that Barnabas was encouraging him. And I believe Barnabas was strengthening him. And they were beginning to pray together. And maybe they talked about, what happened last time? Why did you depart from the mission that we were sent on? Maybe you got frightened about things. Maybe you were just wrapped up with fear and you just thought, this isn't for me. Let's get beyond that. And I think Barnabas really did encourage him. Later, we know that Mark became a very close ally and really a student of Peter, the Apostle Peter. And as a matter of fact, the bond was so close that in 1 Peter 5.13, Peter writes, she who is in Babylon elect together with you, greets you, and so does Mark, my son. Now, he was not the biological father of Mark. He was saying, basically, I adopted him and I am discipling Mark. And I think Peter did a lot of discipling with Mark. Mark is the gentleman by which we know one of the Gospels, right? The Gospel according to Mark. And we believe that the primary source for Mark in that Gospel writing was Peter. was Peter. Some would even put in parentheses in their thinking, the gospel according to Peter, when they read the book of Mark. So John, Mark, and Paul are now fully restored. And we don't get all that either. I'd love to just have the spy camera on the wall to see, how did that all happen? Did you guys finally have a day where Paul kind of confronted him? Like, I didn't like that you did that. Mark finally repented and said, you know what? You're right. I really shouldn't have just turned tail. I wasn't ready. I should have said I couldn't go. I don't know what that conversation looked like. I can pretend like I know or imagine. But we know in 2 Timothy, this is like Paul's swan song book, 2 Timothy. In chapter 4, he believes his life's being poured out. He's not going to live much longer, perhaps. And he says, get Mark. Get Mark. Think of that if you knew perhaps your time was short, you're under arrest, and you say, get Mark. Bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry." That's a beautiful thing. Mark's there with Paul as he's writing from a Roman jail and writes the book to the church in Colossae. And at the very end, towards the very end, Paul says, bring Mark, he's very useful to me in ministry. And this speaks volumes to people that stumble in ministry, I think. You have somebody that set off and went on a mission field and they failed and they came back. We hear stories about that all the time. Nate and I talk about missionaries that go to Belize and they just get caught up in all the wrong stuff and they fail and they come back. That doesn't mean God's done with you. Look at Mark. Look at John Mark. I mean, he failed the great apostle Paul and Barnabas. And yet God used him mightily. God picked him up. God brushed him off. God strengthened him. God encouraged him. God sent people like Barnabas and Peter to build him up. And there he is back in the ministry. And I think it speaks volumes to that. The third of the Jewish background companions of Paul is Jesus, who is called Justice. And we know nothing about him. This is the only place you'll see him mentioned. When Paul has greetings to Philemon, he mentions five of these individuals, but doesn't mention Jesus, who's called Justice. We just simply don't know. much about them, except the verse that says, and Jesus, who is called justice, these are my only fellow workers for the kingdom of God, who are of the circumcision. They, including Jesus, who's called justice, they have proved to be a comfort to me. So this is the only time we really see his name. Don't know much about him, but this unknown one was used by God Almighty to comfort the apostle Paul. It's an example of a ministry of an unknown person. Nobody knows who they are, and yet God's using them mightily to accomplish his purposes. Maybe one day Paul was ready to hang up his gospel shoes and say, you know, I've had enough. But this individual that we don't even know, Somehow God used this individual as that word of encouragement to the Apostle Paul to fan the spirit back into flames that Paul could say, you know what, I'm ready to trudge on. Thank you, Jesus, who's called justice for encouraging me. You're a great comfort to me. I shared with my wife, and I won't read it to you, but I was digging around looking for illustrations. I came across this great word of encouragement to me written by a gentleman that was honoring a pastor. And he said that that day he had just sat, I think he said, for this pastor's last sermon. He was retiring. And he had preached at that same church for 43 years. Can you imagine? And he's going on and on of all the stuff this guy did. And he goes, you won't know his name. Nobody knows this guy. He's some church out in the middle of nowhere. Nobody's going to know who this guy is. He didn't do any great sermons that were spread all over the internet, all over the world. Nobody knows who this guy is. But then he said, but God does. But God does. God knows who he is. So we have three of Jewish background and now three Gentiles. These Gentile brothers, we know a little bit because I've been talking about Epaphras. I feel like I almost know him personally when I get to Glory. And a gentleman comes to me and says, oh, my name is Epaphras. I'll be like, I know a little bit about you, Epaphras, because I studied my Bible. I put down Epaphras, the prayer warrior. He's a prayer warrior. I mean, did you pick up on that when I was reading the text? Epaphras, who's one of you, he's one of your countrymen, a bondservant of Christ, he's Christ's doulos, so he's a slave to the Lord. He greets you always laboring fervently for you in prayers. always laboring fervently for you in prayers. The NIV does a good job with the original language in the translation. Because the NIV says, he is always wrestling in prayer for you. Doesn't that conjure up an image of Paul's having his prayer time, and he's praying with Epaphras, and Epaphras, it's his turn to pray. And Epaphras, you can just tell he's doing battle. He's doing battle on behalf of the saints that he loves, right? He's wrestling, not with God. He's wrestling in the wrestling match of prayer for people he loves, for people he cares about. Wiest, the Greek scholar says, the Greek word was a term used in Greek athletics. It meant to contend for victory in the public athletic games, to wrestle as in a prize contest. straining every nerve to the uttermost towards the goal. That's how Paul describes Epaphras' prayer life. And we all pray differently. I mean, everybody prays in their own fashion. We're certainly not to pray in some way that I impress you if you happen to be with me while I'm praying, right? But this is just the way that the gentleman prayed. He wrestled in prayer for the saints. The intensity of his prayer, but then the focus of his prayers. Do you notice that he prays for specific people? Paul notices that when he prays, and he's wrestling in prayer, he's praying for those in Colossae, those in Laodicea, and those in Heropolis. Remember, we talked about that. These are three close cities. They're just a little network of cities. It's like between Capon and Berkeley and Hancock. They all knew each other. They had traveled. Epaphras probably started the churches in all three of those areas. But he prayed for those people in particular. Right? And then he made specific requests. He basically asked that God would cause them to stand mature and that they would be fully assured in God's will. And that's a good prayer. That's a good solid prayer. Now remember, the church in Colossae, a lot of the theme there is that they're really being tempted to stray away from Christ. And so Epaphras, he's doing battle. He's not there to lead them. So he's like, I'm going to undergird them with prayer that God will be at work on these people to keep them rooted in Christ. The Living Bible paraphrase puts it like this, that he's asking God to make you strong and perfect and to help you know his will in everything that you do. That's a great prayer. And that's Epaphras, the prayer warrior. And then he mentions Luke and we get enough, you got your little sleuth thing out. See your little magnifying glass? Karen and I have been watching an Agatha Christie styled mystery, so I got that in my mind. But Colossians 4.14, he says, Luke is here with him, right? Luke, the beloved physician, greets you. Ooh, that's a nugget, isn't it? Luke's a doctor? Yeah, Dr. Luke. That brings so much insight into our reading of the gospel and the book of Acts, and all the descriptions that Luke goes into as he's describing the healing miracles that Jesus performs. Now we're like, oh, that's why Dr. Luke. Dr. Luke knows what he's talking about here when it comes to these various diseases. Now one thing I want to clue in on, as we're sleuthing our way through this text, is did it kind of strike you that you're like, well, wait a minute. Luke, he's the author of the Gospel according to Luke, and he's the author of the Book of Acts. And Mark, the author of the Gospel according to Mark, and they're there together. Yes they are. Now if Peter was Mark's source, we know from reading Luke 1-4, that Luke gathered information. As a matter of fact, let me read that text. It says, Inasmuch as many have taken in hand a set in order, a narrative, of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. Luke gathered information. Luke interviewed people. Luke certainly talked to Mark. And probably pulled some of the information from Mark's gospel. And guided and superintended by the ministry of the Holy Ghost, Luke constructs scripture. from all these various information sources into this orderly account known as the Gospel according to Luke. It's beautiful, but Mark and Luke are together here. He's the beloved physician. I went back through and I think I caught them all, but if you line up the Gospels, all four of them, you'll find that there's a lot of information in John that's not in the other three. That's why the other three are called synoptics. They're kind of similar to one another, but John's kind of a little bit different. A lot of information that we don't have in the other three, which is great because it's wonderful to have that information. And they all sort of had a different target audience. They all kind of had a different ultimate purpose of what they were sharing and why they shared it. But when you go through those and line up all the incidents and all the miracles and whatnot, and put them on a graph or a grid, you'll find that some of the Gospels are like, this is only mentioned in this way by Mark. So it's sort of a standoff text. Well, there's five healing miracles that only Luke records. Only Luke records them. And it's amazing the insight that he has, but now we know he's Dr. Luke. No wonder he had insight in what these things were. He also had insights into the completeness of the healings as he interviewed people. Some of these people who had been healed were still alive, and he could ask them, I mean, did it take you a while to stand up? I mean, did you hear cracking in your leg as you stood? Because Dr. Luke would have known what that was like. And, no, it was instantaneously. I leapt to my feet. And Luke would be taken. No, it's you leapt to your feet. It's an amazing thing. But listen to the... I'm not going to read the stories, but here's the five healings that only Dr. Luke contains in the Gospel according to Luke. He has the story of Jesus raising the widow's son from the dead in chapter 7 of Luke. He has Jesus healing a woman who had been bent over for 18 years in chapter 13. Jesus healing a man of dropsy. Dr. Luke knew what dropsy was. I don't look it up. I'm not a doctor. It's something to do with fluid in the body that you don't want. He heals a man of dropsy on the Sabbath in chapter 14. Jesus cleanses 10 lepers on the way to Jerusalem in chapter 17. And Jesus heals the servant's severed ear. The night of Jesus's arrest in chapter 22. Dr. Luke has all those details. So when you're reading the gospel according to Luke, it's nice to know the Colossians tells us, let me tell you why there's so much detail there about the depth of the disease. He says the woman with the issue of hemorrhaging, the issue of blood, how she had given all of her money to what? To physicians. All of her money, and yet they could not heal her. The Messiah did. The Messiah did quite effortlessly, if you read the story. Power went out from him, right? And she was completely and perfectly made whole. So that's Luke, and then thirdly in the Gentile list is Demas. Demas, Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas greet you. At this time, he's a devoted partner with the apostle Paul, and Paul does not yet know that one day he will write to Timothy and say, be diligent to come to me quickly, for Demas has forsaken me. Having loved this present world, he's departed for Thessalonica. That's all we hear about Demas at the end. We don't know if he repented, if he turned, we don't know. But at some point he abandoned the apostle Paul, much like Mark had abandoned Paul and Barnabas. And you know Paul, he doesn't like it when people just flat out abandon him in the ministry. And that's the black eye in the story of Demas. It doesn't say he lost his salvation, but he abandoned Paul in the ministry. And then thirdly, we have sending emissaries, sending greetings, and then sending encouragement. Verse 15, greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and Memphis and the church that is in his house. Now, when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it. This salutation by my own hand, Paul. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Amen. So a couple of things we can glean from this. One, the fact that the apostle is saying you're to exchange these letters, right? There's a letter to the Laodiceans. There's a letter to the Colossians. I want you to exchange these letters. It shows and assumes collaboration between the churches, doesn't it? These aren't standoff churches that say, I don't have anything to do with the church in Berkeley Springs. I'm not going over there. Paul says, no, you bring me the letter to the Great Cacape and over to Berkeley Springs. And the Berkeley Springs letter is going to be brought over to you. And you're to read it, because the content isn't just particular to that church. It's universal, and it's truth. And so it's applicable to be exchanged and delivered to other churches. And we're studying it here, right? All these years later on the other side of the world, and here we are studying it ourselves. There's a biblical model here of cooperation among the churches. And if anybody ever asks me, why are you part of this association you talk about? Why do you go to these associational church meetings with other churches? Is there any biblical model for that? I could say, yeah, read the end of the Book of Colossians. There is a biblical model for us cooperating with other churches. Now, I believe there's some parentheses there to say, making sure that they have sound doctrine, doxology. I don't want to collaborate with a bunch of heretics. But as long as, of like faith, and like mind, and they're brothers in Christ, and they're heralding the gospel, we want to have collaboration with these churches. And it's right there in the text. And then he greets, particularly here, Nymphus and the church that meets there in that house. Now, if you have an NIV, you're like, well, Larry, you're reading that wrong, because my Bible says it's Nympha and a church that meets in her house. And I'm not going to go into all the technical stuff of which one is probably accurate, whether this is a man or a woman. I will tell you, I think the NIV is probably accurate. We're probably talking about a woman here in Nympha and a church that met in her house. The different original texts just make that a little bit of a change in the Greek. So some have it one way, some have it another. And obviously, that's not the big point. The point is that greetings are being sent. When this letter is read in Laodicea, there's a greeting there for somebody in Laodicea. Again, it's a collaboration between the churches. We're one body in Christ. Not just when we meet here, but with all those that are truly in Christ that lift up the name of Jesus and worship Him anywhere. We do know there were some problems in Laodicea later in the book of Revelation. They were the church later that Jesus said, you're neither hot nor cold, you're lukewarm, I wanna vomit you out of my mouth. So some things went awry in that church at some point. Then there's greetings to Archippus, member of Philemon's family. And this is an encouraging word in the ministry to Archippus. right? Take heed to the ministry which you've received in the Lord that you may fulfill it. Probably pastoring in Epaphras' absence because he, Epaphras, is with Paul in Rome. And then you get his signature of authenticity, right? Paul signs it. He probably had a secretary dictating, but he pauses and says, I'm going to sign this in my own name. And he writes, Paul, right? He signs it. There were letters circulated, supposedly from Paul, that weren't authentic. And Paul says, no, I've signed this with my own name. And then, beautifully, he says, remember my chains. Remember my chains. Don't be like the chief butler that forgot Joseph in jail. Remember me and my chains. And his final benediction is my final benediction to you. We'll close. Grace be with you. Amen. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your word. Lord, there's so much here. If we'll just take the time to let your Holy Spirit teach us. So Father, I pray that you would allow us to meander over these things. Just let them saturate our thinking this week, Lord. We thank you for that in Jesus' name, amen. We'll receive the blessing of the Lord. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Go in the peace of Christ Jesus to a world that desperately needs to hear the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.