And we're going to be looking at Colossians today. We're going to be looking at Colossians chapter 4. And we're going to read from verse 7 through to verse 11, Colossians chapter 4. Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. I'm 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. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you with Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, about whom you received 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. Amen. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we begin by seeking your face. Thank you for your Word and for each and every opportunity that we have to be able to feed our souls and strengthen our faith. And we pray now that you would give us help as we study, as we meditate, as we seek to apply. Lord, help us to be hearers and doers of your Word, for Jesus' sake. Amen. I don't know if you've ever been away on holiday somewhere and spent a few weeks at another church or perhaps you've been on a mission trip somewhere and at the end of that time there you get everybody together and you take a group shot you wanna remember everybody, the people that you got to know, those that you formed attachments with, those who helped you, those who became quite special to you. And so you take a group shot and then you come home and you show your friends the group shot and you point them out in the photo and you say a little bit about each one. Well, here at the end of the book of Colossians we have something like that. It's actually quite a large group shot, as it were. This epilogue in Colossians is a longer section than in the epilogue of almost any other book in the New Testament. Only the book of Romans has a longer list of greetings and words of appreciation at the end. because here at the end of this letter Paul has a number of individuals and friends that he wants to pass on greetings from and that he wants to express his own appreciation for. These were important, valued co-labourers, spiritual brothers who've ministered to him and helped him and been a great blessing to him during this phase of his ministry in this time in prison. And so, these are important verses. Sometimes the temptation can be to rush on past this. You get to Colossians 4, verse 6, and you think, okay, that's Colossians done, right, let's move on to the next one. But actually, you know, if we were to do that, if we rush on past this epilogue, really we'd be doing ourselves a bit of a disservice, because there are actually some real riches to be mined out here, if we are just willing to spend a bit of time. And so that's what we want to do then, as we are coming to the end of this study, the Book of Colossians, we're going to look at this snapshot that Paul gives us here of his traveling companions. And what we want to do is sort of expand the photo, you know, the way that you do with your cell phone and you've taken a picture of a group shot. Maybe you want to show one or two individuals to people and you put your fingers over the phone, you expand it like that so that you can get a bigger picture. Well, that's what we want to do sort of homiletically today. We're going to zoom in on some of these characters, these people who are so vital to Paul's ministry and to his success. We want to zoom in, as it were, and take a closer look at each one. And we're going to begin then today with Tychicus. This is going to be our first point. Come with me then as I take Paul's cell phone, as it were, and zoom my fingers over the first man in the group, and that is Tychicus. This is our first point. One man's vital contribution. Look what he says about Tychicus there in verse 7. A beloved brother, faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord will tell you all the news about me. I'm sending him to you for this very purpose that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts. So here's Paul introducing them and us to this man Tychicus. He was a man who was a native of Ephesus. We find him mentioned in the book of Acts chapter 20 verse 4 at the end of Paul's missionary work there. So it seems that he was most likely a convert of Paul during his ministry in that place. Probably he witnessed the great silversmith's riot that we read of at the end of Acts chapter 19 into chapter 20, which prompted Paul then to leave Ephesus and to head for Macedonia. If you remember, his desire was to collect some funds from the churches in that region, Thessalonica and Philippi and Corinth, to gather money from them and then to bring that as a love gift to the needy saints in Jerusalem. And Atticus was in that small group of Gentile believers that travelled with Paul on that journey, leaving his home, leaving his work, leaving his church fellowship there and determining to go with Paul and with Dr Luke and the others. And really he stayed with Paul through through thick and thin, we might say. His arrest and his imprisonment, transferred to Caesarea, his dramatic appearances before kings and governors, the sea journey to Rome, and his time of house arrest now in Rome, awaiting trial there. Tychicus is with him. Tychicus was with him through it all. And so that gives you an indication of the kind of man he was. He's a faithful man. He's a loyal man, committed man. spiritually minded man as well. He must have been because of the comment that Paul makes at the end of the book of Titus chapter 3 verse 12 when Paul is trying to arrange for his good friend Titus to come and spend the winter with him only he knows he needs to get cover for Titus so that he can do that and so he says there when I shall send Artemis unto thee or Tychicus be diligent to come to me to Nicopolis, for I have determined to spend the winter there." So he's saying, I'm going to get cover for you so that you can come to me. And I'm thinking it could be Artemis might come. It may even be Tychicus might send him. So that gives you an indication of the kind of progress that Tychicus has made in the faith. He's a man who started out as a companion of Paul, a messenger who goes with Paul. And here we can see he ends up being a possible stand in and substitute replacement for the great pastor and preacher. Titus. And so that tells you a lot about the character and the caliber of this man that Paul would consider sending him on a trip like that. And also this trip to Colossae as well. If you look what he says there again, verse 7, he will tell you all the news about me. I'm sending him to you for this very purpose that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts. So he's sending him to Colossae in order to communicate news about Paul to them and also to bring back news from them. He's going as a messenger for Paul. Now that wasn't such a straightforward task as we might think. Certainly not like today. It's not like he would go to Fiumicino airport in Rome and jump on an easy jet and a short hop over to Turkey like you might do today. It's a long and perilous journey in those days. He would have to set off on foot, go across Italy to the east coast, to the seaport there, and then make a journey across the Adriatic. He'd cross over into Greece, then sail across the Aegean Sea, landing eventually in Miletus, and then walk up the steep Lycus Valley to Laodicea and to Colossae. It's a long, arduous, dangerous journey to make. to bring to them this letter the letter to the Colossians but not only that this letter he's got three more letters also tucked away in his backpack the letter to Philemon along with the runaway slave Onesimus he's traveling with Tychicus as well we're going to come to that in a moment as well as the letter to the Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 21 of that letter, you can check that later, it confirms that Tychicus was the man who brought that letter to them. And there's another letter too, to the Laodiceans, that letter hasn't actually survived, we don't have that anymore. But it was Tychicus who delivered all of these letters. And so you can see from that, can't you? This is a reliable man, he's a capable man, a very committed man. He was willing to go and do just about whatever it was that Paul needed him to do and go wherever it was that Paul asked him to go. You can see that as well from the terms Paul uses there. He calls him a beloved brother, a faithful minister, that's the word diakonos, or servant, and also a fellow servant, he says in verse 7. The original word is actually a slave, a bond slave, is what he was. Not Paul's bond slave, of course, he's referring to the Lord Jesus. He's Christ's bond slave. Like Paul was, Tychicus is a bond slave to Jesus Christ. Didn't have the same gifts as Paul. Wasn't an apostle. Didn't write any epistles. And yet, think about it, what an incredible contribution he made. Because, you know, think about it, if Tychicus hadn't been devoted enough and courageous enough to set off and deliver these letters, we wouldn't even be able to read the epistles that Paul wrote in the first place. Because it was Tychicus who was the faithful servant who carried them. So that we today can do what we're doing so we can spend time reading this book of Colossians and when we're perhaps meditating on Paul's letter to the Ephesians and we're being lifted up to the heights there in chapter one or chapter six we're thinking about the spiritual arm and prayerfully we're putting on each piece or maybe we're reading the letter to Philemon and we find our hearts touched by that tender appeal of Paul to Philemon to show Christian forgiveness to a returning brother. Thank God for those passages, bless God for those passages and the gifts he gave to Paul to write such passages, but then also think about the man he raised up to carry those epistles. This valiant, faithful, first century Christian brother who was willing to set off on a dangerous journey that he might not even have survived in order to be able to deliver those letters in the first place. What an invaluable contribution he made. No, he wasn't an apostle. Like Paul, he wasn't a doctor. Like Luke, no books written by Tychicus, no sermons that we have survived, recorded. And yet one incredible, invaluable contribution he made vital and yet easily missed, isn't it? A contribution you only see when you begin to dig a little bit deeper and see what it is that he did. It's a bit like the story of a man called Elmer Bendner that he told true accounts during his time as a US airman in World War II. He was flying aboard B-17 bombers based in the UK and there was one mission that they undertook. to fly over Germany to drop bombs and as they were on route their B-17 bomber took hit from Luftwaffe anti-aircraft guns as they were flying over the town and a 20mm cannon shell pierced the fuel tank of Elmer's B-17 bomber. But miraculously, nothing happened. They survived. They were able to return back to base in the UK. And the next day, the pilot of the B-17 that Elmer was aboard went round to the ground crew to see if he could get the shell as a souvenir of this unbelievable escape that they'd made. And the crew chief told him that not just one shell, but 11 shells had been found in the gas tanks. 11 unexploded shells. Alma said usually just one would have been sufficient to blast us out of the sky, but there were 11. Not only that, they told the pilots that when those shells had been sent around to the armourer's division to be defused, the armourers had to call in US intelligence services. Because when they'd opened up those shells, they discovered that in each one there was actually no explosive device. In one of them there had been placed a handwritten note written in the Czech language So they scrambled around looking for somebody who could understand Czech They found someone and he translated this little note that was found in one of these unexploded shells. It said this This is all we can do for you now dot dot dot using slave labor is never a good idea exclamation mark And what this was was Czech workers who'd been forcibly conscripted by the Nazis when they'd invaded Czechoslovakia and made them to work in their Nazi bomb factories. And so what these Czech workers had done was, yes, they'd made the bombs, but they had omitted to include any explosive devices. This is all we can do for you, they said. And yet what a contribution. How many Allied servicemen's lives were spared? Certainly Alma and his crew. It was a vital yet unseen contribution. And, you know, the history of the Christian Church is full of such people as that. Tychicus-type people, hidden, unseen, unheralded, and yet who make these vitally significant contributions. Who was the person who left that Bible there for Augustine to talelege, talelege, take up and read? We don't know. Who was that man who stood in that church on cold January morning and pointed the bony finger at C.H. Spurge and sat in the middle of the church and said, you young man, you look very miserable and you will be miserable unless you obey the words of my text. Look, look, look unto Christ. We don't know, do we? Who was the Sunday school teacher who was working in the Detroit shoe store and decided one day to call round to see young D.L. Moody and really press upon him the claims of Jesus Christ? Who was he? We don't know. And yet, so much of great Kingdom building work is done that way, isn't it? By these kind of people, not the superstars, not the celebrities, but fairly ordinary, fairly unremarkable Joe Blogses and Jane Blogses, just trying to do their own little bit for the Kingdom of God. I remember reading the testimony of Norman Geisler, the Christian scholar and leader. And as a young boy, he was invited to a vacation Bible school by some friends and he went along. And after that, he decided to go to the church every Sunday. And he was picked up by a man who would come, drive the church bus, and go around and pick the kids up every Sunday. And this man did it for week after week, year after year, until finally, Norman, in the final year of high school, made a profession of faith. having been picked up and brought to church every Sunday by that same Sunday school bus driver for over 400 Sundays. I mean, what if that man hadn't done that? What if he'd given up after 100, after 200? But he didn't. He kept on going to church every Sunday, 8.30, sitting in his bus, starting it up and driving around and picking those kids and bringing them back week after week. What an incredibly vital contribution he made. And there are so many like that, unseen, unheralded, sort of under the radar, out of the spotlight tasks that get done in the life of the church, aren't there? Setting up the chairs, putting the hymn books straight, cleaning the sanctuary, cleaning the restrooms, running the nursery, wiping the runny noses in the nursery. Not exactly the kind of work that gets the adrenaline pumping, that, is it? And yet how vital, how indispensable. Do you think anyone would even come to the church if those things weren't done? Do you think anyone would even come and listen to the preacher if there was no clean restroom and if the sanctuary was in a mess and there was no one to look after the tiny tots? Probably not. Probably someone like me would stand there preaching to an empty sanctuary if those things weren't done. Those vital, unnoticed services weren't performed by a team of fairly anonymous, ticker-type souls working away faithfully behind the scenes to get those things done. So, thank God, bless God for this man Tychicus and bless God and thank God for the Tychicus type people that we have in the church and also just sort of apply that to yourself and ask Lord is there some Tychicus type work that I can do and contribution I can make to the kingdom of God. That's our first point this morning. We're looking here at this team photo, aren't we, that Paul has here. He's talking us through the friends and fellow servants that were so vital to his ministerial success. And that's our first point. Tychicus, one man and his vital contribution. Consider secondly, two men and their striking comebacks. Two men and their striking comebacks. Look again at verse seven. Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. Verse nine, he is coming with Onesimus. Our faithful and dear brother who is one of you, they will tell you everything that is happening here. So here's part of the work detail that was assigned to Tychicus for this mission as he went to this region. It was to take a letter to Philemon and bring with him this man Onesimus. Now, Philemon of course was a member of the Colossian Church, a very committed member of the Colossian Church. It could be, as scholars seem to think, that the church actually met in his house. Philemon verse 2, he speaks there of the church in your house. So it could be that when they met together they did so at Philemon's home, and that Philemon himself was a convert of Paul. Verse 19 of the letter records words that affects when he says to Philemon, you owe to me your own self. Which seems to suggest that Philemon was converted under the ministry and teaching of Paul. He's a wealthy man, a well-to-do man, an affluent man. He must have had a large house if the church was meeting there. And as was common in large households in those days, he had a number of slaves who worked for him too. One of whom was this man, Onesimus. but it seems originally Anesimus wasn't too happy about that arrangement and decided that he would run away. And so off he went. He ran all the way to Rome, which was a long way to go. And yet when he got to Rome in the providence of God, who did he bump into? the Apostle Paul of all people. And he came under the sound of the ministry of Paul and is converted through Paul, whether that's through his preaching or his one-on-one counsel, we don't know exactly, but it was through meeting Paul that Onesimus is brought to faith in Christ, the same way that Philemon, his master, also having met with Paul, has been brought to faith in Christ. And so now Paul is sending Onesimus back. faithful pastor that he was, he knows that if Onesimus is going to make progress in the faith, if he's going to grow in grace, if he's going to flourish, if he's going to be filled with joy and peace in believing, he needs to go back. He needs to go and make restitution. He needs to go and make right the things that he did wrong with the person that he's wronged. And so, to help in this process, to sort of oil the wheels, as it were, to smooth the way for this, Paul sends a letter, the beautiful letter of Philemon that we have in our Bibles. It's a masterpiece of Christian tact and interpersonal mediation. how it must have melted Philemon's heart just to read Paul's gracious words of brotherly entreaty that Philemon might be willing to take this young man back because as Paul says in the letter yes he ran away as a slave but praise God bless God he's coming back to you as a brother faithful brother beloved brother he's one of you he's he's a changed man he left there a runaway and a thief but he's coming back as a new man in Christ 2 Corinthians 5, isn't it? If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And that was Onesimus. What a transformation had taken place in this man. and would continue to take place. In fact, some of the commentators make reference to a letter that was discovered some years later, written by Ignatius. He was one of the early church fathers, a few years after the New Testament era. And in this particular letter, Ignatius, who was a pastor of the church in Smyrna, he's writing to the church at Colossae and he says this, quote, I beseech you in Christ Jesus to love him and all who are like him. And so it seems, and the historians, the experts have fairly agreed on this, that Onesimus actually became the pastor of the Colossian church. Think about that, what a turnaround, what a transformation. The slave who did a runner is saved and goes back and in the providence of God becomes a pastor. Who'd have thought it? What a transformation. I like John MacArthur's comment on this text. He says here, Christ makes sure a man with a past has a past that's past. That was Zonesimus. But that's not all. There's another man that Paul refers to here that we need to think about, and that was Mark. Look what he says. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you. We'll come to him in a moment. With Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, about whom you received instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him. So Paul here references this man Mark. What do we know about Mark? We know from the book of Acts that quite early on in his missionary ventures, Paul decides to take Mark along with him. Paul and Barnabas had been, you remember, separated for the work of going forth with the gospel. Acts 13 verse 5, when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews and they also had John as their helper. And that's Mark, that's John Mark that he's referring to. Paul was always keen to take people along with him to help him and so that he could disciple them and on this particular mission he decides to take John Mark but then Acts chapter 13 verse 13 there's a problem isn't there? They kind of hit a bump in the road and that is when Paul and his company loose from Paphos they came to Perg in Pamphylia. So this was part of the journey where things could get a little bit dicey. They had to cross a mountain range to get up into Galatia, and the roads on that kind of terrain were very dangerous. There were notorious hangouts for bandits and for brigands who would jump out and rob unsuspecting passers-by, sometimes even murder them in the process. And so Acts chapter 13, it says that John departed from them and returned to Jerusalem. He didn't fancy it. He got cold feet at that point. When the going got tough, Mark got going. Couldn't hack it. Went back to his mum in Jerusalem. Now Barnabas was the older cousin of Mark and so sometime later on, this is Acts 15 verse 37, Barnabas is with Paul and they're about to go on the second missionary journey to go back round and to encourage the believers that came to the Lord on their first journey and Barnabas says to Paul, come on let's take Mark with us. And Paul, you know, essentially says, you've got to be kidding me, haven't you? And Barnabas goes into bat for his cousin, doesn't he? This is Acts chapter 15, and basically says, yeah, I understand what you're saying there. I know, Paul, yeah, I know he bailed out on the last trip, but that was a few years ago. I think he's learned his lesson. I think he's good now. I think he's a solid brother now. We can depend on him now. But, you know, this Paul wasn't convinced, and it ends up getting a little bit heated between the two of them. There's a sharp division between them, and in the end, Paul and Barnabas part ways, and Paul takes Silas with him, and Barnabas and his cousin Mark, they go off to Cyprus. That was back then. That was 12, 13 years earlier. But now we can see something's happened to Mark. Again, there's been a bit of a turnaround. There's been a transformation. That's why we're calling this the striking comeback. Because here we are, maybe 12, 13, 14 years on, whatever it is, and Paul is in prison in Rome. He's in a tough spot there. He's under house arrest in Rome. And who is it that he's got with him there? It's Mark. It's John Mark. He's right there with Paul while Paul is chained up there to a Roman guard under house arrest. Mark is there. Mark the quitter. Mark the choker. Mark the bailout merchant from all of those years before. Now Mark is the solid man right by his side with him there in prison. And look what Paul says, verse 10. Mark the cousin of Barnabas about whom he received instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him. So Paul is saying if Mark goes on this journey to Colossae as well, I want you to receive him. Why wouldn't they receive him? What might be the problem there? Probably the problem would be because of his reputation that had gone before, that he was known as a failure, he was known as a dropout, he was known in the church in those days because of that as a flaky operator, you couldn't rely on and might let you down and bail out when things got tough. That was the reputation it seems that he had. And so because of that, the churches were given instructions, Mark the cousin of Barnabas, about whom you received instructions or about whom you were commanded. They'd obviously received a word either from Paul or Barnabas, maybe even Peter. A word had gone around the Asian churches, if Mark comes you are to receive him. You are to welcome him. He's good. He's sound. He's solid. He's not the guy he used to be. He's solid. That's what Paul is saying now. Some 12, 13 years on, he's saying to the Colossians, receive him. Welcome him. He's a good man. He's a useful man. Philemon, verse 24, he names him there. Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers. That's what he's saying here. Mark, the one that Paul didn't want around him. before now he says no he's good he's a fellow worker to Timothy 4 verse 11 at the end of his life his second imprisonment in Rome and he says to Timothy only Luke is with me take Mark and bring him with you for he's profitable for me profitable to me for the ministry profitable. This man who was a failure. This man who was a dropout. This guy who bailed and looked like he couldn't hack it on the ministry team. What does Paul now say? Get Mark. Bring Mark. I want Mark. Mark, he's a really useful guy to have around. Bring Mark. And so you can see the turnaround. You see the transformation. Probably, humanly speaking, through the ministry of Peter. Peter, it seems, took Mark under his wing. In 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 13 it says there, the church at Babylon elected together with you, greet you and so does Mark my son, Peter says. Peter had a heart for Mark. Peter himself knew what it was like to mess things up. Peter knew what it was like to be seen by people as a flaky operator. And so he takes Mark under his wing and he helps him and he mentors him. In fact, scholars think it's most likely Peter is the one who gives to Mark all the information that he uses to, in the end, write his gospel. And so that just about brings it full circle, doesn't it? Mark the dropout. Mark the failure. It's mentored by Peter, becomes useful to Paul, and even ultimately is used by God to write one of the four New Testament Gospels. One of only four men ever to do that. What a transformation. What a turnaround. What a striking comeback. And it goes to show, doesn't it? there is a second chance. There can be a future for failures. Christ's servants who mess up, they can still, with Christ's help, get up and get back on track again. I'm sure you know the story of Spurgeon as a young boy, When he lived with his grandparents in the parsonage at Stambourne, and his grandfather was the pastor of the congregational church there, and there was an old man in the church called Old Rhodes. And I've told you this story before. He was a man who'd been converted, but was still much in the habit of going to the local ale house, drinking beer, smoking his pipe, and engaging in all the gossip of the village, much to the vexation of his pastor, Spurgeon's grandfather. And one evening after the midweek prayer meeting, Spurgeon's grandfather came back to the manse, and he was in a great vexation of spirits, and came and began to talked to his wife about the fact that he'd just seen old Rhodes still in the ale house, still there with his group of friends and engaging in all the gossip of the village and young Spurgeon was in the adjoining room and could hear this and could see how upset his grandfather was and so he determined that he was going to do something about this and so eight-year-old Spurgeon went straight out the house, walked around to the ale house, walked straight in and saw old Rhodes sitting in his usual spot with his beer and his tobacco and the gossip going on all around him and young Spurgeon went and looked at him and said what doest thou hear Elijah sitting with the ungodly and you a member of a church breaking your pastor's heart and he delivered his message turned around and he walked straight out again and you can imagine whole roads was cut to the heart by that and apparently got up left his beer, left his tobacco, walked out of the pub and apparently he never went back. Now, I've told you that story before, but I've just been recently reading Spurgeon's autobiography again. I came across something I hadn't actually noticed before, and that is after that, Spurgeon gives an account of what happened to Old Rhodes. After this, he went to the pastor, Spurgeon's grandfather, asked his forgiveness, and then he became a very committed member of the church for many years, even after Spurgeon's grandfather had retired. And young Spurgeon recorded in his autobiography the account of the pastor who succeeded his grandfather, Mr. Houchin. And he says this, quote, the genuineness of the Backsliders restoration is evident from the testimony of Mr. Houchin. Mr. Houchin writes, quote, Thomas Rhodes was one of the old men of the table. An active, lively little man, but quite illiterate. Not much above a labourer, but he kept a pony in cart and did little buying and selling on his own account. I found him to be an earnest and zealous Christian, striving to be useful in every way possible to him, especially in the prayer meetings and among the young people, opening his house for Christian conversation and prayer. He only lived about four years of my time and was sustained with a cheerful confidence to the end. And so that's encouraging, isn't it? It shows us there is hope for those who've messed up. There is a way back for those who've fallen down. And probably most of us have been there at some point or other, isn't it? We know what it's like to mess up. We know what it's like, to some degree, to walk in Mark's shoes. We know what it's like to walk in old Rhodes's boots. We've probably been there, haven't we? We've fouled up in some way, there's been that failure, there's been that disappointment in our lives, even perhaps after we became Christians, still we slipped up. A situation where we badly let ourselves down, where we let others down, a regrettable action of some kind, a foolish misstep. Perhaps it was a moral failure. Maybe you fell into some sin or other and it spoiled your testimony as a result. Or maybe, like Mark, you bottled it. You ran away from some situation where really you should have stayed and you should have pressed on. I mean, I don't know, you fill in the blanks here, whatever it is for you. But as a result, perhaps you've been staggering, you've been limping around in the Lord's service, feeling like there's a cloud hanging over your head and wondering, is there really any hope for me? Is there any way back for me? Well, if that's the case, then take a look at Paul's ministry team this morning. Take a look at this snapshot. Zoom in there on these two brothers here, Onesimus and Mark, this vital part of Paul's life and ministry team there. And you can see, can't you, that that one wrong move that you once made hasn't written you off from any future service. It doesn't mean that because you messed up on that occasion that Christ is done with you, that he's written you out of the script, that he's got no more meaningful ministry plans and purposes for you. No, just ask Pastor Anesimus. And just ask the writer of Mark's gospel. And you'll be reminded that we serve, don't we? We serve the God of the second chance. We serve a gracious and a forgiving God who's very much into, and I say this with reverence, He's very much into recycling. The Lord Jesus is very much into recycling His people, I mean, by that. His failing, fumbling, stumbling people who by their own sin and their own folly mess things up. Big time. Sometimes. He comes along and He picks us up and He dusts us off and He says, I've still got work for you. I've still got plans and purposes for you. I've still got a future for you. I can restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten. There is a way back from the dark paths of sin. Christ makes sure a man with a past has a past that's past. Charles Wesley puts it this way in his beautiful hymn, O Jesus, full of truth and grace. Thou knowest the way to bring me back, my fallen spirit to restore, O for Thy love and mercy's sake, forgive and bid me sin no more, the ruins of my soul repair, and make my heart a house of prayer. O Jesus, full of truth and grace, more full of grace than I have sinned, yet once again I seek Thy face, open Thine arms and take me in, and freely my backslidings heal, and love, love the faithless sinner still. And so we're looking at Paul's team photo this morning. We've zoomed in on Tychicus, one man and his vital contribution. We've zoomed in on Onesimus and Mark, two men and their striking comebacks. Let's finally, much more briefly, think about three men and their stirring gospel commitment. Three men and their stirring gospel commitment. Look at verse 10. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you with Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. Verse 11, and Jesus who is called Justus, 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. So here are some other men that Paul wants to highlight on the team photo. Aristarchus, he's mentioned in association with the town of Thessalonica. It seems likely that he came from that town. And Ephesus, perhaps you remember, Paul ministered at Ephesus for three years, and during those three years Aristarchus was with him. And when the Silver Workers' Riot broke out, there was Aristarchus and Gaius who were seized by the mob, and so they must have recognized Aristarchus as a companion of Paul, and so they seized him. That's in chapter 19. Paul then goes to Jerusalem and takes Aristarchus with him. Paul is arrested, put in prison in Jerusalem, moves to Caesarea, eventually on to Rome. Acts 27 verse 2 it says, when he got on the boat Aristarchus was with him. And so again, another friend and fellow servant who's been with Paul through it all. He identified himself with Paul in Ephesus, he escapes the riot there, goes to Jerusalem, all the way through to Rome. Aristarchus has been with Paul, even now that Paul is a prisoner in Rome, he's still there, he's right by his side. In fact, Paul calls him here, my fellow prisoner. Not that he had actually committed a crime, or that Aristarchus was actually in prison there, but what that means, the word means actually, it means a captive, it means a war prisoner, but the way Paul is using the term is that he means he's right here by my side, he's with me. Through thick and thin he supported Paul, he prayed with Paul, he was there to encourage Paul, he was always there. One man has called him a bad weather friend. Not a fair weather friend who's only with you when the sun is shining. Aristarchus was with Paul in the good times and in the bad. He was a loyal friend who stayed right by his side. That's a blessing, isn't it? You know what a blessing that is to have a friend like that who's with you in the sunshine and in the rain. And Aristarchus was like that, and so Paul mentions him. And notice also in verse 11 he refers to Aristarchus, Mark we've mentioned, and also this man Jesus who is called Justice. We don't know that much about him, but we know he's part of this group that Paul refers to, about whom he says this interesting thing in verse 11, that they are of the circumcision. which means simply they were Jewish. These were Jewish Christians. And then with that, he says, these are my only fellow workers for the kingdom of God. Now, they weren't the only ones working with him because Luke was there. And Dr. Luke, he traveled with Paul on his third missionary journey. He helped take care of Paul when he received these beatings and suffered various ailments in prison. Luke is a skilled doctor, the historian, of course, as well, who writes the Book of Luke, the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. And he stays with Paul right up to the time of Paul's death. 2 Timothy 4, verse 11. Paul says there, only, only Luke is with me. He was a faithful friend who stayed with Paul right to the end. But come back to this phrase in verse 11. 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. He's talking about these Jewish Christians, men who've been saved out of a background from Judaism. They've labored alongside him in the kingdom and they were still there with Paul. Because it seems there were some Jewish Christians who sort of backed away. from Paul. Once he was apprehended, when he was arrested, some of the Jewish Christians, perhaps for fear of being associated with Paul, they might then themselves be singled out for persecution. We don't know. For whatever reason, they started to put some distance between themselves and Paul. And that's probably why Paul refers to these men in this way. 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. These were fellow workers from the same converted Jewish background and they hadn't turned away. They hadn't forsaken him. They were still with him. They still had that bond with him. They still felt that solidarity, that oneness with him. They weren't going to let him go. They were still by his side. And the gospel does that, doesn't it? The gospel binds you to people. The gospel is kind of like a glue, isn't it? There's a glue there in the gospel that binds you to people and helps you to develop bonds of friendship and fellowship that really go deep. And, you know, we need that, don't we? Especially at times like these, when we're not together, when we're not able to meet, when we're apart and not able to see each other as much as we would like. I mean, that kind of thing can test those bonds, can't it? It can start to put them under real strain. had a prayer letter this week from Pastor Jeremy Walker over in the UK and it was a news update on how things were over there and there were a number of prayer requests in the letter. One of them was these, he said this, pray that the pressures of this season would draw us closer to God and to each other rather than forcing us away. And he said this, we are conscious of the dangerous possibility of fragmentation and dissolution because of extended absence from the means of grace and the more immediate fellowship of the saints. That is a challenge, isn't it? For so many churches at this particular time, being apart, not seeing each other face to face, along with some of the differing perspectives that can come about in this presence. coronavirus shutdown situation people can take up different positions people can say well I think we should do this and others say no I think we should do this and some people say this isn't such a big deal and others say no this is serious people are dying of this and you know good cases can be made on either side but the problem with it all is before we know it we can start fragmenting and splintering away into our different positions and groups as Pastor Walker rightly warns about there. But then the other thing he said in his letter was this, quote, it has been a joy to see many members of the church making careful plans and persistent efforts to maintain meaningful contact and to encourage one another. What's he referring to there? He's talking about the gospel glue, isn't he? That's what he's referring to, that bond, that unity, that solidarity that the gospel creates and that binds people together, even in very difficult times. And we have the same thing in our church. I've been on the phone this week to an elderly lady in our congregation. She was in very good spirits and she was listing to me the number of people from the church who'd called her that week to check on her. How encouraged she was by that. Then I spoke later to a young mum in the church who had just come out of a surgery and she was telling me how two families in the church had been in contact wanting to help look after her young family while she was convalescing. These kind of things, isn't it? It's evidence of that bond, that gospel glue, the commitment that the gospel produces. To Christ, first of all, and then to his people. From that and through that. That bond. It's a foretaste of heaven, really. Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. I think I've told you before about the writer of that hymn, an Englishman, John Fawcett. He was the pastor of a Baptist church in the north of England. And he passed away about six or seven years. He developed into quite a powerful preacher. So much so that he was contacted by Carter's Lane Baptist Church, which was the church of Dr. John Gill, who was retiring. And they asked John Fawcett if he would come and take his pulpit. And John Fawcett was quite sort of overwhelmed at the thought of it. But after some time of prayer, he eventually decided to take that call. But on the Sunday that he and his wife were planning to take their horse and cart and go all the way down to London, all the people from the church came out to say goodbye to them. And as John Fawcett and his wife looked at all these people, they were quite taken aback and overwhelmed. And his wife said, John, I don't think I can leave these people. And he said, neither do I. We will stay and we'll serve the Lord lovingly together. And after that, he wrote the hymn, Bless Be the Tide, that binds our hearts in Christian love. And it's the kind of thing that Paul experienced. Even there in prison, the Lord had blessed him with like-minded spiritual companions who were united with him in their service of Jesus Christ. Fellow servants, fellow prisoners, bond slaves of Jesus Christ, bound to the Saviour, and with that also bound to his people. Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. Let's pray. Gracious God, we thank you for the riches that we find even here in this epilogue to the Book of Colossians. We pray, O Lord, that you would warm our hearts by these things and help us to apply them to our own lives and to the life of our church. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.