June 29, 2003 Colossians 4:7-18
“With a little help from my friends”
INTRODUCTION
I spent Monday through Thursday of this week at Camp Monongahela. Of the 55 campers that we had, 30 of them were “first-timers”. Some of them knew no one when they arrived at camp, and others only knew those that they had been to church with. It was interesting to watch as they started to talk with one another and try to establish new friendships. Camp is a great place to find long-term friends since the majority of the people there are Christians.
Paul knew something about friends and the importance of making the right ones. Here in this last section of Colossians and as he nears what in all likelihood would be the end of his life, he talks about some of the friends that he had made along the course of his life and what they meant to him personally and for his ministry. Each friend that he mentions stands out because of some special ability or characteristic that they possessed. His friends were more than acquaintances; they were partners in ministry.
God used Paul to accomplish tremendous spiritual victories throughout his life. But Paul did not accomplish these things as a soloist. He was the leader of a team of close friends who worked as a team under the leadership and empowerment of their heavenly Father. Together, they accomplished far more than Paul could have ever accomplished on his own. He did not take the credit but gladly included his team in recognition for what had been able to be accomplished.
This past week at camp, at least two children received Christ as their Savior, other campers grew in their relationship with Him, and still others began their journey toward that all important relationship. Whatever was accomplished this week, the credit cannot go to any one person. It was only as the team worked together, each using their individual skills and bringing their unique personalities and characteristics to the tasks at hand, each depending on the power and direction of God’s Holy Spirit that miracles happened.
1. Choose friends that serve – Tychicus (vs. 7)
- I’m not talking about friends that will serve you, but friends that will serve God with you.
- every reference to Tychicus has to do with him being sent somewhere by Paul with a message; he was a messenger boy
- most people want to be served rather than being a servant
- I watched Anna be a servant this week (picking through the trash to find a retainer).
2. Choose friends that humble themselves – Onesimus (vs. 9)
– Not friends for you to humble or even friends that see it as their responsibility to keep you humble. I’ve got plenty of those.
– "You are familiar with Albrecht Durer’s famous painting "The Praying Hands," but do you know the story behind it? The painting was inspired by the sacrificial, loving acts of a friend. Durer and an older friend were struggling to make a go as artists. Recognizing Durer’s talent, the older man took a job to provide for both of them until Durer could complete his art studies. The work was labor, but he did it gladly for his friend. Finally, Durer made a sale. The money was enough to care for both of them for several months. Now his older friend could resume his painting, but the older man’s hands had become so stiff from the hard labor that he was unable to paint.
One day when Durer returned home, he found his friend in prayer, his work-worn hands folded reverently. Durer painted a picture of these hands, capturing them for ages to come as a memorial to the love and sacrifice of his older friend." (Frank Morgan, Jr. Keys To Unlock Yourself. Nashville : Braodman Press, 1985, pp. 75-76).
– The greatest humbling is when you seek forgiveness. Onesimus has sought forgiveness from his former master.
3. Choose friends that endure through tough times – Aristarchus (vs. 10)
– Everywhere that Aristarchus accompanied Paul, there was trouble. He got dragged through the city by an angry mob, he was there when the people of the city plotted to take Paul’s life, and he was there when a major storm caused Paul and all those with him to be involved in a shipwreck. And here, Paul refers to him as a “fellow prisoner”. If I had been Aristarchus, I would have chosen friends that didn’t get into so much trouble.
– “A true friend is like toothpaste, when it is put under pressure, it appears!”
4. Choose friends that comfort – Justus (vs. 11)
– A group of friends went deer hunting and paired off in twos for the day. That night one of the hunters returned alone, staggering under an eight-point buck.
"Where’s Harry?" he was asked.
"Harry had a stroke of some kind. He’s a couple of miles back up the trail."
"You left Harry laying there, and carried the deer back?"
"Well," said the hunter, "I figured no one was going to steal Harry."
– Paul’s greatest concern was not for his own personal comfort. In other places, he talks about all the physical struggles that he had gone through – shipwrecks, beatings, inprisonments, going hungry. And he said that he had learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
– Paul’s great concern was for the salvation of other people, both Jews and Gentiles. It was through the concern and work that Justus showed toward the end of bringing people to Jesus that brought comfort to his heart. He knew that he was not alone in the work, and he knew that when he died, the work would continue on.
5. Choose friends that pray – Epaphras (vs. 12)
6. Choose friends that keep you accountable – Paul to Archippus (vs. 17)
– Promise Keepers is coming up. Much of what Promise Keepers is about is men keeping each other accountable for their actions.
– My expectation is that the men who go on this experience will come back tighter in fellowship than they could have ever imagined.
7. Choose friends that don’t forget – “Remember” (vs. 18)
– As careful as Paul was at choosing the people who were a part of his team and who he named as a friend, even his friends failed him. Demas, whom Paul mentions in vs. 14 later deserted Paul in his time of need. Paul says of him that he loved the things of this world more than he loved God and more than he loved Paul (2 Tim. 4:10).
– Paul knew what it was like to be forgotten.
– He asked the Colossian Christians to remember his chains. Remember what Paul was going through so that they would pray for him. Remember what Paul had suffered for them so that they would hold in high value what had been passed on to them. Remember that Paul had been faithful in the midst of his suffering as encouragement for them to do the same.
– Friends, no matter how close will forget. They’ll forget your birthday, they’ll forget the things that you used to do together, they’ll forget the things that you both once held dear – eventually, as you both get older, they might even forget your name.
– The Bible speaks of a “friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24). He will never forget you.
CONCLUSION
One of the ancient kings of Persia loved to mingle with his people in disguise. Once, dressed as a poor man, he descended the long flight of stairs, dark and damp to the tiny cellar where the fireman, seated on ashes, was tending the furnace. The king sat down beside him and began to talk. At meal time the fireman produced some coarse black bread and a jug of water and they ate and drank. The king went away but returned again and again for his heart was filled with sympathy for the lonely man. They became very good friends as time passed. At last the king thought, “I’ll tell him who I am, and see what gift he will ask.” So he did, but the fireman didn’t ask for a thing. The king was astonished and said, “Don’t you realize that I can give you anything—a city, a throne?” The man gently replied, “I understand your Majesty. You have already given the greatest gift a man could receive. You left your palace to sit with me here in this dark and lonely place. You could give nothing more precious. You have given yourself and that is far more than I could ever deserve.”
