Daily Archives: January 11, 2015

Epaphras – Faithful Prayer Warrior

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EPAPHRAS – FAITHFUL PRAYER WARRIOR

Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is always working for hard for you and for those in Laodicea and Hierapolis (Col. 4: 12-13).

Epaphras – this is the second time his name was mentioned in Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Who was this man?

Paul described him as a ‘dear fellow servant’ and a ‘faithful minister of Christ on our behalf.’ Paul took his responsibility to fulfil his commission so seriously that he regarded Epaphras’s ministry in Colossae as being carried out on his behalf. Paul was only one man. It was impossible for him to take the message of Christ to every city, town and village in the Roman Empire. Therefore, every person who shared the gospel of Jesus with others did it for him – being an extension of his ministry wherever they went.

Epaphras was Paul’s mouthpiece in Colossae and, through his faithful witness, a church was born there. But Paul still regarded it his responsibility to teach the people and warn them not to fall for the heresy of the Gnostics which threatened to lure them away from their pure faith in Christ.

As a faithful minister to them, Epaphras went to Paul in Rome when the alarm bells began to ring. He needed Paul’s understanding of the gospel and his ability to explain it clearly to the church to help him deal with this threat among his beloved church family members.

Epaphras took his role as leader so seriously that he also worked hard in his prayer closet for them. He was neither prepared to allow error to steal them away from Christ, nor would he allow them to fall away through the fear of persecution. These two threats were very real in the infant church. They were a small band of vulnerable people who were at the mercy of ruthless opponents of Jesus and His message from two quarters – the unbelieving Jews and the Roman government.

Both Paul and Epaphras had no means of protecting these people except through prayer and to prayer they turned to enlist the aid of the greatest power on earth. Night and day Paul prayed for the churches all over the empire, and night and day Epaphras prayed for the Colossians. Paul described his prayer as ‘wrestling’. With whom was he wrestling? Surely not with God because God was on his side.

Epaphras understood that the enemy of their souls was a liar. The devil would use every trick in the book to deceive believers and to lure them away from faith in Jesus when their circumstances seemed as though He had abandoned them. Fear was the great enemy of faith and Epaphras knew how easily they could be overcome by fear.

He was also aware of another equally dangerous enemy – the enemy within. The old sinful nature was always lurking in the shadows, waiting to trip them up in unguarded moments. Through guilt and shame, they might shrink from the Father who loved them and, instead of running to Him for pardon and reconciliation when they fell into temptation, they might pull away and become reabsorbed into the world system which pandered to their evil desires.

And so, the faithful prayer warrior wrestled in prayer, building a wall of protection around and within his people through his intercession for them. It was not that he could add anything to what Jesus has done on the cross. Jesus has unmasked and defeated the devil and rendered him powerless to deceive them but he was still around, trying to obscure the truth with his lies.

What did Epaphras pray? Did he ask God to keep them safe from their persecutors? No! Was he concerned about their earthly circumstances? No! Did he ask God to keep them from sickness and trouble? No! What was his greatest desire for them? Paul spelt it out so that his readers – and that includes us – would know what was most important for them and for us. To the Colossians he wrote, ‘that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.’

Above all the earthly comforts and conveniences they craved, one thing mattered above everything else, that they would be so secure in God, who He is and who they were in Him that nothing would be able to lure them away from dependence upon and obedience to Him. As for them, so with us also.

Imagine how different the church of the Lord Jesus Christ would be if, firstly, its leaders, instead of seeking fame and fortune for themselves, would wrestle in prayer for its members. Secondly, if their prayers were answered, the church would be a body of people standing firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. What then?

We need many an ‘Epaphras’ to wrestle in prayer before the church ever becomes an instrument of transformation in a messed up world.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Fellow Workers

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FELLOW WORKERS

My fellow prisoner, Aristarchus, sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes, welcome him). Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me (Col. 4: 10-11)

Aristarchus, Mark and Justus – only three Jews among the many people that Paul had won to Christ! It’s no wonder Paul said that they were a comfort to him! He grieved for his own people because they were stubborn in their unbelief and in their rejection of Jesus Christ as their Messiah. Yet Paul was comforted by the few Jews who had believed, and were ready to suffer for Christ as Aristarchus proved by being in prison alongside Paul for his faith in Jesus.

One of the names among the Jewish believers Paul mentioned is of special interest. At the beginning of his second missionary journey, Paul had a fall-out with Barnabas over John Mark because Mark had deserted them after only a short time as a fellow traveller on their first missionary journey.  What was the issue? Mark was Barnabas’s cousin. It was Barnabas who decided to take him along with them after they were appointed by the Holy Spirit to take the gospel to the world.

Was this another ‘Abraham and Lot’ situation? God told Abraham to leave his homeland and his family and go to the land He would show him. Abraham left his home, but he took his nephew, Lot, with him which proved to be a wrong move. Lot cause him many problems in the land of Canaan which he would have avoided had he only obeyed God fully.

The Holy Spirit chose Paul and Barnabas for missionary work, which did not include Mark. Barnabas decided to take him along – a decision which later resulted in a split between them because of Mark’s desertion when they left the island of Cyprus. Paul was unwilling to risk taking him along again (Acts 15; 36-40); they had a sharp disagreement and they parted company.

Yet in this letter Paul singled Mark out for special mention. Firstly, he was among the Jewish believers who were with Paul at the time of his writing, and who brought comfort to him in his imprisonment. Secondly, it seems that the rift had been healed between Mark and Paul, and that John Mark had become a faithful believer instead of a deserter.

Perhaps Barnabas’s confidence in Mark had influenced him to put his roots down into Christ. Barnabas was that kind of a man. After Paul’s conversion, it was Barnabas who gave him the benefit of the doubt when the apostles in Jerusalem were suspicious of him. After all, was he not the arch-persecutor of the believers, and the reason many of them had suffered and even died for their faith in Jesus?

Barnabas was a generous man. He vouched for Paul when the others would have nothing to do with him and his confidence in him was rewarded. Paul turned out to be what Barnabas expected – a true and faithful man of God.

Now Paul speaks of Mark with warmth as one of those who brought him comfort. Was it Barnabas’s acceptance of Mark in spite of his failure that influenced Paul to give him another chance? With Barnabas as his example, at some point Paul reconciled with both Barnabas and Mark and also gave Mark a second chance – and he was not disappointed.

We can learn a valuable lesson from this incident. Paul was ready to dump Mark because of his failure but Barnabas was not. It was Barnabas’s generous attitude, not Paul’s judgmental behaviour, which won Mark and brought him back to become a dear brother to Paul and faithful servant of Jesus.

What if Barnabas had also judged and rejected him? What would have become of him? Would he have ever been written in God’s story as a Jewish believer who brought comfort to Paul and who was to be welcomed by the church in Colossae? I don’t think so!

It pays to be generous is our love for and confidence in our fellow believers because we never know, in the end, what a difference it might make to someone who has taken a wrong turn and needs to be brought back.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Dear Brothers

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DEAR BROTHERS

Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders; make the use of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here (Col. 4: 5-9).

Who are the outsiders, and how must we treat them?

There is a tendency to regard people who are not yet believers in Jesus as outsiders and therefore enemies. They are ‘outside’ and we are ‘inside’, therefore we regard ourselves as better than they, We are going to heaven and they are going to hell, so it does not matter if we treat them badly!

Who said so? That is not how Jesus treated people who had not yet come to faith in Him. To Him they were lost sons and potential brothers, and He used every opportunity to invite them to come home. He said that His mission was to seek and save the lost.

Paul said, ‘Make the most of every opportunity.’ He did not tell us to dangle them over the fires of hell and bash them with the Bible. He said that we are to use every opportunity. Every opportunity to do what? I think he meant every opportunity to be kind and generous towards them so that they will have glimpses of Jesus in the way we treat them. Then we can share the good news with them that they can also become part of God’s forever family.

Paul’s generous love encircled everyone, especially the members of God’s family, regardless of who or what they were as far as the world was concerned. Take, for instance, Onesimus whom he included in his closing greeting as a ‘faithful and dear brother’.

Onesimus was immortalised in Paul’s letter to Philemon as a runaway slave who came home to the Father through Paul’s influence. He wanted to remain in Rome and serve Paul, but Paul knew that he had an obligation to send him back to Philemon to whom he rightfully belonged. It was up to his owner, not Paul, to decide his fate. It was his right to have him put to death, but Paul pleaded with Philemon on his behalf, to treat him with mercy, especially since he had become a faithful and dear brother.

Without hesitation, Paul put Tychicus and Onesimus on the same level. After all, had he not previously stated that there was no difference between slave and free in God’s kingdom? Social status no longer applied because people of every colour and level had become brothers and one in Christ. Onesimus was the acid test and Paul accepted him as one of God’s people because he had also become a new person in Christ.

Paul would not allow the churches to forget him simply because he was shut up in prison. Through those who came and went, he kept contact with the family of God so that they would not forget to pray for him. Apostle though he was, he was not above the need for prayer. Through the love and prayers of his fellow believers all over the Roman Empire, he would not succumb to the pressures of persecution and torture and deny his faith in Christ or his hope in the gospel.

Paul was not only a believer in his own right. He was also aware of his responsibility to model Jesus to those who looked up to him as an example. He needed God’s grace in his human weakness as much as everyone else did. He was not above admitting his need and asking for prayer for himself and his ministry. It was important to him to keep his fellow believers informed about his circumstances and even his anxieties and fears so that they would know how to intercede for him.

How important it is for us to pray for our spiritual leaders too! They are not above temptation, and have to face pressures that the man in the pew will never experience. Criticism and judgment come easily to those who do not walk in their shoes. How do they react to those who are never satisfied with what they do and how they perform and tell the world about their gripes? They must answer to the Lord, not to their critics.

Paul’s counsel to us is to pray for them. Every pastor needs prayer far more than he needs public condemnation. They are ‘dear brothers’ just like Onesimus, the runaway slave.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.