United We Stand

Colossians 4:7-18

The spirit of our age is independence. This is especially true here in America. In fact, just a few miles from here, across the Delaware River, is the city of brotherly love–– Philadelphia. We consider it the birthplace of freedom for our country. And that freedom is best symbolized in a singular document–– The Declaration of Independence. In that document, we declared our independence from the tyranny that our founding fathers felt was imposed upon us by England. Of course, that document reflected a spirit of independence and was paid for by the blood of our forefathers, who fought a war for independence. Our independence is a prized possession in this country. And it should be.

The problem comes when we misapply that spirit of independence to the church. Independence can be good in certain circumstances, but it can also create problems in others. One such circumstance is the church.

While the spirit of our age may be independence, the nature of the church is interdependence. The church, you see, is a community. It is the community of the King. And the church universal always finds its expression in the church local, which is a body of believers called out of the world and into a spiritual fellowship based on the life of Jesus Christ within. It is not one person, or even a group of leaders. It is every believer called to be a part of that local church. As such, it must work through an interdependence of all its members, if it is to work successfully. Independence will tend to erode the fellowship. Learning to depend upon one another, however, will cause the fellowship to grow, both in quality and quantity.

The bottom line is that we need each other. I need what you have in God and you need what I have in God. We need each other! And community is the key. God designed the church to bring together people of different backgrounds, cultures, races, and situations in life so that we could learn to live together as Christians, united by our common faith in Jesus Christ.

It is really a beautiful thing. You see, God designed the church to be an antidote to the spirit of our age. As we live together, God breaks down the walls that divide us. In the church, God deals with our selfishness. In the church, God deals with our pride. In the church, God deals with our racism. In the church, God deals with all of the issues of isolation that keep us apart, that keep us from living as people created in God’s image for whom Christ died.

The devil’s strategy is to keep us apart–– to divide us. God’s plan is to bring us together in Christ. This is something, however, the devil fights against with all his power. And he uses many things in his arsenal to divide us. He takes our opinions and tells us that our particular opinion is more important than someone else’s. He takes our preferences and tells us that the world would be a better place if everyone thought as we thought and liked the same things we like. He fans the fires of our selfish desires. He does everything within his power to use our sinful pride to divide us. And he works very hard at it.

Why? He knows that when we are united, we are powerful enemies of the kingdom of darkness. When we are united, we can do far greater things than we could ever do alone. The Bible speaks in one place of five people chasing one hundred and ten people chasing ten thousand. In another place it speaks of one person chasing one thousand and two people chasing ten thousand. It is the power of God that multiplies our effectiveness when we work together to accomplish his purposes.

Between 1787 and 1795, Baptists became the largest group of Christians in America. They did it without a home mission board or society, a national convention, a state convention, nor a seminary. They did it WITH SMALL MISSIONARY ASSOCIATIONS and WITH LAY PREACHERS, most of them not paid a salary. They were without formal theological training, most of them had been licensed to exercise their gifts by little Baptist churches. The Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and the Congregationalists insisted that they were not clergy at all; but undisciplined, untrained laymen who should be at home working and not preaching. Between 1795 and 1820 the Methodists overtook and surpassed the Baptists in total numbers. They did it with lay preachers going everywhere, sharing their faith, forming disciplined small groups and gathering those small groups into churches. We have two ways we can go in growing Christ’s Church. We can have CHURCH ADDITION: that’s where the Pastor or the pastoral staff are the only ministers in the body. Or, we can have CHURCH MULTIPLICATION: that’s where everyone ministers. Church history makes it very clear that when the church has grown––I mean, really grown––it has grown because EVERYBODY FOUND THEIR GIFT AND UTILIZED THAT GIFT for the glory of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!!! [From the sermon: Let the Church "Move Up" by Dr. Neal Gray - Senior Pastor, Baltimore Parkville Church of the Nazarene, Baltimore, MD]

God uses us in powerful ways when we work together. He multiplies our ministry and increases our effectiveness. This is what the devil fears most and this is why he fights the hardest against it. He will do anything to bring disunity into the church.

In our text today, Paul gives us a list of some of those people who had helped him in ministry. Often, when we read the closing to a letter like Colossians, we miss the significance of the list of people mentioned at the end. We think of it merely as a literary custom, but I think it is much more than that. What it reveals is that Paul was not working alone. He had help. There were many helpers who worked with Paul, without whom Paul’s ministry could not have been nearly as effective. Paul knew that and he acknowledged that by including them here.

There was Tychicus, whom Paul called a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant. These were terms that indicated how much Paul valued his contribution to the work. He was not just a small and insignificant part. He was a major player and Paul acknowledged him as such.

There was Onesimus. We know from the book of Philemon that Onesimus was a runaway slave who was converted to Christ. Now he had become a faithful and dear brother to Paul. He had become part of the work of advancing the kingdom of God.

There was Aristarchus and Mark and Jesus Justus. They were three fellow Jews who had become fellow workers of Paul and proven a comfort to him in his imprisonment. The only one we know a great deal about is Mark. He is also referred to as John Mark, and he is the cousin of Barnabas, with whom Paul teamed to share the gospel. Mark came along on the first missionary journey of Paul but found he could not continue and turned back. This did not please Paul. When it came time for a second missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas had a sharp disagreement over whether Mark should come. Paul thought he should not, so Barnabas took Mark with him and they went their separate ways. It is interesting that Mark had apparently matured quite a bit by the time Paul wrote Colossians, for now he was not only with Paul again but considered a valued worker. Incidentally, this same Mark wrote one of our gospels. We call it the Gospel according to Mark. It is actually Mark’s record of the gospel given to him by Peter.

There was Epaphras. Many believe that he was the pastor of the church at Colosse. Although he was currently with Paul, he was still working on their behalf through prayer. Paul says that he was wrestling in prayer on their behalf. By doing that, Paul indicates that he was working hard for them. Indeed, prayer is hard work, and we need more people doing that kind of work in the church today. If we had more people praying, we would see more of the activity of God in our midst.

There was Luke, the doctor. We have a gospel in our New Testament that bears his name. He is also the author of the book of Acts. Here is someone who used his secular occupation for the glory of God.

There was Demas. Nothing is said about him here. There is no praise, only a mention of his name. Paul writes later, in his letter to Timothy: "Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica" (2 Timothy 4:9-10 NIV). Perhaps the reason why Paul does not mention much about Demas is because he was not doing much. Perhaps Demas was dabbling a little too much with the world to receive anything but a simple mention.

Finally, there is Archippus. From what we read in Philemon, it seems that Archippus is the son of Philemon. Apparently, he had been given an assignment to complete in his work for the Lord that he was not giving much attention to. Paul exhorts him to complete what he had started. Good advice.

These are just a few of those people Paul mentions in his letters. These are people who worked together with Paul for the sake of the kingdom of God. They were his fellow workers, his co-laborers. Without these people, Paul would not have accomplished nearly what he did. He acknowledges them.

In fact, this was Paul strategy. He wanted to multiply his ministry through the lives of others. He says this to Timothy: "You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others" (2 Timothy 2:1-3 NIV).

I certainly want my life to count for God. But I also want my ministry to be multiplied through the lives of other faithful men and women of God whom I train and equip to share the good news of Christ with others. If I can do that, then I can leave a legacy that will continue to grow after I have passed from the scene. Paul did this. The other apostles did this. That is why we are here today. We are here because they trained faithful followers of Christ to be effective witnesses. And they trained others, who trained others, who trained others. Eventually, one of them shared with us.

This is the difference between addition and multiplication. If I win one person and then go on and win another person and then go on and win still another person, what you have is growth by addition. One becomes two becomes three becomes four and so on. But if I win one and train that one to win others and train them, then one becomes two and two becomes four and four becomes eight and eight become sixteen and sixteen becomes thirty-two and so on. That’s multiplication. And that is what we need if we are going to win our community and our world to Christ.

Let me ask you a question. How do you see yourself? How do you see your relationship to others in the church? How do you see your responsibility to the church? Do you see that you are someone who is needed? Do you see that you need others? Do you see that you have a responsibility to use all of your gifts and talents to advance the kingdom of God? I hope you see these things. It is vital that we all see these things because we cannot do it alone.

We need a renewed vision of who we are in Christ and of what God has called us to do through the power of Christ. And we need to understand that what God has called us to do, he has called us to do together. We also need to see that what God has called us to do, he has already given us the power to do.

Whenever God gives us a command, like the command to take the gospel into all the world, he always gives us the power to obey the command. The command of God is not a demand upon you, rather it is a demand upon God. God never gives a command without also giving the power to obey the command. That is why Paul could say that he could do all things through Christ. He meant that there was nothing Christ would call him to do that he would not also give him the power to do. We already have the power to obey what God has called us to do. It is through Christ who lives within us that we are empowered to live for him.

But we cannot do it alone. We need one another. As we stand united in Christ, we will see the gates of hell fall before us as we advance upon the enemy as the church triumphant. May we commit to be those faithful workers, who help one another to multiply the ministry of our church. May we work together to impact our community for Christ. 

Copyright © 2002 J. David Hoke. This data file is the sole property of the copyright holder and may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain the above copyright notice.

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