STORIES BEHIND THE SENDER AND THE MESSENGERS
By Lay Ps. Budy Avianto
Johor, Sunday, June 23, 2019
Shalom,
Indonesia held the presidential and legislative election simultaneously on April 17, 2019 and the news could be accessed through the electronic or printed media. While we were waiting for the official announcement from KPU (Komisi Pemilihan Umum – General Election Commission) about it, a pair of candidates had already proclaimed that they were chosen as the President for 2019-2024 period. This caused a chaos amongst Indonesian citizens. During the never-ending chaos, the other pair of candidates initiated to send a representative with a written message to cool things down as well as producing a solution for both pairs of candidates. There are times when a written message is not enough that an expert mediator is needed to achieve win-win solution.
It turns out that delegation has existed for a long time. The Apostle Paul also sent a representation because he was imprisoned thus it was impossible for him to come. Who was the representative? It is written in Colossians 4: 7-9, “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
What does “all the news about me” mean? It means every event and struggle of the Apostle Paul.
The Book of Colossians was written by the Apostle Paul when he was in prison because of Christ. Paul himself had never been to Colosse and thus needed to send two representatives to explain about his circumstance that might not be understood by the Colossians who did not know him that well. It was different from the Ephesians; Paul stayed in Ephesians for three years (Acts 20:31) so that he was able to meet with the saints there. The letters of Paul were inspired by the Holy Spirit and dictated as the Word of God. Truth is, we often don’t understand the meaning and the message behind when we read it so we need a "messenger“to explain it to us.
How did the Apostel Paul know about the Colossians? Through Epaphras, his fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus (Philemon 1:23) who told him about the believers in Colosse. Epaphras himself was a fellow servant in Colosse (Colossians 1:7). Although he lived with limitation, the Apostle Paul’s heart was not confined by the prison walls; he was moved (by the Holy Spirit) to write to the Colossians.
Then the Apostle Paul sent his two messengers – Tychicus and Onesimus – to bring his letter to Colosse. They both were specially chosen by Paul to explain his and their personal matters to the Colossians.
What criteria do the messengers have?
- As our brothers and sisters (by faith)
What do “brothers and sisters” refer to? When Jesus came to His own, His own did not receive Him (John 1:11). But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name (v. 12).
The standard to be the children of God is in Jesus who received an acknowledgement from His Father when He was being baptized (Matthew 3:17) as well as when He was glorified on top of the mountain while He was with Peter, James and John (Matthew 17:5). What did His Father say? “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!
Jesus is the Son of God and His word is worth listening to; if we are the children of God, our word must also contain the Word of God. That’s why we must be careful to speak for we all stumble in many things (James 3:2).
For whoever does the will of the Father in heaven is His brother and sister (Matthew 12:48-50). In other words, we must not stop in just believing/having faith in Jesus but we must continue spreading the Word of God because faith without works is dead (James 2:17, 26; Revelation 1:3).
- As a beloved brother and sister
To be His beloved children, our words must be filled with the living Word (John 12: 48-50) that can be heard by others. Also, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12: 1-2).
- As a fellow faithful servant
A fellow servant has the same position – no one is higher or lower than the other, lest it causes gap and division.
A fellow servant should only serve and worship God and not be a servant who loves to be praised because God is not pleased with it. The Apostle John almost worshipped wrongly twice but the righteous servant refused his worship and told John to worship God only (Revelation 19:10; 22: 8-9).
We used to be fellow servants of sins and live under the threat of death as the wage of sin (Romans 6: 17-18, 23) but by the sacrifice of the blood of Christ, we become the servants of the truth and worthy to worship God. All praise, honor and glory be only to Him who had died and risen for us.
Who were the messengers?
- Tychicus (= fortunate). He was a Gentile from Asia (Acts 20:4) who was made the messenger of the Lord.
At that time, we were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the convenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world but by the blood of Christ the wall of separation between the Jews was destroyed (Ephesians 2:12) so that we are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God (v. 19).
- Onesimus (= profitable, useful). If we are not useful, what for are we sent then? Who was Onesimus? He was an ex-prisoner who was different from Epaphras imprisoned because of Christ.
Onesimus was an ex-con man who, by the testimony of Paul, was changed and became profitable. Paul was even willing to guarantee that he would be accepted by his master, Philemon (Philemon 1: 9-11).
Implication: Although we are full of wrongdoings, we shall not despair because in Him there is always hope. Believe in Him who speaks the Word of God and died to redeem our sins. He is capable of changing us from worthless to be worthy being one of His messengers.
- Jesus Himself is the messenger of His Father (John 6: 38-40).
Jesus is the messenger from Heaven and whoever believes in Him will be raised at the end of age. As the messenger of God, Jesus did not do things according to His own will but according to the will of His Father.
We deserved to be condemned because of our sins but when we believe in Jesus, the messenger of God, we receive salvaltion and freed from the death punishment to be His heirs (Ephesians 3:6) together with Jesus.
Moreover, after we were saved by Him, we may not just sit back when we see so many people still don’t know anything about God and salvation. Jesus wants us to be His messengers (John 20:21) who spread the Gospel of salvation because how will they be saved if they never hear of the Word of God? And how can they get the Word of God if no one is sent to preach it? Let’s not be selfish people who are satisfied with our own salvation without caring for others.
Before Jesus ascended to the Heaven, He sent His disciples to preach the Gospel and made disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:19) also to be His witnesses from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8).
Application: To become the Lord’s messengers, we can start from Jerusalem, that is our household. Have our – husbands/ wives/ children – accepted Jesus as their Saviour through our lives?
The testimony of the Speaker: Around 1980, the Lemah Putro church was under repair and all the congregation went to Johor. He went to the church alone and felt so sad because his wife followed different religion. His in-laws thought that moving to different religion is the same as committing sin. Unfortunately, he did not become a good messenger! He used the Word of God that he heard to ‘corner’ his wife to do the will of the Lord and this angered her. Luckily, he realized that he needed to change in sharing the Word of God to her. So he started to share his personal experience being reprimanded by the Word of God without judging other people including his wife. Miracle happened! His wife suddenly wanted to come along to church to attend the Passover service. Until today he and his wife are going to the same church together.
As the messenger of God, we have to be ready to preach the Word in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2) and the Word of God is God Himself that must be preached correctly not according to our own will but His.
- The Holy Spirit is sent by The Father (John 14:26) after Jesus ascended to Heaven.
The Father sent the Holy Spirit/Paraclete/Comforter whose duty is to tell the matter of the Father in Heaven who had sent Him, and to guide us into the truth (John 16:13), to convict the world of sin, and of judgment of sin because they do not believe in Him, of righteousness, because He would die, rise and ascend to Heaven and of judgments, because the ruler of this world is judged (vv. 8-11).
The Holy Spirit can remind us about the Word of God that we have heard and also to comfort and help us in times of our weaknesess. The Holy Spirit and Jesus – the living Bread that descended from the Heaven – are both messengers that are not contradicting.
We should be joyful because we are armored with the Word of God that is filled with the matter of the Heaven and the Owner who has sent us. As servants and messengers, we should too, have our own personal matters as living testimonies: as Gentiles who do not have hope but have received grace and salvaltion to be used as His messengers to spread the peace (2 Corinthians 5: 16-18) and our old lives that were filled with wrong deeds are changed to new creation so that people who don’t know about the Lord will see the transformation in our lives and believe in Him. They will be the children of God, the heir of the Heaven and the body of Christ that soon, will be united with Christ the Head. Amen.