BE AN EPISTLE OF CHRIST
By Pastor Paulus Budiono
Lemah Putro, Sunday, June 23, 2019
Shalom,
May Jesus be with us wherever we are, so we can live in a peaceful/shalom atmosphere.
What did the Lord want from us through the Epistle of Colossians that we have discussed for months? Before ending his writing, the Apostle Paul wrote, "All my affairs shall Tychicus make known unto you, the beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord: whom I have sent you for this very purpose, that ye may know our state, and that he may comfort your hearts; together with Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things that [are done] here." (Colossians 4:7-9)
The Apostle Paul was imprisoned and could not do much for the Colossians he led. Therefore, he sent two messengers from Rome – Tychicus and Onesimus – who were faithful and loved by Paul, to have a quite long journey (± 1600 km) bringing the letter containing his testimony for the Colossians. We could imagine how hard the journey was for that time, the difficult road, the transportation and communication tools did not go as smooth and sophisticated as those in these days.
What was the task of Tychicus and Onesimus as the messengers of the Apostle Paul? They were not preaching but telling about the conditions of Paul, such as: why he was imprisoned and the reasons.
The Apostle Paul did not send someone at random to become a messenger for it is related to his good name. Generally, a recommendation letter from the sender is needed so that the messenger sent could be trusted and welcomed well by the receiver. Paul considered these two men (Tychicus and Onesimus) faithful and valued them as beloved brethren and fellow servants. He wished that the Colossians would accept them with open hands when they arrived (Colossians 4:10). His trust in them was proven with the Colossians finaly canonized to be the Word of God to give exhortation, rebuke and comfort for us nowadays.
Who are Tychicus and Onesimus? They are not famous and their track records are not exposed clearly, but they brought their personal lives as messengers. If they had not been in one accord and turned their backs on each other on their journey, the Colossians wouldn’t have received Paul’s epistles. They obviously must have supported one another and not become a one-man show.
Application: we should be ready to be faithful messengers bringing the Name of the Lord through the testimony of our lives that can be seen and read by people around us. To be the ‘epistle of Christ’ doesn’t mean to be great and famous, but let us be willing, faithful and cooperative.
The Apostle Paul didn’t write to the Colossians only, but also to other congregations. What was his message to the Corinthians? 2 Corinthians 3:1-3 write, “Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you? Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men; being made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in tables [that are] hearts of flesh.”
The Apostle Paul did not show up as a one-man show, but he was accompanied by his fellow ministries like Peter, Apolos, etc. What is the proof? He told the Corinthians, “you are the epistle of Christ written by us (more than one man), with the Spirit of the living God, in the hearts of man.”
Introspection: What is inside our heart? If our body is the temple of God, what is inside it? Surely the atmosphere in a bar and karaoke would be far different from good household spheres. We are the epistle of Christ served by the writing of the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Peter and other apostles inspired by the Holy Spirit that our household will be in a good order. For instance, the Bible doesn’t cover up the previous condition of the Corinthians which was divided (1 Corinthians 3:1-4); they were even living immorally – homosexuals, lesbian, adultery, and so on (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). But the Word of God ‘ordered’ and transformed them to be spiritually mature ready to be betrothed to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2). They were also reminded about the preaching of the death of Christ and His second coming when they were taking the Lord’s Communion (1 Corinthians 11:26). It is far different from worldly philosophies that only offered good things; the Word of God exposed honesty – everything was created very good but men fell into sin and destruction happened – Adam (husband) easily blamed Eve (wife); Cain murdered Abel, his own brothers, and so on.
To be able to be accepted as the government officials or in private sectors, normally a good track record is needed. If the track record is bad, the person will be disqualified. But the Bible gives examples of people who have bad track records or unclear ones, yet they were chosen to be the epistles of Christ, they are:
- Saul/Paul confessed himself as the chief of sinners – before knowing Christ he was so cruel, arrogant, fierce but transformed by grace (1 Timothy 1:13-15).
Learning: If we are now receiving God’s mercy to be an epistle of Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit, don’t forget our past life that we were bad and cruel.
- Tychicus and Onesimus are only written in some verses in the epistle of Colossians (Colossians 4:7-9) and are not mentioned anymore afterward.
Implication: If the Lord wants to send us, accept His offer, don’t refuse it. However, if we are no longer used, don’t be angry, offended and disappointed, or even move out from the church.
Onesimus and Tychicus had different backgrounds. Onesimus was an escaping slave from his master’s house, Philemon, after stealing money (Philemon 1:18), but then he encountered Paul who shared the same prison with him. Under Paul’s guidance Onesimus, who had been unprofitable, now experienced transformation to become profitable and was even considered as Paul’s child (Philemon 1:9-12).
These two men became the messengers of the Apostle Paul to bring a greatly profitable epistle to the Colossians. Through the Apostle Paul’s epistles that came in exhortation, the Colossians were changed to be more beautiful. For example, a wife could be submissive to her husband; a husband loved his wife; a child honored his parents, a father didn’t hurt his child’s heart, and so on.
We must be sure that how awful our old life was, we are transformed by His grace through the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit to be the epistles of Christ.
Not many writings talk about Tychicus, but he seemed to be in a better condition than Onesimus because the Bible doesn’t write a bad track record of him. He was sent to go with Onesimus to see the Colossians – a spiritual person will be willing to be sent for spiritual matters. Aren’t we bought by Christ at a price that we no longer become the bondservants of men but Christ’s bondservants (1 Corinthians 7:22-23)?
Notice that once we commited a crime (lying, stealing, cheating, murdering, etc.) we bore the bad stygma for the rest of our lives because people will continue recalling the crime we had done. Did Tychicus also do the same thing and not trust Onesimus who stole his master’s money? No, he believed that Onesimus had repented and wouldn’t repeat his crime anymore.
Application: Eventhough we used to have bad track record, we must be able to prove our life transformation that people could no longer accuse our crime. We must admit that we often cannot be a living testimony because we refuse to be rebuked and corrected in our weaknesses/shortcomings by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. Don’t be afraid with the shortcomings or weaknesses in our personal life, marriage and family! Transformation only happens in Christ. Wasn’t it God Himself who saved Adam and Eve’s marriage from being broken after they fell into sin (Genesis 3)? Remember, marriage is the initiation key of a family, society, even to a country whether it’s big or small!
When did the name of Tychicus occur? The Apostle Paul was in Greece for three months and was about to sail to Syria, but the Jewish were plotting to murder him. Then he decided to return through Macedonia together with Sopater, son of Pyrrus fro Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Tessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia (Acts 20:1-5).
It happened that the Gospel spreading was not an easy journey, but marked with the suffering of the cross and even a death threat. Tychicus was involved in that thrilling situation. Tychicus was further asked by Paul to accompany Onesimus who had bad background but used by the Lord after experiencing life transformation to be the messengers who comforted the Colossians (Colossians 4:8).
Introspection: What about us being in a free condition, not uder any pressure or death threat? Have we delivered peace tidings and comforted those who haven’t known the Lord yet and told them that salvation is only in Christ Jesus?
Hopefully after we receive salvation from Jesus Christ, we won’t feel satisfied with ourselves, but willing to be used as epistles of Christ marked with blood to be His beautiful messengers. Our lives being infilled with the Word of God could be living testimonies who have ‘ears, hearts and mind’ of Christ to be able to listen to complaints and others’ critics. Also have sympathy when seeing their sufferings and comfort those in sorrows so that they could witness Jesus in us and His Name is glorified. Amen.
Video ibadah ini dapat Anda lihat di sini Ibadah Umum - 23 Juni 2019 - Pdt. Paulus Budiono