The God Who Unites Us

What do your friends say about you? Now, at one level, this question could be, what are they talking about when they talk about you? That's not the question I'm asking, but that would be helpful information. What are your friends actually saying about you? But I think the more important question to ask, what kind of friends do you have? And what does that say about you? What kind of people do you entrust yourself to? What kind of person do you consider a friend? And what kind of a person considers you a friend? What kind of person do you rely upon? What kind of person do you confide in? Who do you prefer to spend time with and why? Ultimately, this is important because we need to realize that our friends promote and produce certain things in us. Are your friends promoting and producing godliness or worldliness? Do they draw you closer to God or do they draw you closer to the world? Let me ask you another question. Do you have real friends? Do you have people that you confide in, that you trust, that you rely upon? Before we ask what kind of friends we have in America, I think we have to ask, do we have real friends? Because, well, America, we have a mindset of independence and autonomy. This is best Evidence by Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of the great thinkers of America, one of the great American thinkers, whose most important piece of literature was called self-reliance. Now, yes, he was talking about how America needs to be independent from Europe and other nations, but he's also talking about the American mentality. He defines the American mentality. Where we should be independent. We don't need other people. He'll say things in his essay such as help comes from our own bosom alone. Very focused on the absolute independence, he actually says we should refuse effort to help and to be helped by others. You need to be independent, you need to be autonomous. That is an American mindset that is not Christian. We are not meant to be lone rangers. We are not meant to be autonomous. God created us to need other people. God created us to need one another. Scripture makes it clear that we need friends. We are not meant to be alone. So here's the pressing question. Do you have friends that are committed to you? Let's take that next step. Do you have friends that are committed to Christ? More so, do you have friends that are committed to your relationship with Christ? You need friends that are committed to you, to Christ, in your relationship with Christ. Because friends can be committed to you for their own well-being. You may have friends that are using you for their own interests. We need to find friends who are committed to the interest of Christ. We need to be friends. that are focused on others for their own interest. Here's the summary of our message this morning, we are called to serve others for their good and the glory of God. We are called to serve others for their good and the glory of God. We've been looking at Colossians. We're concluding now we're looking at chapter four. We'll be looking through verses seven to 18. It's the final greetings. And I believe here we see Paul modeling Friendship. He's modeling what he's been teaching all along that Christ is our head. We are the body. We are to be united now in friendship. He models friendship, love for his brothers and partnership and purpose for the glory of God. Read with me Colossians 4 beginning in verse 7. Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He's a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant. In the Lord, I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts. And with him, Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him in Jesus, who is called Justice. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. A papyrus, who was one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you always struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and Hierapolis. Luke, the beloved physician, greets you, as does Demas. Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, to Nympha and the church in her house. And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea and say to Archippus, see that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord. I, Paul, write this greeting from my own hand. Remember my train my chains grace be with you. The kind of tax we have should always determine the kind of sermon you have. We believe in expository preaching. I am committed to expository preaching. I hope you are committed to expository preaching where the main point of the tax is the main point of the sermon. Well, this morning we have a greeting, so I greet thee. I'll even go a step further. We send Will back to Kalamazoo, Michigan, with greetings to Pastor Rob and the body there at the river. Now that we have fulfilled our duty, we are going to think about application from the text. Well, we're looking at the text and I at one level, we see there's a greeting. But I think we actually see here a description, a modeling of friendship. Paul, who is a pastor and the apostle for the Gentiles, Paul, who is a caring, loving friend, he's modeling for us love for others. We're going to make observations from the text, we're going to follow implications and then application. So it's not a normal sermon where we break up the different parts and we have points and then we follow through. I'm going to make observations from the text and follow them through into applications. There are too many things. We'll be looking at the unity of believers. How we're called to be friends with one another. We'll be looking at friendship and partnership in the gospel. Now, we can break the text up. Verses 7 to 9 is describing those that Paul is sending back to the Church of Colossae. He's sending back Tychicus and Onesimus. Tychicus has this threefold description. A beloved brother, a faithful minister, a fellow servant. Anonymous, well, he is the slave that's being sent back with the letter about him to Philemon. And we have that letter in our in our text. It's one of our inspired writings. The next section, verses 10 through 14, those that send their greetings from Paul, those who know the church there in Laodicea, Hierapolis and Colossae, those were sending their greetings from Paul. And then, Paul, in verses 15 through 16, 15 through 17, he greets those who were in the area. And then verse 18, there's a final greeting, and he asked them to remember his chains, and I don't think we really need to spiritualize chains here. He's literally in chains. He's wanting them to remember that he is a prisoner. We're going to be looking at what friendship looks like. We're going to see here, Paul has a great care and love For these brothers. We're going to be looking at how he has applied this truth to his own life that we have to remember. If we look at this, we know Paul is a loving man because of his other writings. But Paul's not naturally loving. Paul, when his name was Saul, was a murderer. This isn't his natural sinful state we're looking at. We're looking at converted and transformed Paul. We're seeing what happens to a life that's been transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. When you see Christ, you start to see other people differently. What we're seeing here is Paul modeling a Christian love for others. We're seeing Paul model a Christian friendship for others. So before we start looking at what the friendship looks like, we need to really think about how we get there. And here we're going to do a brief summary of what we've already studied in Colossians, because we don't love one another until we love Christ and we don't love Christ until we experience his love towards us. So first, we need to see the basis of friendship and unity, and that is Christ and his love for us. I've summarized the book of Colossians, Christ is all we need, we need to want nothing else. Christ alone has the authority and the power and the love to save us from our sins. We need to stop wanting other saviors. Paul's made it clear, Christ is the head of the church. He's the creator. He's the firstborn from the dead. He has all authority. Now, the church that he's writing to, their particular temptation is to trust angels. They were trusting that angels and their human laws and worshiping angels and following instructions that supposedly came from angels would help them spiritually. It wasn't a trust in Christ alone, but they saw that maybe if we just have angels helping us along with Jesus, then we would be more spiritual. Anytime you try to add to Christ, you lose what Christ produces and provides for you. So by trusting in angels, They're losing the true benefit and the true love that they can experience in Christ. In the day of the Reformation, the real temptation wasn't trusting angels, it was trusting priests. There's always wanting to add something to Christ, wanting to add and supplement Christ. In the day of the Reformation, people were trying to trust the priests to supplement what Christ had provided. Christ wasn't enough, so they needed to trust the human being. Well, I'm thankful the reformers got it right. It is in Christ alone that we are saved. Today, we still want to trust something. As I explained, we don't see our need for someone else. We think we have it in our gut. Our problem is that we're trying to trust someone else. Our problem is that we try to trust in how good we are. We trust in our record of attendance, our record of service, our record of long standing or maybe a prayer you prayed years ago that. There's not been much since. We don't trust in what we've done, we trust in Christ and what he's done for us. Paul addresses that particular temptation, it's not what you do not handle, it's not what you do not touch, it's not what you do not taste, it's what Christ has accomplished for you. So what has Christ accomplished? Salvation. Christ has given us forgiveness from our sins. Christ has forgiven us for our sins. Christ is the perfect man. God himself looked down and saw that we were hopeless. We were helpless. We were unable to protect, provide for ourselves. We were unable to forgive ourselves, to remove our sin. So the Father sent His Son. God Himself took upon His own nature a perfect human nature. Except for it was without sin. Jesus Christ was the perfect man. He lived obediently to the Father, as we read from John 15. He did everything the Father commanded. Therefore, He was perfect. He was innocent. And that perfect, innocent life is very important. Because Jesus is going to die on the cross. Jesus was sent to save sinners. Jesus was sent to live that perfect human life so that he could die as a sinner. We are all sinners. We don't listen to the Father. We don't obey the Father. We don't follow the Father. We do what we think is best. We sin. We rebel. We're offensive to God. So Christ died in our place, the wrath of God that was meant for us, the wrath of God from his justice was upon us until we believe in Jesus. And then Jesus has taken that wrath away from us. The innocent one has died as if a sinner so that we, the sinners, we receive life, we receive forgiveness. He chose to suffer for our sins. One of the great metaphors, one of the great declarations from Colossians, we have been delivered from the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved son. We've been delivered from death, we've been delivered from wrath and judgment, we've been delivered into love and light, but it's only if we are delivered in and with the son. See, Jesus, as the head, he alone unites us. If we have gathered for any other reason than to worship Jesus Christ, we're not the church. If we are here for any other reason than to come together, worship Christ, hear from him, obey him, to love him, and to unite together under him, we're not a church. We're a social club. We're only the church when we're the body united under his headship. Jesus is our greatest friend again, looking at John 15. Here is the greatest love. Here is the best friend. He lays down his life. He becomes our substitute. Oftentimes I talk about our greatest enemy as sin and death, and at one level, that's true. Your greatest enemy is actually God. That's difficult to think about, because typically we think of our enemy, we think of something wrong with them. When we have an enemy at war, we always want to think of what's wrong with them. Whenever we talk about God as our enemy, we need to make sure we know there is nothing wrong with God. He's perfectly good. But he's our enemy because of what's wrong with us. We don't obey him. We don't live as obedient creatures. We don't listen to him. We don't follow him. He is our enemy because he is just and good and he must punish sin. And we're sinners. Jesus Christ came to die in our place so that God can be both just in punishing sin and yet declare us forgiven. He's our best friend because he does for us what no other friend can do. He lays down his life for us. He forgives us of our sins. One thing to meditate upon today is the fact that you get to call God friend. You get to call God, he he's chosen to befriend you if you're in Christ. You should be declared his enemy. You should receive his wrath. But he calls you his friend. Secondly, we can see Jesus is our big brother. He is the son who is the rightful heir to all the inheritance of the kingdom. We have been delivered from the domain of darkness are delivered into the kingdom of the beloved son, and we now get to share in his inheritance. He's our big brother because he shares one of the rights and privileges of the son that we now get to call God father. He shares the privileges of sonship so that we now speak to the father face to face when we pray. He is our big brother because he saves us who we were once rebels and enemies are now brought into the family of God. If you look at our text this morning. What Christ has done for us in his love, what Christ has done for us in his friendship, what Christ has done for us in his brotherhood. This is the basis for us being friends and a family united together. We are friends because of what God has done for us. We are friends together because of what Christ has done for us. So, our first application of the text. And really, I'm just looking here and I'm seeing Paul loves his friends. And it's because of the love that Christ has given to him and he loves his brothers. He loves the friends of God. We are called to be friends. We are called to be friends. This will be no surprise to many of you have been with me for the last couple of years. I learned to appreciate friendship on a whole new level when I started reading Augustine. Many of you know, I have a great fondness for Augustine. And if you read his confessions. Friendship comes off the page constantly. He's a man who always had friends. He saw the great value in friends. One instance before he's a Christian. He talks about stealing some pears. This is one of the really important scenes in the confessions, because there's two things he wants to accomplish with this pear story. One, he wants to show you the depravity of our souls. He wants to show you how wicked we are and perverse because he confesses he wasn't hungry when he sold the pears. He had better pears at home. He sold them for the pure delight in stealing pears. He's showing how wicked we are and that we delight in sin. We can see the logic of some sin if someone's hungry and they steal, but here he's actually revealing that we sin because we love sin. The second thing we see from the pair story is he talks about how his friends steal the prayers. The pairs are one of the reasons he stole the prayers. He sees the influence of others upon him. He sees that bad company corrupted his character, which wasn't good to begin with, but further. He sees the power of influence of others. He always has friends with him throughout all of his travels. He always has friends. Let's get to the good part of the friendship. Now, I think most of us probably know the conversion story of Augustine. He goes outside, he's praying, God's been working on him, it's clear that God's calling him, and he hears a young child singing a song, tole lege, tole lege, take and read, take and read. So he goes and he reads Romans and he's converted. But he sets this up so beautifully. Preceding that conversion, he tells of three different stories about how three different friends told him about Christ. He shares all the different testimonies of other friends finally led him and opened up his heart to receive Christ, the best friend. Friends had a very important influence upon him, and he sees the value of friendship. It's important for us to be challenged with the idea that we need others because, as I said, we are self-reliant. And being a self-reliant Christian is an oxymoron. You can't be that way. You can't be a Christian and be self-reliant. You can say, well, I rely upon God. Yes, but God has built you and created you to rely upon his other believers. You cannot call Christ your head if you are not committed to his body. He's called us to himself and therefore he's called us to one another. One of the most interesting statements in our text this morning comes from verse 10, as we think about friendship. He mentions here Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. Now, we've seen Mark before, if we think about the Bible temporally, this is taking place about 12 years after the event of Acts 15, verses 37 through 39. In Acts 15, Barnabas and Paul are about to go on another mission trip and Barnabas wants to bring his cousin Mark. And Paul says, well, I'm not taking him again. Last time he fled. Paul's got some bitterness towards Mark because he abandoned him. And then this disagreement about Mark and if they should take him led what our translation says, led to a strong disagreement, a sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas. In Acts 15, we see a divide. We see an argument, we see friendships severed, hindered. Here in this passage, we We see reconciliation has taken place. Now, Paul doesn't talk about the reconciliation, but we we see what happens in Acts 15. Twelve years later, those who had a sharp disagreement, they're reconciled. Mark and Barnabas are blessings to Paul. He considers them friends. A reconciliation has taken place. Now, this is one of the reasons we're called to be friends. Because finding forgiveness in friends is one of the best ways to discover and experience the sweetness of forgiveness that we find in Christ. Yes, to know that we are forgiven in Christ is the most important knowledge we have. It's the most important relationship we have. But having others. In your life. Experiencing forgiveness from others is a way that Christ intends us to experience his forgiveness. So the church is supposed to be a unique community. Most communities, most most groups, they want to admit others and accept them as they are, and we want to love and welcome all types of people, but we do not accept sinners for sin. We appreciate you, we welcome you, but we do not expect sin to linger in your life. When you come into the Church of Christ, we are trying to encourage you, admonish you, warn you of sin and its danger. The goal of becoming a Christian is to unite with others so that you are cleansed and purified. That's what Paul had said his purpose has been in Colossians, to present you blameless, without blemish. The goal of coming together as a church is that we accept one another, we know that each other are sinners and we're seeking to be purified by one another. When we have had someone wrong us or sin against us, we must be quick to forgive. Bitterness is lingering. Hatred is looming in our hearts. When someone sins against us, we must be quick to remember the great forgiveness we received from Christ. We must be quick to share that forgiveness with others. Now, this is scary business. We've talked about this a number of times. I think it's extremely important for us to know. Confessing sin and forgiving sin is scary business because you're entrusting yourself to one another. We need to be bold in confessing sin, we need to be bold in forgiving sin. If you think more about friendship, there's a secular philosopher that I think speaks a lot of truth about friendship, and we're going to think about that and apply it. This philosopher says that true friendship can only happen between two good men. This is a quote, those whose actions and lives leave no question as to their honor, purity, equity and liberality, who are free of greed, lust and violence and who have the courage of their convictions. Those are the only people who can really have friendships. Because a friendship is a union built upon virtue. You have to be able to share your experience. You have to be able to share your purposes. You have to have a mutual goodwill and affection. This is a very high standard for who can be a friend. And well, if we're truly honest with ourselves, only Christ can be that kind of friend to us. Only Christ is without question pure in his motives, his equity. He's free of greed and lust and violence. So Christ is that best friend. But then we are called to be friends with one another. For a Christian, this means that we must be submitted to Christ with one another. We must be committed to his laws, his commands and his way. So for a Christian, if we're going to have a united base for our friendship, first, it's the law of Christ. This is what our friendship is built upon. What he has said is good and right. This is what we say is the basis for how we should be conducting ourselves as friends. Secondly, the purpose of Christ needs to be the focus of our friendship. It's not on the worldly culture that says it's our immediate gratification and our worldly lusts that need to be fulfilled. No, our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever and to do that together. To be committed to one another to the point that we are committed to loving one another and have each other love God more. Again, our friendships need to be based upon the forgiveness of Christ. That's what we're together. We've all experienced the forgiveness of Christ. We need to be sharing that forgiveness. This means we confess our sin. When you confess sin to someone. You're modeling a hatred for sin. It is a spiritual discipline that is good to do, because when you confess sin to someone, you are modeling for them that you take sin seriously. It's destructive power and it's looming death. It is good to confess sin to one another because it models a hatred for sin. When you confess your sin, it's also demonstrating a faith in God. It's demonstrating a faith in the forgiving power of the gospel, and that's a way to encourage one another by confessing your sin. Thirdly, when you confess your sin, you're demonstrating a trust for the brothers and sisters that are also Christ. When you confess sin, you're actually able to follow Christ or God and God by using your evil for good. Your sin is evil. When you confess, then you're actually able to use your evil for good because you're encouraging others by modeling a hatred for sin, demonstrating a faith for faith in God and demonstrating a trust in others. So we're called to be friends. The second thing we see, the second observation is, is just a simple phrase again. The point is this, we are called to be one with others. We are called to be one with others, and here we see Paul making this. It's easy to read over, but in verse nine he says of Anisimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. Verse 12, Epaphras, who is One of you. Now, if you think about this. He's saying, and this is he's a dear brother of mine. Paul would say that, actually, if we look to the letter of Philemon, he describes Onesimus as my son. I fathered him. He describes him as he's sending him back as part of me. Paul loves Onesimus, but he says he's one of you. Paul's recognizing that there is a universal church, that he is a brother in Christ with Anisimus, but he's recognizing that Anisimus is one of you. He's under the authority of the church in Colossae. He's united with those brothers for the purpose of glorifying Christ. The one of you is really the static description of the one another's. Throughout Paul's letters, he always commands one another's love, one another, submit to one another, pray for another, sing with one another. Those are the one another's that define the community and what we're supposed to be doing together. I think Paul here by saying he's one of you, he's recognizing that he's part of this particular church. He's assuming what I think all of scripture assumes, that every believer in Christ is part of a body of Christ. We cannot confess Christ to be our head and not be part of a body. Now this doesn't mean that we can't fellowship with other Christians. I see Christians here that are parts of other bodies. You're not one of us, you're one of them, but we're all under Christ and we're going to fellowship with you. But what it means is that there's a particular commitment that we have together when we are committed to one another in church membership. There are a few things we're called together for. Let me walk through some particular applications of what it means to be one with one another. First, being part of a church membership is important for our assurance. A lot of Christians wrestle with confidence in Christ. I know there's many people right here, right now, who are wrestling with assurance in Christ. And one of the things Satan wants you to do is do that by yourself. To be self-reliant, to try to answer that question by yourself. The brothers and the sisters that you've committed to, God has designed us to be an assurance to you. See, oftentimes when we're wrestling with assurance, it's because Satan is overwhelming us with guilt. Guilt over real sin, but not real guilt because Christ has forgiven us of that sin. So Satan wants you to think about all your sin and how guilty you are by yourself, where really what you need to start doing is confessing that sin and letting other brothers and sisters give you a confident declaration that Christ is able to save you and forgive you of that sin. And more so, whenever you get into that kind of a doubting, it's a spiral. You're not able to see any evidence of grace whatsoever. All you see is your sin. You need other brothers and sisters to come alongside of you and encourage you, pointing out evidences of grace that you're blind to because you have been so deceived by Satan. You need brothers and sisters who know you well enough to encourage you, to counsel you. So the first reason we need to join together in particular bodies is for assurance we know one another and are able to encourage one another. The second reason is so we can be harmonized. The spirit gives numerous gifts. Only Jesus had all the gifts. No one in this body has every gift. God has put this together as a body with multiple people all having different gifts so that we can complement one another. So that we can harmonize and work together for the glory of God, we must all be seeking to use our gifts under the heads of Christ for the benefit of one another. But we're one body because there's multiple members of that body, there's multiple parts of that body all having its unique gift. And so we must learn to harmonize. Third. The third reason we are called to be in particular bodies is for discipleship. Again, discipleship isn't done by yourself. Yes, I hope you're reading Scripture by yourself. I hope you're praying in your closet. But there wasn't a printing press when the Bible was written for hundreds of years. Most people came and heard Scripture read. I believe Scripture was actually written to be read aloud, not silent. We should be coming together and hearing the word of God together. We should be coming together to pray together. Discipleship isn't something you just do on your own. Discipleship is something we must do together. And one of the best ways to do discipleship together is to have accountability friends. A good friend of mine has written a piece on accountability. I'm going to summarize what he has said. Accountability provides structure. This is why we need accountability partners. Accountability provides structure because life can be so busy. It is helpful to have a person or a group of people who you regularly discuss life's important matters with. You need to have people that are regularly in your life that you were discussing the most important matters with. Accountability provides guidance. Practical personal input is needed if we're going to live after Christ. Accountability provides assistance. This is more than input, this is this is help. We need help and we need to be building relationships so that when we need help, someone is there who knows us and knows how to provide that particular help. Accountability provides encouragement. This is nice, it's not all about being rebuked. It's not all about being warned and challenged and admonished, it's about being built up. We need to be hearing the promises of God and the hope of God and the love of God constantly so that we need that challenge. That challenge comes from someone who has also spoken to us with the sweetness of the gospel of love. And then, of course, accountability provides a warning. They can see when you are not yourself, they can see when you have stopped. Loving Christ, when you stop living according to his word. So, the real practical challenge here is who have you let keep you accountable? Who have you given the freedom and the authority to ask you hard questions? Finally, our last observation. Christians are called to serve faithfully. We see this in verse 7. Tychicus is described as a beloved brother and a faithful minister, a fellow servant, Even more so, in verse 17, and say to Archippus, see that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord. Now, here's the Apostle Paul. The Apostle to the Gentiles, the man who wrote most of our epistles in the New Testament. A man with great authority, a great privilege, a high calling. And he's calling his other men. What a slave, socially. His fellow ministers, his fellow servants. Another error, I think, that has been prominent in the church is to think that there is a hierarchy of calling. We talk about this with vocation. There's not a hierarchy in service. Every service is glorious if we're using it to glorify God. Every particular gift is glorious if we're using it to glorify God. There are many members, as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 12. Some of them appear to be more obvious, but all are good. All are designed and provided by God. Paul goes into great detail in 1 Corinthians 12 with the feet. Feet, we think of gross in our day, but they were much worse in the day of Paul. They didn't have shoes, they wore sandals. They walked on dirt roads. They share those roads with animals. The feet were gross. But Paul says that the feet, the part of that body, that is an important and essential part of the body. We are all essential to God's work. We're all called to be servants together. We can't think that some callings are greater than others. Every calling, every vocation, every gifting is glorious. Jesus came. And he came as a servant. He came and he washed his disciples' feet. We are called to be fellow servants with Paul. We are called to model the servanthood of Christ. We are called to use our giftings faithfully in the service of the King. If we're going to be good friends, we have to be seeking to fulfill God's calling in us, to fulfill the ministry entrusted to us. Now, how do you know what your ministry is? What's another reason you have a particular body? People can tell you what your ministry is. People can tell you what you're good at, which you may not realize. People can talk to you and observe you and task you and and challenge you. This is your gifting. This is your calling. This is how you can serve the body. Again. The challenge from Paul that every service is glorious. if we use it to glorify God. So, friends, we are a body united under the Headship of Christ. He has called us in forgiveness, so we are called to forgive one another. He has called us to unity, so we are united with one another. He has called us for His purpose and His pleasure to delight in Him and to love Him, because He has first loved us. And therefore, we are called to love one another. Let us seek to be friends with one another so that we can experience in each other the friendship of God. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we thank You that You have called us Your friend. We who were once enemies have been called friends because of the love of Christ, the power of His Gospel, the power of His death, the power of His life. Lord, help this body to be united As your friends and friends with one another, help us, Lord, to be committed to the well-being of each other. For your glory. For the spread of your kingdom. In your holy name we pray, Amen.