Colossians 4:17-18

The book of Colossians chapter 4 verses 17 and 18 for our text and study this morning. And say to Archipus, take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it. The salutation by the hand of me, Paul, remember my bonds, grace be with you. Amen. May God bless to us His sacred and holy word this morning. At one point in Pilgrim’s progress, you remember, Mr. Christian and his fellow companion, find the road to the celestial city extremely difficult. The road was full of rough and rugged stones, and their feet began to hurt and become very sore. And after traversing this rough road for some time, they decided that they were going to take bypass meadow because the green grass is much easier on the feet. And it was nice and soft. Sadly, that took them astray, remember, and they ended up at Doubting Castle and had to face the giant of despair. John Bunyan was expressing through this teaching here, this picture, the Christian life is difficult at times, and suffering may be involved. In this final section of the closing salutation of the book of Colossians, Paul mentions the hardships faced by himself and also by himself and also by a man named Archipas. They’re on a rocky road, and it is somewhat difficult. Both men were engaged in serving the Lord, but the road was difficult. These closing salutations found at the end of the apostolic epistles shouldn’t be treated lightly by us. There is much as part of the Word of God as John 316. And we need to look at this. and they certainly convey Christian truth that will be beneficial for our lives. Let’s look here first at Archipus, the first individual mentioned here. And say to Archipus in verse 17, take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord that thou fulfill it. Now we don’t know a lot about the man Archipus. We know that he’s mentioned in the book of Philemon as Paul’s fellow soldier. Presently, it appears that he is ministering the gospel at Colosset. Now, perhaps this is because their regular minister, Apaphrus, was at Rome with the Apostle, as we’ve read in this epistle. But Paul is concerned that Archipus here may become weary in the work. and not be as diligent as he should be in carrying it out. Now, this admonition here in our text is not to say that he has done anything wrong here. It’s more like a warning. We might say a preventive maintenance in this situation. Preventive admonition. In other words, don’t slack off. Don’t let anything deter you from continuing to do the work of the ministry. Now, as we look at this, let me make a couple of observations. And the first is this. The best of ministers may need to be admonished to discharge their office faithfully. We look at this text, and we should realize that the work of the ministry is often difficult and demanding and taxes the energy and the strength of the minister. No matter how good his intentions may be, there is a natural desire at some point to escape the burden of having to care and oversee the lives of the people of God, care for and oversee their lives. One could fall slack in its life. duty and need to be stirred up to be more diligent. Ministers have much to do. And sometimes even after all the work that they do, they see little fruit for their efforts. And they become discouraged, and it’s easy to despise the day of small things. And we’re told in scripture not to do that, but it’s easy to do that. And when there is opposition, when there’s persecution, there’s a temptation not to endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. And it’s up to you, I say that to you as the people of God, to encourage your minister, to encourage those who are preaching, and if necessary, even to admonish them in love. To preach the word, to be able to be. instant in season and out of season to reprove, to exhort with all long suffering and doctrine, to endure afflictions, do the work of evangelist, as 2 Timothy Chapter 4 indicates to us. I read a story about a team of horses, and they were pulling a very heavy load of logs, and when they came to a steep hill, and the horses struggled and strained every muscle, but they just couldn’t get up the hill. So the driver took off some of the logs and tried to get the horses to go and they wouldn’t move. Would not even budge. So he took some more logs off. Still wouldn’t move. Eventually, he had to take all the logs off before they would actually move and try to go up the hill. Once the horses became discouraged, they gave up, and they didn’t want to really try anymore until the load was empty. Now, human beings can be like that. A minister can become so discourage. that he stops trying to fulfill his calling. He comes to a steep place, and the burden of the ministry is heavy, and it overwhelms him. You remember after Elijah’s showdown with the prophets of bail on Mount Carmel, that he’s threatened with death by Queen Jezebel, and he flees for his life. And up to this point, Elijah has been a very faithful minister. I mean, he has stood out alone practically in carrying on the work and service of the Lord. But now, under Jezebel’s threats, he deserts his post as the Lord’s prophet. At the time when he’s most needed, when the people of God most need him, now that he has revealed the true God to them on Mount Carmel, they need him. And what happens is he flees. He goes into the wilderness. He goes way far away to Mount Carmel. Horib and he’s found in a cave, hiding out. As far as he’s concerned, he’s done with the ministry. I’ve tried. I’m the only one left. No one else seems to be helping me. I’m done. But God has to go to him and admonish him. What are you doing here? You know, I’ve given you work to do. You need to get back to the land and back to work and complete the task I’ve given you. But the best of ministers may need to be admonished to discharge their office faithfully. Notice something else here. That faithfully discharging the office of the minister requires you to recognize several things. One is this. Your calling is a ministry. It is a laborous service. Notice he says here, take he to the ministry. The ministry is not about seeking. dominion and greatness and the honor of men. The ministry involves seeking the spiritual good of others. It’s not for someone who is self-centered. It’s not for someone who wants to exalt themselves. My friends, the Bible says, study the show thyself a workman that rightly divides the word of truth. That you don’t need to be ashamed. It’s a work. It’s a service. You remember, Christ is our example. The Lord humbled himself. He came in the form of a servant. He came to serve his people, even to the point of sacrificing himself. This is the mentality the minister has to have. So he talks about taking heat to the ministry. This is a work. A service. Notice something else. You’re answerable to Jesus. Christ from whom you have received the ministry. You notice he says, take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord. If you look at the book of Hebrews in chapter 13 and verse 17, we have this phrase that’s used here regarding the elders of the church and those who would minister. It says, obey them that have the rule over you and submit themselves. So they watch for your souls as they. they that must give account that they may do it with joy, not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Ministers here are accountable to Christ. Ministers are shepherds. Christ is said indeed in Scripture, the chief shepherd. And so they are accountable to him, ultimately. So here you are, you are entrusted to watch over Christ’s sheep. and you must answer to the one who gave you the task. You received it from the Lord. Like Jacob, who was keeping watch over Laban’s flocks, and he had to give an account of some wild beast came along and killed one of these sheep, or something happened to it. He’s responsible. Well, here in the spiritual realm, we look at this shepherd. He is responsible to participate. the sheep from the predators and there can’t be any carelessness on our part. If Christ’s sheep are sickly or diseased or go astray, the minister is responsible. The blood is on our hands. So you’re answerable to Christ from whom you receive the ministry. And notice you have an obligation to fulfill the ministry entrusted to you. He says, fulfill it. You have a task. Now carry it out. Now, if you look at the book of 1 Timothy chapter 4, notice what Paul says to Timothy about the ministry here, verses 14 to 16 of chapter 4, 1 Timothy. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things. holy to them that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and under the doctrine. Continue in them. Or in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. It’s always the concern of the minister to execute the work of the ministry. He has to give himself to the work. To the study of this doctrine of scripture. To the teaching of the flock. We must not be careless. and we must not neglect the gift that God has given us. Men are gifted for the ministry. They’re not, you know, they don’t have this naturally. God has given men the ability to teach. And therefore they must fulfill that ministry, carrying out using those gifts, carrying out that duty. We must persevere through all the hardships, not abandon Christ’s flaws. He must do the work of evangelists and make full proof of thy ministry. So we see all of these things with regard to Archipus in our tax tier. This is what he’s to do. It is not an easy task. He’s got hardship. It’s a rough road, but he’s encouraged here. Indeed, he is admonished. Fulfill the task. Don’t slack off. The second person, we say, listed here is Paul in verse 18. We see the salutation by the hand of me, Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen. So Paul’s personal salutation is penned here in the first part of verse 18. Now after his secretary, he usually used somebody to write down the epistle. He dictated it evidently to them. the apostle Paul would pen a final salutate. He would, in his own handwriting, put this statement down, the salutation by the hand of me, Paul. He’s personally writing it out. Now, this was done because it was an easy task to be an apostle, because people were trying to counterfeit letters to the churches to sway this. them against the truth and toward false teaching. So this was to prevent deception. People sending counterfeit letters out. Supposedly by Paul. Forged epistles to draw people away from God’s truth. So this was a wise countermeasure that Paul would use at the end of the epistle. He would sign it in his own name to prove the genuineness of the letter. Now notice this this morning, Satan’s malice is such that even when the apostles were alive, he was trying to corrupt the scriptures. Think about that. They’re not even dead yet. As soon as he writes him, at the same time, he’s trying to undermine him. Even today, you have to contend with forged scriptures. We have the apocrypha. We have those who have written or talked about the so-called lost books of the Bible and so forth. All of this is to undermine the authority and the truthfulness of the genuine scripture. This is the way Satan operates. Satan wants to sow confusion and lead people astray to infiltrate the church with false doctrine. For example, in the Apocrypha, you read about praying for the dead in the book of 2nd Maccabees chapter 12. A concept utterly forward to the scriptures. The righteous who are perfected in heaven don’t need your prayers. And the wicked who are in hell don’t need your prayers either because they cannot escape. They can’t be helped by them. And yet we see the Roman Catholic Church has promoted this serious error for centuries. It’s a big money maker for it. God has sufficiently marked his scripture to distinguish it from all the counterfeits. Now we don’t have Paul’s actual signature. But we do have carefully copied manuscripts preserved by God’s providence so as to be authentic reproductions of the originals. It’s sort of like photographic copies today. If you took a photographic copy of a will and you had it stored away and you lost the original will, the courts will actually take and accept the photographic copy because it’s a copy of the original. And they will accept that. And in the same way we should see, even though we don’t have the original scriptures that were penned by Paul, we have copies of them. and the word has been preserved by the Lord. Now, since the scriptures are inspired by God himself, they are what we call self-authenticating. Now, we don’t have Paul’s handwriting, you know, handwriting, but the scriptures themselves are self-authenticating. The scriptures speak to your soul in a manner that none of the counterfeit scriptures could possibly do. God himself speaks through the genuine scripture. It is God’s voice. to your soul when the true scriptures are read and taught. Remember what God said to Jeremiah, the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. So when we think about Paul, and we think about these epistles, it is God putting his words in the mouth of Paul, or in the pan of Paul here, writing through Paul. Or what he’s dictated. And so we see the ultimately the true mark of genuine scripture is that it’s self-authenticated. You can be assured that what is the word of God by inward testimony of the Holy Spirit on your heart regarding the truth of Scripture. My sheep hear my voice. And when your genuine scripture is spoken, God’s voice reaches the sheep. His sheep will not hear the voice of strangers. because they’re counterfeit. So Paul’s personal salutation, this is why he wrote it. Here he is a rocky road. Yeah, it’s hard enough to establish churches, but Satan is busy trying to undermine him in every way possible. Notice something else here. Paul’s bonds are spoken off. Remember my bonds, he says. Here’s another Rocky’s part. He’s in jail. He’s in jail for preaching the gospel. We see the example of patience in Christians in Christ, Christian fortitude of Paul here. Paul would have them remember what he is suffering for the cause of Jesus Christ. Paul was called to this. I find it interesting when you read about Paul being called to the ministry and entering into it, when God spoke to Ananias, who was going to go go and take the blindness away from Paul, you remember when he went to Damascus, God said to Ananias about this, he said, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my namesake. Acts chapter 9, verses 15 and 16. He’s going to have to suffer to carry out the work of the ministry. Here’s an example of it. And so he patiently patiently endures the the affliction here of being jailed, using his time wisely to instruct and encourage the people of God through these epistles that he writes. He doesn’t become downcast. He doesn’t become discouraged and give up in despair, but he accepts it as part of God’s purpose for his life. He has an upbeat spirit here. He will wait until God delivers him. Either he gets out of of jail, or he dies. He’s martyred for the cause of Christ. As he told the Philippians, for I am in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to part and be with Christ, which is far better, nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. I don’t know what God wants me to do at this point, but whatever he decides, I’m ready. If I have to be marty, I have to be martyr. What an example, though, of patiently dealing with what God brought into his life. There are many who suffer for the cause of the gospel who should remember Paul here. Let us learn from Paul, not to be overwhelmed by adversity. Notice secondly here under this same heading. Here we have encouragement for prayer on his behalf. Remember my bonds. Now why does he tell him this? well, it’ll pray for me. He’s already mentioned this earlier in the chapter in verse 3. Remember, he said here, with all praying also for us that God would open unto us a door of witness to speak the mystery of Christ for which I am also in bonds. Paul is a man of like passions, as you and I. We might think, well, the apostle doesn’t really need prayer. He’s the, you know, He’s the spiritual giant here in the room. No, he does need prayer. He’s not immune to the miseries and Greece of life. He needs the prayers of the people of God to uphold him. Then he might honor Christ, that he might fulfill his duty and his ministry. Nothing is more bitter to the afflicted than the suspect that everybody has forgotten them in their midst of suffering. Just knowing that other believers are diligently praying for you and enables you to overcome these kinds of things by God’s help. It lifts your spirit. The people of God are pleading on your behalf. They’re making intercession, and God is well pleased with that intercession and will not ignore it. It’s to encourage prayer on his behalf. It’s also to help us to esteem the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul’s request indicates here how valuable, how precious the gospel is. That Paul’s suffer shame and imprisonment, perhaps even death, because he preaches the gospel. It must be worthy of that. It must be something vital and important that he would go this far. To go to jail, it would even be martyred if necessary. If the gospel was not that valuable, if it was not like treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great price, no one would endure endure suffering for its sake. But if we esteem the gospel as the power of God under salvation, we see its value. It’s not popular today to proclaim the gospel that Paul preached, but consider it as precious. Consider it as something we must never abandon. This is the most glorious gospel that we could possibly hope to have. That there’s salvation in Christ, esteem the gospel. And lastly, he does this to excite Christian charity toward him as well. You should love and appreciate those who run the front line for Christ who are enduring such suffering in order to preach the gospel. We should comfort them. We should assist them in any way we possibly can’t to enable them to carry out their work. We should consider what they may need and how we can supply their needs, how we could encourage them. What word of comfort we can provide for them. This is remembering those who are suffering for the cause of Christ. Paul’s bonds here are mentioned. And then we see Paul’s final blessing. In verse 18c, grace be with you. Amen. You see this very commonly given in every epistle of Paul. You never get away from grace. either the beginning or the ending. it seems that there’s always, those are the two bookends of an epistle. he wants them to have the grace of God upon their lives. Now this is well suited to what the people of God need. Paul earnestly desires the best for these people and he knows that divine grace will meet every need that you have. Christostrum says, this, he said, as if fortifying the faithful on every side by the wall of divine grace. Grace involves our heavenly father accepting us in Christ, the mediator, and pouring out upon us all the spiritual blessings that are in Jesus Christ, every one of them. Grace, therefore, is what we might call all comprehensive. It includes everything. So it’s sort of like, if you have grace, you got everything connected with it. Everything that’s included for the good of your soul. Every blessing of Christ is yours through grace. The little amen that he puts at the end here provides a further emphasis to let it be so. A confirmation that God expects, Paul expects God to grant them the grace that he’s mentioned here. Let us learn from this. that you can’t request anything higher or better than grace for someone else in the Lord. Let us follow Paul’s example in this request and request grace for our fellow believers. For how can we improve on that? Well, Mr. Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, found the road to the celestial city sometimes very rough. And so will you, as a Christian, today have your rough spots. Affliction and suffering is often the lot of those who are believers in Christ. This is the theme which stands out here in verses 17 and 18 with regard to Archipas and Paul. They faced adversity and opposition in their service to the Lord. We will too. And yet, we find that by the grace of God we can overcome all this. And God will get us through. it. And we can serve him faithfully as we go through this life. Well, let us close.