Colossians Part 1 – Paul, Epaphras, and the Early Church

In the meantime, Paul is in Rome, Italy. Who’s with him? Luke. Who else? Aristarchus. A little later, Tychicus. Last time we saw him, he was in Jerusalem, not having his head shaved, just looking like someone else. Demas is there, and probably a bunch of other people. Priscilla and Aquila are there, of course, and a bunch of people Paul sent there. But anyway, that’s who is in Rome. Now, can you follow this? It’s 61 A.D., and Epaphras packs his bag, and two or three things are happening very close to one another. Epaphras packs his bag and starts out from Rome. You have to go through Greece to get to Rome; there are other ways, but that’s the way you go.

Now come here, Bill. This is Profitable. We don’t know what he’s profitable for, but he’s profitable. His name is what? Onesimus, which translated means he’s profitable. Now, I’m a slave trader, and I’m saying now I have here before me a young man, very strong, very, very, very good, very talented, can’t read, can’t write. How much am I bidding for him? He will show you; he will show a profit to you. And Philemon said, “I’ll bid so and so.” And so, he takes him, and he calls him only Profitable. You’d better be profitable. All right.

Now then, Philemon is a Christian in the church in Colossae. Epaphras is leaving, and Philemon gets mad at Onesimus because he’s not being profitable. Onesimus gets mad at Philemon and steals some money. And here’s Epaphras going down the road, leaving town and profitable over here, who is not profitable. By the way, this is all in the book of Philemon. He calls him profitable and not profitable. And then he says, I was profitable to you, Philemon. Anyway, I’m Epaphras here, and this kid follows me. There you go, and one day I look back and he’s hiding in the bushes. He is Oh, man. Now we’ve got a clown here.

And Epaphras turns around and says, “Profitable. What are you doing here?” And he said, “I ran away and I’m going with you all the way to Rome.” Well, there’s nothing Epaphras can do about it. So, Epaphras now has a traveling companion whose name is what? Profitable, and he’s a slave of

Audience Member:  Onesimus, no, Philemon. Sorry.

Philemon, and where does the church meet? In Philemon’s home. Alright. We’re just real clear about this, and Profitable is now on his way to Rome with Epaphras, but he’s under sentence of death. You can’t run away from a master and steal money. The sentence is death. This boy is in big trouble, really big trouble. There you go. Alright, you may go sit down. Thank you, Charlie Chapman. This is why I think so highly of Epaphras; he gets to Greece, and there are four churches in Greece, and we know he stops at one of them. Now, in Greece, his name is not Epaphras; he is named after some Greek person. So, in that country where the name originated, they call him Epaphroditus.

Now, I don’t know if the people in the Isle of Man know this, and it may not be true anymore, and I don’t know if it was ever true, but when I was 19, I went to England. I introduced myself as Gene Edwards, and they said, “That’s not your name. That’s a girl’s name; that’s like being called Betty or Mary.” And they said, “You’re Eugene.” So, I said, “I’m Eugene,” to keep from embarrassing people or being embarrassed or whatever. They just wouldn’t accept Gene Edwards as a male name. It would be like saying Betty Sue Edwards, you know.

Now, Brother David, is that true? My name is a girl’s name. Okay, so my name, by the way, is Eugene. You don’t know what my first name is, and if you find out and tell anybody, it’s your last day. I was named after my uncle, who was married seven times, died of Cirrhosis of the liver, and I just never did appreciate being named after that. He was an atheist, but he was more profligate than he was anything else. That’s my other name, not the Eugene. Okay, this is the way it is, then, in the Greeks; he is Epaphroditus.

Now, brothers and sisters, he begins ministering to the church in Philippi. Now, it’s just like any of the churches we’ve got here in the States. I haven’t seen the church in Rochester in a year and a half. It’s been over a year since I’ve been with the brothers and sisters in Orlando as a church, and before that, it was two years. I’ve been with the church in Denver once in the last year. The brothers and sisters in Atlanta can’t even remember the last time I ministered to them. So, they’ll just take anybody. Things are desperate, and Epaphras comes through, and God bless him. He begins talking to those people about the Lord, and he begins giving his life to them. They give their life to him, and they’re bonded. They really fall in love with one another.

It’s also the church in Philippi that gives Paul money, keeps him on the road. Everybody who’s an itinerant worker needs a Philippi, or they starve to death. Do you all remember the message I brought? I don’t know if I sent it here or not, a message entitled, “Why don’t churches raised up by church planters help church planters raise up churches?” You don’t remember that? I delivered that in North Carolina.

Why don’t churches raised up by church planters support church planters to raise up churches? Paul of Tarsus was not helped by any of the churches he raised up to raise up churches. He says so very plainly. You and Philippi are the only people who have helped me financially. Thank God for Philippi. Beautiful and sad, so they get up a big pot of money. They gave it to Epaphras, who is called Epaphroditus, and they said, “When you get to Rome, Paul is in prison, be sure and give him this very large gift,” and probably it was a fortune.

Now that’s in the New Testament, and when Paul writes the church in Philippi, he tells them, “And nobody else has helped me financially except you.” Isn’t that unbelievable? Why don’t churches raised up by a church planter help the church planter raise up churches? How many pecks can a woodpecker peck if a woodpecker could peck wood? Why don’t churches raised up by church planters help church planters raise up churches? And they didn’t.