Colossians Part 1

Now, what year did Paul arrive in Ephesus? Say it. Boy, you were sitting up here, right? You got an apple to give me, maybe. Okay. In 58 A.D., Paul leaves Ephesus, ending his third church planting journey. Now then, in my personal judgment, he takes all eight of those men with him. I can only prove that he took two, but I figure if he took two, he took eight; there would be no reason not to. I know he took Aristarchus and Tychicus with him. He heads home from Ephesus, he stops in Greece, he goes to Corinth, and he sits down and writes a letter to the brothers and sisters in Rome.

Now, if you can remember back when we went through Romans and you remember Picunas, you don’t remember that we went through all the names in Romans 16. And we gave everybody a name. You remember that? And there, I don’t remember any of the people except Picunas, who was really picky. But we looked at the 14 names of the people there. These were folks who were in Rome, Paul knew. He knew him because he sent them there,

Okay, now Paul stops in Corinth, and he writes a letter to Rome. But he’s not in Rome, he’s in Corinth. He leaves Corinth and goes home to Antioch, which is his home, that’s in Syria. And he probably has those eight men with him, but for sure, he has two of them with him, and that’s Aristarchus and Tychicus. Secundus and Aristarchus were a pair, and Tychicus and Trophimus, well, that’s correct. That’s one reason I think they were all there. Timothy just about had to be there.

Now it’s 58 AD, 4 years since Paul started his third journey, and he’s back home. But there’s a lot of trouble in Jerusalem. There are still people there who don’t like him and don’t trust him. A lot of people have read the book of Galatians by now, and they think that Paul doesn’t believe in Moses and the law, and he doesn’t. But he’s trying to keep unity with the church in Jerusalem. So, he goes to Jerusalem, and the elders there say, “Boy, there are a lot of Jews in this town who hate you.” And he said, “What can I do about it?” And they said, “Shave your head, take a vow, and go into the temple, renew your Mosaic vows.” He said, “All right, I’ll do that.”

Now, it just so happened that Tychicus, who is a Greek, I’m sorry, he’s a gentile from Asia Minor. Unfortunately, we don’t know what history would have happened if this hadn’t happened. We have no idea where history would have been. Tychicus looks like somebody who is Jewish in that town. So, Paul asks a brother who is not Jewish to shave his head, take a vow with him, and go into the temple and renew his Mosaic vows. But somebody sees Paul in there with his head shaved, and he sees the fellow next to him. Looks like that gentile Tychicus. It’s not Tychicus, but it looks like it. A riot starts. By the way, Tychicus is in Jerusalem. A riot starts. What happens? Paul gets arrested, sent to Caesarea, and he stays in jail for two years. What year would that make it? 60 AD.

Now, this is stuff you’re going to be able to tell everybody for the rest of your lives. You understand? This is what you’re going to know. Are you with me? This is your book. Paul ends up in jail in Caesarea. He stays there for two days, and he’s tired of it. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen. And he tells Felix, ‘I appeal to Caesar.’ Now, as a Roman citizen, he can literally be tried by Caesar. Caesar is not going to spend two seconds doing this. He’s going to have somebody else investigate it. But anyway, he will actually physically appear before Caesar. Does anybody know who Caesar is at this time? Which Caesar have we got? We got the worst of a lot. He just became Caesar, and everybody loves him, and he turns out to be a monster later. His name is Nero.

Now, Aristarchus and Luke get on a ship headed for Rome with Paul, and it is 60 AD. Are you following me? What happened to Tychicus? I don’t know. All I can tell you is that when Paul finally got to Rome, Tychicus was there to greet him. He was waving him in. And Tychicus is not from Rome, he’s from Asia Minor, he’s from Ephesus. Some way or other, Paul turned to Tychicus and said, “Go to Rome. Meet me there.” It took a long time for Paul to get there because he got shipwrecked. It’s a horrendous, horrendous journey.

One of the most beautiful verses of pathos in the New Testament is when Luke writes near the end, The brothers and sisters from Rome came out to meet him at three taverns, and we took a little courage. That’s so beautiful to me. I just always see those Christians coming down the road from Rome, and here’s Paul and Timothy and Luke and Aristarchus all beat up and chains on Paul, and here comes the church in Rome out from the city singing to him, and they took a little courage.

Paul is under house arrest, meaning he’s chained to a Roman soldier but in a home. He has to pay the Roman soldier, by the way. And he’s waiting for an interview with Nero. Well, meanwhile, back at the ranch. Meanwhile, back over there in Asia Minor. Do you remember Epaphras and Philemon? Are you with me? Let’s just say that in 58 A.D., when Paul left where? Ephesus, and went to Antioch and Jerusalem, let’s say that in 58 A.D., Epaphras, one of Paul’s converts, walked 90 miles and went back home. Are you with me? And Epaphras walks into his hometown, and he either starts door-to-door in the marketplace, or I don’t know why, but anyway, some people get saved, and Philemon has been converted in Ephesus, and he seems to have been a very close friend of Paul’s and Philemon throws his home open and they start meeting, a church is born in Colossae.

And Epaphras, by the way, he’s my guy, I don’t know if you know this. Epaphras is my second favorite Bible character. I love this guy. He’s an also-ran. Nobody paid any attention to him, but he was just doing incredible things. He not only raised up the ekklesia in his hometown, but he also went over to Laodicea and over to Hierapolis, and he raised up a church in each one of those towns, which are nearby. But that’s kind of amazing, isn’t it? I want you to meet Epaphras, who got saved in Ephesus. Nobody paid any attention to him. He went back home, did something incredible. Paul calls him an apostle, an apostle. He says to the church in Colossae, he is your apostle. That’s a heavy term.

Well, anyhow, Epaphras is in his hometown. He got back home in 58 A.D., and they’re meeting in Philemon’s home, and they’re all new converts, including Philemon and Epaphras, but Epaphras has something of the Lord really working in his life. Now let me go back to Rome. Here we go. Paul goes to Ephesus in 54 A.D, leaves in 58 A.D, gets to Jerusalem, and gets thrown in jail in 58 A.D. and spends two years in where? Caesarea, in prison. And then he gets to Rome about 61 A.D. All right, let’s do it again. Epaphras gets saved around 54 A.D. He goes home in 58 A.D. He raised three churches sometime between 58 A.D. and 61 A.D. Do you see the parallel? I just want you to know what he’s doing. While all these things are happening to Paul, this is what’s happening to Epaphroditus.

So, in 61 A.D., Paul is in Rome. Epaphras has been back home for three years, and he’s raised up three churches, and Paul is in Rome and Epaphras is in Colossae, Asia Minor, and Paul is in Rome, Italy, and Epaphras is in Colossae, Asia Minor, and now I’m going to make a wild guess. Epaphras doesn’t know anything else to tell the brothers and sisters in Colossae, and word comes to him that Paul is in Rome in prison, or imprisoned, and he gets an idea. I am going to go see brother Paul, and I’m going to sit down and tell him about Colossae. He doesn’t know about Colossae. I’m going to tell him about Hierapolis. I’m going to tell him about Laodicea. And then I’m going to ask him what to do, and I need some wisdom.