"Legacy Of The Unapplauded Series

Why am I going on about this? Because, Christians, most people outside of Christ will never hear an accurate accounting of their need for repentance (turning) from sin and their need to believe the good news that Jesus Christ died and rose to life again for them, unless they hear it from the mouth of someone they know really cares about them. If you and I cannot accurately articulate the message of the Gospel then the church is truly dead to this world in regards to its effectiveness.

We need to be confident in our own minds that when presented with an opportunity we can clearly convey to anyone willing to listen, the encouraging news that Jesus Christ has won the victory over death and the grave and they can, by faith, receive eternal life and the gift of the Holy Spirit and that Christ can bring significant and positive change into their present and daily lives. We all need to be Tychicus-es.

ONESIMUS

“…and with him Onesimus,…” again, this one has the witness of being faithful and able to convey the truth, and notice how Paul refers to him as ‘one of your number’.

Onesimus was a runaway slave of Philemon who had been converted, and although he is still with Paul, Paul will now send him back with a letter to Philemon, asking him to receive Onesimus as a brother, and what a witness he will now be to the church there! He left an unbelieving runaway slave, now he will voluntarily return as a believer coming back to his master as a brother in the Lord. So Paul calls him ‘one of your number’. Isn’t that a great happy ending story? More than that, we can go and read the very letter Paul sends back with him to Philemon, just before Hebrews in your Bible!

This is all history, folks! It is real and this same wonderful God is still able to do wonderful things in your heart and life! By the way, Onesimus means ‘useful’.

ARISTARCHUS

…my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings.

Now here is one Paul might have spent some time bragging up. But when guys have been in battle together for a long time sometimes there is much between them that they don’t feel they have to share with anyone else.

In fact, they don’t believe anyone could really understand what they’ve been through together and what passes between them when they look in one another’s eyes.

Aristarchus had been dragged off with Paul and others to be tried during the Ephesus riots that started because Paul’s preaching was hurting the pocketbooks of the idol makers.

Aristarchus had been shipwrecked along with Paul during their voyage to Rome, where they apparently spent a night and a day in the sea clinging to scraps of the broken ship until they could float to Malta. (2 Cor 11:25, Acts 27:42-44).

There is some confusion as to whether Aristarchus was actually a prisoner in chains with Paul, or whether Paul considered him a fellow prisoner because he had willingly given up all else to stay and tend to and minister with the Apostle. Either way, he is to be commended for his faithfulness to his brother.

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother”. Shakespeare