March 16, 2003 Colossians 1:1-8
“If you can’t say anything nice…”
INTRODUCTION
As parents, one of the first things that we teach our children is the phrase, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” It’s a good phrase to live by.
This morning, I’m going to introduce you to someone who lived by this rule. Every time that he opened his mouth about someone else, he had something positive and uplifting to say about them even when they were not in his presence. If I could, I’d have brought him here this morning for you to meet personally. I would have even put it in the paper. I know that it would have drawn a crowd because a person who always speaks in a positive way about others is definitely newsworthy in our society today. Had it been possible, I would have brought him here. Unfortunately, he has been dead for almost 2000 years. His name is Epaphras.
Even though he is dead, it is still possible for us to meet him. Now, I’m not talking about a séance or voodoo or anything like that. I’m talking about using what the Bible has to say about him mixed with a little bit of glorified imagination so that we might actually be able to hear the positive words that Epaphras had to say. In order to do this, I’m going to need your help. Here, on my chair, I have a bathrobe, a piece of cloth and a headband. When I put these on, I need you to imagine that the words that are then coming out of my mouth are actually the words of Epaphras. He and I together are going to tell his story. The story has four short chapters, and in each chapter, we’re going to hear how Epaphras talked about different people and what the result was. Are you ready? Do you have your imagination cap on? OK. Chapter one.
1. Epaphras talked about Paul to the Colossians. “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus” (vs. 1)
The book of Colossians was actually a letter that the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians who lived in Colossae, a city in what we now call Turkey. Paul wrote this letter or epistle while he was in jail, so it is known as one of the Prison Epistles. Paul had one potential disadvantage when he wrote this letter. He did not know the Colossian Christians, and they did not know him. Other than this book and the book of Romans, all the other books that Paul wrote were to people that he personally knew through his own interaction with them.
Even though Paul did not have the advantage of a personal relationship with the Colossian Christians, he had a relationship with Epaphras, a citizen of Colossae. Paul had met Epaphras during the three years that he spent in Ephesus, a city about a 100 miles east of Colossae. It was probably during his stay at Ephesus that Paul had the privilege of sharing the gospel with Epaphras and seeing him get saved. Epaphras stayed with Paul for a while so that he could learn from Paul and grow in his faith. But the time came for him to go home to Colossae.
Epaphas’ arrival back home would have created a stir in the city. It was a small city so everyone would have quickly heard about his return. Most of the people who lived in Colossae had been born there and they would die there, never having left its borders. Sounds like many West Virginians. For someone from Colossae to travel to a city 100 miles away would be the equivalent of a West Virginian traveling to Russia, China or even into outer space. They wanted to know all about his journey. They asked what he had seen, so he told them about the temple of the goddess Diana. They asked what he had done, so he told them about time that he had spend at the sea port watching the ships arriving and departing and listening to the sailors tell of lands far away. Then they asked him about people he had met. That’s the request that he had been waiting for. Can’t you see the big smile on his face? Can’t you hear the excitement and joy in his voice as he begins to tell them about his new friend, Paul?
I can almost hear Epaphras as he begins to speak with words that might have gone something like this: [put on a robe and a turban to help people visualize the scene with you] “It was on a sunny day much like this one. I hadn’t been in the city long before I headed to the market. I knew that the market was the town gathering place. That’s where you went to find the best places to eat and sleep. That’s where you could hear all the town gossip, and it was the place where people entertained themselves by talking about all kinds of new ideas. I remember seeing this one guy who was sitting on some steps, and there was a group of people gathered around him. They were hanging on every word that he said. I wondered what could be so important or entertaining about this guy that would make people give up their time to listen to him. He wasn’t wearing robes of royalty, nor was he wearing the outlandish clothes of an entertainer. But something he said held their attention. I didn’t have time that first day to discover what was so special about this guy. I had more important matters to deal with.
“The next time I went to market, I saw him there again. And just like before, there was a group of people gathered around him. My time was not so tight that day, so I went over to the back of the group and stood listening. He must have just gotten started with what he was going to say because I heard him introduce himself as Paul, the apostle. I didn’t know what an apostle was, but I figured that he would explain that as he went along. As I listened, I heard him tell of how he had once been a Phariseee - a Jewish religious leader. These Pharisees hated and had murdered a man named Jesus and had persecuted the many people who claimed that this Jesus had become their Savior. He told of how one day, he was on a journey to Damascus in an attempt to find, imprison and even murder some of these Jesus followers. A light shone down from the sky, and it was so bright that it knocked him off of his horse. A voice spoke to him out of the light. It was the voice of Jesus! Jesus really was alive! He said that at that moment, he realized that he had been wrong about Jesus. Everything that these followers of Jesus said about Him was true. The voice told him to go on to Damascus where he would receive further instructions about what he was to do, and then the light and the voice were gone.
“Paul said that he stood up and tried to clear his eyes – you know how you do when you’ve stared at the sun – but no matter what he did, his eyes wouldn’t clear. He was blind. He was still determined to do what Jesus had told him to do. So he got some of the men that were with him to lead him to Damascus and to the home where he was told to go. For three days, he waited. He refused to eat or drink anything. All that he could do was think about all the Scriptures that he had memorized as a child and how they had pointed to Jesus as the Savior of mankind. He was blind now physically, but he had been blind spiritually all his life. He made up his mind that whatever happened in the rest of his life, He was going to follow this Jesus and make him lord of his life. He said that at the end of the three days, a prophet of God came and put his hands on him and restored his sight. But even more amazing than that, that prophet told Paul that God had called him to be his messenger before the Gentile world and before kings. That’s when he told us what an apostle was – it was someone who had seen Jesus after He rose from the dead and who had been called to serve as one of God’s special messengers. He said that now he went wherever God would take him telling people about what God had done in his life.
“What Paul had to say that day about himself and his story interested me. What caught my attention more than all of it though was that he said that just as his life had been turned around and made new, so it could happen in my life too. When I heard that, it intrigued me. I knew that there were some things that needed changing in my life – some things that I just couldn’t seem to forget or be released from. This thought of a new life scared me somewhat too. What was it going to take? How much was it going to cost? Was it really worth it? So before anyone had a chance to notice that I was there, I made my exit.
“All the way to the house where I was staying, I kept thinking about what Paul said. I usually didn’t take too kindly to people who only talked about themselves and seemed to be tooting their own horn. But Paul seemed to have a different motivation. He seemed to be wanting to focus attention on this Jesus he spoke of rather than focusing on himself. The more that I thought about it, the more I knew that I must go back to hear him again.”
Epaphras talked about Paul, and everything that he had to say was good and uplifting. Chapter One.
Chapter Two.
2. Epaphras talked about Jesus to the Colossians. “You learned it from Epaphras” (vs. 7)
“It was several days before I was able to make it back to the market again. I did what I needed to do, and then I went back to the spot where I had listened to Paul before. He was not there. Fearing that he had left the city, I asked someone if they knew where he was. They said that the crowd had exceeded the legal gathering limit for the market, so they had moved down to the amphitheater. There I found Paul speaking to perhaps a hundred people. Immediately I could tell that today’s subject was different. He kept talking about the Gospel – the good news. I knew what good news was. It was about when the army came home victorious from war with the enemy totally defeated. The good news that Paul spoke of was kind of like that but it was bigger. He said that our true enemy was Satan and sin, and that Jesus had paid for the forgiveness of sin by dying on a cross. He said that Jesus had defeated Satan by rising from the dead. He was the true Victor! What’s more, he said that I could have the victory over sin in my life. I could get rid of that hopelessness that seemed to constantly gnaw at my soul.
“He told of how he had shared this message everywhere he went – and he had been a lot of places. Always, the result was the same. When people believed the message of the Gospel and placed their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, their lives were radically changed. The first thing that changed was that people had their hope renewed. Living under Roman rule is tough. They tax you to death, and you’re still never guaranteed that the economy isn’t going to go sour. You worry about how you’re going to be able to provide for your kids. All that you’re trying to do is survive. You start to lose all hope that there is anything really worth living for or anything really worth dying for. Paul said that he had seen it over and over again. People who trusted in Jesus got to hope again. And this was a hope that they couldn’t lose because it wasn’t based on circumstances. It was based on the presence of God in their lives and the promise of a home in heaven.
“He said that the second thing that changed was that they started to believe in someone again. When Rome came to power, they had made all kinds of promises. They had even kept a few of them – at first. But then they forgot about the common people. They got power hungry. Promises went unfulfilled. Paul said that this Jesus made promises too. The difference was that He would never fail to keep His promises. As proof, he said that Jesus had promised to rise from the dead, and He had actually done it! I started to think that if Jesus was powerful enough to keep a promise like that, maybe He was powerful enough to keep the promises to me that everyone else had broken. Maybe I too could place my faith in Him.
“As I thought about these things, Paul kept going on and on about the Gospel. He said that it was spreading all over the world and that nothing could stop it or destroy it. Every soul that accepted the Gospel would produce fruits of faith, love and hope. Every soul that rejected the Gospel would die without hope. He realized that some people treated the Gospel as pure foolishness (1 Cor. 1:18). And there were some people there that day who were giving weird looks to things that Paul had to say. I must admit that I didn’t understand it all either. They left; I couldn’t. It was almost as if some power had taken hold of my heart and my feet and would not let me go. I didn’t understand what was going on until Paul said, “… the gospel…is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile (Rom 1:16 NIV).” Then I knew what was happening to me. God had gotten a hold of my heart through the power of the Gospel. I was becoming a believer. I was becoming a follower of Jesus. I realized that I had been lied to all my life. What Paul was saying was the truth. There was only one God, and He wanted a relationship with me through faith in Jesus Christ.
“I didn’t sneak away that day. I hung around until everyone except Paul’s friend Timothy had left. Paul saw me sitting there. He told Timothy to go on to where they were going to spend the night, and then he came and sat down beside me. I got the feeling that he knew what was going on inside my heart maybe because he had seen the same thing happen to so many people before me. On that day, I confessed my sin to Jesus, asked Him to forgive me, and invited Him to take control of my life. My life has never been the same.” [take off the robe and head covering so that you can speak as yourself]
At that point, Epaphras stopped talking. It was clear that his story was over. The people hadn’t heard what they had expected to hear, but all of them had heard what they needed to hear. Some of them walked away shaking their heads and muttering something about how the Ephesian incense had warped Epaphras’ brain. But others of them stayed. As he was talking, Epaphras had witnessed the power of the Gospel being manifested in their expressions. He had seen the same unexplainable tears that had run down his own face. So he did the same thing that Paul did. He went and sat down by each one, one at a time, and helped them enter into a relationship with Jesus. Epaphras saw that Paul was right. There was power in the Gospel; it did work wherever the message was told because it was the truth.
Over the next several weeks, Epaphras told his story many more times in the town square. He got to see hope renewed and lives changed over and over again. Just as it had happened in Ephesus, the crowd got too big for the legal limit of gatherings in the town square. So they built a church.
Epaphras talked about Jesus and what Jesus had done in his life through the power of the Gospel. Everything that Epaphras had to say about Jesus was positive and uplifting. Because of that, people of his own town came to faith in Jesus Christ, and a new church was birthed. Chapter Two.
Chapter Three.
3. Epaphras talked about the Colossians to Paul. “we have heard of…” (vs. 4)
It seemed like every time that the church met, there were more people who received forgiveness and were released from their past. It created so much joy for Epaphras. He had never seen anything like what God was doing there. It was really a blast. Then, one day, some of the people in the church came to Epaphras and asked him if he would take on the role of the official pastor of the church. Suddenly, Epaphras was scared. Winning people to Jesus was something that he could do. That was fun. But there was a whole lot more to being a pastor. Pastors were supposed to help people grow in their faith so that they would be equipped to minister to others and not be defeated by Satan. Pastors were also supposed to serve in the role of shepherds – protecting the flock from dangers all around. Already, Epaphras had heard of religious teachers in nearby cities denying some of the things that Epaphras knew to be the truth. Some of them were saying that Jesus couldn’t have really been God because a good God couldn’t come in the form of evil matter. Others were saying that trust in Jesus was not enough to gain salvation. They were teaching people that you had to follow the old Jewish law too – things like being circumcised and observing all the religious feasts. Epaphras knew that if he was to help this young church grow and protect it from the dangers of false teaching, he was going to need some help. Who better to help him than Paul? The problem with that was that Paul was no longer in Ephesus. Paul’s enemies had made some false accusations against him – they had said some things that were untrue, unkind and hurtful – which resulted in Paul’s imprisonment in Rome. If Epaphras was going to get some help from Paul, it was going to be necessary for him to travel to Rome and find Paul in prison.
So Epaphras packed what he would need, said his goodbye’s to the church, and began the journey toward his good friend. Even with the Roman roads, the trip was not an easy one. He faced dangers along the way. People tried to rob him. Storms threatened to destroy him. But Epaphras didn’t let anything deter him from his task. Finally, he made it to Rome and successfully found where Paul was being held prisoner.
Even Paul’s imprisonment couldn’t restrain his joy when he saw his friend, Epaphras. They embraced, and praised God for their reunion together. It was not long before Epaphras began to tell of all that God had done in and through his life since the two of them had last been together. I imagine that his words might have gone something like this: [put on a robe and a turban to help people visualize the scene with you]
“Paul, when I made the decision to give Jesus control of my life, I never dreamed of all that God would do in my life! You told me that the power of the Gospel would work anywhere and you were right. Even on the way here, I told the message in every town I stayed, and people responded in repentance. As wonderful as that was, I want to tell you what happened when I left you in Ephesus and got back home. The day I got back to Colossae, I simply told the story of what God had done in me and how the Gospel message was available to everyone. My friends and neighbors started getting saved. I had a hard time believing it at first because I knew the backgrounds of some of the people in my town. But I had to believe because I saw it with my own eyes.
“It was an amazing thing to watch as family members who had been feuding and saying nasty things about each other asked for and received forgiveness. Marriages were restored. People started making restitution for crimes they had committed in the past. People actually started loving one another. I guess that was the hardest thing of all to believe. Like I said – I knew these people before, and love didn’t fit into their vocabulary or their actions. I know what did it. It was the coming of the Holy Spirit into their lives.
“Colossae is a totally different city than it used to be. People actually have something to hope for, someone to believe in and they are willing to love others. I hated to leave it when such exciting things are happening. But I had to come. I had to tell you what has happened, and I need your help to battle the dangers that this young church is facing. I have to get help to the wonderful Christians of Colossae because they are so special to me.” [take off the robe and head covering so that you can speak as yourself]
Epaphras stayed with Paul for some time. The Bible doesn’t say how long. While he was there, he spent so much time with Paul learning from him and ministering to his needs that Paul refers to Epaphras as his “fellow prisoner” in Philemon 1:23. In all the conversations that they had, Epaphras never had anything but good to say about the people of his hometown. Oh, he knew some dirt that he could have told Paul. But as far as Epaphras was concerned, all of that had been washed away under the blood of Jesus Christ. If Jesus had promised to never bring it up again, why should he? The only time that Epaphras felt comfortable even mentioning anything that might be a negative in one of his friend’s lives was during the many hours that he spent “wrestling in prayer” for them (Col. 4:12). He knew that even though many of his friends and family were now saved, they still had weak spots. He prayed for God to enable them to stand firm in their faith and not be misdirected by the false teachers. He prayed that God would keep them strong against temptation.
Ephapras talked about the Colossians to Paul, but everything that he had to say was positive and uplifting. Epaphras’ kind words created a bond between Paul and the Colossians even though they were strangers to each other. Chapter three.
Chapter Four
4. Paul talked about the Colossians to God. “We always thank God” (vs. 3)
Paul would often join Epaphras in his prayers for the Colossian Christians. Though he had never met them, he felt like he knew them. He found himself really wanting to go to Colossae and meet these people because of all the good things that Epaphras had said about them. He found himself even loving these people, just as if they were family. In one sense, they were family. Paul had led Epaphras to Jesus, and Epaphras had led the Colossians to Jesus. They were like Paul’s spiritual grandchildren.
Paul knew the dangers the Colossian Christians faced that had brought Epaphras to him. He was more than glad to help. I can imagine that he might have said…wait a minute. I don’t have to imagine. Paul’s words are recorded right here in the Bible in the letter that he wrote to the Colossians. Look at his words starting in verse 1. [read Col. 1:1-14] So began the relationship between Paul and the Colossian Christians. It began with thankfulness and deep love before they had ever met. And so begins the letter that we will be studying for the next several months.
CONCLUSION
I know that today has been very different from most messages that you hear here on Sunday mornings. I wanted to do this message today for two reasons. First, as an introduction to our study of this letter and how it came to be. And second, as an example to us of what can be accomplished when you choose to use your mouth to lift up people in other’s eyes rather than putting them down. Epaphras talked about people a lot. He talked about Paul in a positive way to the Colossians. The result was that they learned to trust him enough to listen to his counsel in the letter that we have before us. Epaphras talked about Jesus in a positive way to the Colossians. The result was that many of them got saved and formed a new church. They were released from the guilt and shame of their sin. Their hope was reborn. Their marriages were saved. Epaphras talked about the Colossians to Paul in a positive way. The result was that Paul fell in love with them and wrote them one of the most encouraging letters in the Bible. Finally, Paul talked in a positive way about the Colossians to God and to the Colossians. The result was that they were encouraged and that God’s power was present to protect them from the dangers that could have destroyed them.
We all face the temptation to talk about people when they are not present. When you give in to that temptation, it will have consequences. If you choose to talk about people in a negative way, it’s going to have negative consequences. The opposite is just as true. If you talk about people in a positive way, then it will have positive consequences. Let me end today with one of the final pieces of wisdom that Paul gives to the Colossians and to us in this letter: (Col 4:6 NIV) Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt…
INVITATION
If you are like me, there have been times that you have not been too gracious in what you had to say about someone else. Your words may have been flavored, but not with salt. They were flavored with the hottest chili peppers you could find. Your words may have been about a coworker, a neighbor, someone you go to church with or even a family member. Those words have done damage that you need to help undo. First thing, you need to go to God and seek His forgiveness. Don’t stop there. You also need to go to that other person and ask their forgiveness. It’s not necessary to tell them what you said; just tell them that it was wrong, and you have repented. Finally, it may be necessary to go to the person that heard you say those unkind words. Ask them to forgive you for putting a barrier between them and the person that you spoke badly of. In that way, you can help to tear down that barrier that you built.
How many of you would raise your hands with me to say, “Pastor, I have said some unkind things about other people, and I need to get it right between God and them.” If you would say that, raise your hand. I’ll pray for you that you will be able to set it right. Maybe there’s someone here today who would say, “Pastor, I’ve heard you say good things about Jesus. I want to take Jesus as my Savior and begin a relationship with Him today.” If that’s you, would you raise your hand so that I can pray for you?
