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4. Tychicus will tell you all about my affairs. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts. And with him Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother who is one of yourselves, they will tell you of everything that has

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taken place here. 5. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions, if he comes to you, receive him, and Jesus, who is also called Justice. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.

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6. Epaphras, who is one of yourselves, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always remembering you earnestly in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you, and for those in Laodicea and in Heriopolis. May God bless to us this reading from his word.

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Pray with me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We are thinking together on these Sunday evenings of some men whom Paul merely mentions. And tonight I ask you to think with me about Epaphras. We don't know much about him, but we do know this. He did not forget to remember.

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Epaphras first of all never forgot to remember Christ. Paul, in speaking of Epaphras, says that he was a slave of Jesus Christ. Paul does not use that phrase often, and it is to him a phrase of high praise and commendation. As a matter of fact, to Timothy, the most beloved of Paul, even to Timothy, Paul extended the honor of that title only once. But he

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says of Epaphras, "He was a slave of Christ Jesus." Now that which is distinctive about a slave is this, that his whole reason for being is to serve his master. The slave only has eyes for his master. The slave is primarily and above all other things concerned for his master.

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When I think of a slave, I think, and I hope you'll forgive this illustration because it is a rather homely one, I think of my dog Rufus. Rufus was a great Newfoundland. He weighed 160 pounds, and he was coal black. At night he was sometimes mistaken by some people for a bear. Rufus was my slave. I mean by that that every time I came home, he did

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an absolute dance for joy that I was back again. It may seem hard to believe, but that 160-pound dog could actually jump up in the air and turn around before landing again. But he would only do that when I came home. He was delighted to see the master. When people would ring the doorbell, Rufus would always go to see who was there, and

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he was the one who would escort them into the house. No matter where I sat, he was always at my side. I had a pool in California, and Rufus was always by the pool. He liked that place. When little children were there, Rufus would put himself between the children and the pool, making sure that they would not fall into the water. Newfoundlanders are trained

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and bred to do that. But the whole time that he would keep his big body between them and the water, he would keep one eye on me. And the minute that I would go, he would stand aside and the children would jump into the pool. But he waited for the word of the one whom he was seeking to serve. Rufus guarded our house against thunder and lightning and

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other storms. He would chase them. And at night, when lightning would come and I would be sound asleep in bed before the sound of the thunder would waken me, he would come and put his paw on the edge of my bed and push it like this until I wakened so that I would know that the lightning was near. In his last illness, he lost control of himself,

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and he was very embarrassed by this. I don't think he was embarrassed for himself as much as he was embarrassed for me. He would look so ashamed when he had his unavoidable accidents. And when I held him in my arms as the veterinarian put him to sleep, the last thing he did was to reach out with his paw and put it on my shoulder. Totally devoted. That's the way

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the slave is to the master. And Paul says of Epaphras, "He was the slave, the servant of Christ Jesus." We ought to be like that, you know, having our eyes always upon him. A young businessman said to me just last week in this city that he had wanted to bear witness in a particular situation to his Lord, but he backed off. And now he was rather ashamed

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of it, and he offered it to me as a kind of confession. I won't go into our long and involved conversation. Suffice it to say that what I tried to point out to him was this. At the moment when he lacked courage, he was looking at his friends for their response. He was looking perhaps at himself to see how he would feel. But he was not looking at his

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master. If he would have looked at his master, he would have done what his master called him to do. We let our eyes get shifted to others, but the inner eye must always be focused upon Jesus. Like Epaphras, we must never forget to remember him. Then Epaphras also never forgot to remember Paul. Paul says of him that he was a partaker in my suffering. Now

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when Paul wrote this letter, he was in jail in Rome. And we don't know how long he was imprisoned there, but it could have been up to two years. Now when Epaphras heard that Paul was in jail, he didn't just write a letter, and he didn't just come for a visit. He came and pitched his tent with Paul. He came and stayed with him, never forgetting the need

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of the ambassador for Christ that Paul was. It's a beautiful thing when people in their service of the needy don't just serve them for a moment, but are continually faithful in that service, no matter how long or demanding that service might be. This afternoon I went down to the Heinz Hall to listen to Leonard Bernstein direct our

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Pittsburgh Orchestra, and it was a wonderful concert. But the highlight of it was Bernstein's conducting of his own first symphony. He calls it the Jeremiah Symphony, because it's based upon the life of the prophet Jeremiah. The work is divided into three movements. The first movement is the prophecy of Jeremiah, and the music is strong and powerful when

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Jeremiah represents to his people what God says and warns them that they must be obedient to him or suffer the consequences. The movement ends with a kind of question. The second movement, an allegro cumbrio, is the pagan response, the way the people continue to give themselves to evil and false gods. The music swings and sways in a kind of orgiastic

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dance representing godless activity. And then the third movement, which is the crowning moment of the symphony. That third movement represents how the people were taken into captivity, how all of the prophecies of Jeremiah came true. But the movement also represents Jeremiah staying with the people during their time of punishment. That's the reason that

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third movement is scored not only for orchestra, but for voice. A contralto, a mezzo-soprano, comes in and sings part of the Book of Lamentations from our Old Testament. Now what gripped me about the music, and what makes Jeremiah my most beloved Old Testament character, is this. He warned the people, they ignored the warning, but he stayed with

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them anyway. Even when they went into punishment, even when they got that which they rightly deserved, even when this one who had been faithful could have separated himself from the faithless, he stayed with them. And that moves me very deeply. I wish my words could say it like Bernstein's music did. It's a beautiful thing when you stay over the long

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term with those who are suffering. I remember now about seven years ago when I had open heart surgery, and I developed a staphylococcus infection, and I had to stay in the hospital five weeks beyond the normal recuperation period. That was the worst winter that Pittsburgh had had in many years. There were many days when even all the doctors and nurses could

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not get to the hospital, and they were short-staffed. But there was one young couple from Grove City who came down to see me every other night for five weeks. They drove in a truck. It could go through the snow when other things couldn't. They brought me a radio. They brought me to school newspapers. They did all kinds of things to help me pass the time. I remember

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on New Year's Eve, they came into the room, and he had nothing on but a white diaper and a sign that said "1975-6," and she was dressed like Father Todd. They brought joy to the whole floor. What gripped me was not just their kindness in coming, but that they kept on coming and coming and coming, and for as long as I was there, they were there with

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me. Many times we don't do it like that. Here's someone who loses someone in death. We send flowers, we call, we write a few notes, but after a few weeks, we forget about them. And that's when they most need the notes, and that's when they most need the calls. Epaphras did not forget to remember Paul, and he remembered him faithfully. Paul also tells us that Epaphras

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did not forget to remember the Colossians, the people he left at home. And he did this in three different ways. First of all, he remembered the Colossians by really understanding them. Paul says, "He is one of yourselves." In other words, he really was in a caring relationship with the Colossians. And a caring relationship, a real understanding between

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people is so important in life. You know, many times when we approach people, we go to them with Bible verses or theological arguments or some demonstration of witness or another, when really what we should begin our ministry to them with is simple understanding. You know how it is, your fourth grade daughter comes home one day from school and she says,

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"My teacher is the meanest lady in the whole world." Now you know that isn't true. You had teachers in school that were far meaner than hers. Also, you've had three other children who've had that teacher and you know she's wonderful. But you also know your little fourth grader. So you don't come on and say, "Now that's absolutely wrong and I don't want to

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hear you talking like that anymore. It's ridiculous and you remember how your sister liked her and all." No. You say, "Well now why do you feel that way? What happened today that made me... Come on over here and sit down and have a tolhas cookie and a glass of milk and let's talk about this." And you begin to try to empathize. Is your stomach tied in knots?

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I mean, how do you feel when you're upset? You really seek to understand what the youngster is feeling. And in the process of seeking to understand and getting in touch, healing begins. It's not a matter of thundering. It's a matter of loving and listening and identifying. I think many times in our contacts with other people, we miss the boat in our witness because

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we go straight in without ever taking the time simply to understand why they are, where they are, and then to discover what we can do to help them. Paul says of Epaphras that he was one with the Colossians. He also prayed regularly for them. Paul says, "He remembers you earnestly in his prayers." And that word "earnestly" is an athletic word. He strives.

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He really works for you in the course of his prayer. Now I understand prayer that is that kind of striving to be more than mere words. It's also action. In the Bible, the word "prayer" and the word "action" are almost used synonymously. It is understood that when you pray to God for something, you will not when your prayer is done stop, but you will go out and do everything

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you can to actualize what you just prayed about. I was at the Olympic Games this summer, and one afternoon I went to see the light heavyweight weightlifting contest. Now weightlifting is a very formal sport. Each man comes out one at a time, he contemplates the weight, and then he begins to move toward it. It's very

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quiet, no noise, no conversation. The judges are watching every move. When he lifts that weight, he must lift it in a certain way and hold it at a certain height with a certain degree of control. It's all very, very formal. There were 14 contestants that afternoon from 14 different countries. It was about the 12th one who came out. I think he was number 12.

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He was a little Korean fellow. I remember wondering how, when he came out, he was going to be able to lift that weight. As he walked up the step, he yelled out, "Ohalimaha!" or something like that. I don't know Korean. It shocked everybody. He then walked over and he contemplated that weight, and he addressed some very sharp words to it, "Og slogansikop!"

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And you could just feel the intensity of the feeling that this young fellow was directing toward this weight. But he didn't stop with the yelling and talking and arguing. He then went over and lifted up the weight, and did very well, I might add. Now, he struck me as being the example that points out the weakness in a lot of our praying. We call out to God,

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we call out about some particular problem, but too often, having called out, we don't go over and use our muscles to lift that problem and to begin to affect it in and of ourselves. That's prayer without action. That's prayer without striving, as Epiphras strived. I remember when I was serving in California, there was a young man in the congregation who developed

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what we all thought was flu, but it was actually a pericardial virus. And he was in bed, his mother was in his room, and he got up to go to the bathroom, and she heard a crash, and she went in and he had fainted. And when she bent over him, she discovered that he had stopped breathing. So she began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and soon he was breathing again.

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Then she ran to the telephone to call the emergency unit, and when she came back, he had stopped breathing again. And so once again, she gave him mouth-to-mouth, and brought him back again, and he's a fine, healthy, young, married man and father today. The mother's name was Trudy, and in hearing about this from her, I was interested in remembering

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how she described what happened. She was in the bathroom, he went, she was in the bedroom, he went into the bathroom, she heard the crash, she ran in, saw him on the floor, and she can consciously remember praying, "Oh Lord, he is so young. Can't I have him any longer? Do what has to be done." And then, she got down on her knees and began to give him mouth-to-mouth

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resuscitation. The prayer in itself would have profited nothing, but that prayer, and she thought of God first, "Oh God, he is so young. Let me have him longer. Do what needs to be done." The priority was there. But then she put herself to work in the meaning of prayer. Prayer becomes meaningful when we put our money and our muscles and our minds

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where our mouth is. And Epaphras did that. One other thing he did for the Colossians, he sought to bring them to maturity. Paul says, "He has done this that you may stand fully mature." Evidently, Epaphras was one of the pastors of this Colossian, or Laodicean, congregation. And he had labored to bring his people to independence and to strength.

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And he must have succeeded to a very successful degree because he had gone away from them for two years to be with Paul. You know, there are some ministers who so build their program about themselves that when the minister is gone, the program collapses. But the healthy pastor leading the healthy church seeks to bring his people into maturity so that he

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can fade entirely out of the picture and the program stands strong. In other words, Epaphras had high expectations for his people and helped them to move in the fulfillment of those expectations. Expectations, you know, affect the way we labor in a situation. I discovered not too long ago that there are two kinds of rats. There are sophisticated rats and there are

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unsophisticated rats. I never knew that before. I'm sure all of you did. But up at Harvard University they were running this test and they had some rats which they thought were very sophisticated and could learn very quickly and the other rats which they thought were rather stupid and couldn't learn at all. What they did was they gave two different laboratories

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these rats with certain instructions to train the rats accordingly. But they told this group, we're giving you very brilliant rats and we told this group you're getting rather stupid rats. Actually, the rats were all the same. But interestingly enough, when they came back to measure the results, the laboratory that had the rats that were great learners, their

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rats had learned. And the laboratory that had the rats that were slow learners, they'd learn nothing at all. So they decided to try it out with human beings and they did it on a school in the San Francisco Bay Area, fourth grade. They took two teachers and they told one teacher, we have given you all the exceptional students, and they told the other teacher,

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we have given you all of our average and slow learners. In point of fact, they told them the exact opposite of the truth. The one who thought she had all the brains had all the average students and the one who thought she had the average students had all the brains. You know what happened? The ones who were average did exceedingly well because their

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teacher expected them to do it. And the students who were really more capable than the others were far behind the other class because their teacher had such low expectations for them. As a matter of fact, that teacher on one occasion held one of the kids back because she thought she was straining her too much. She was getting so far ahead of where she should have been.

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See what we expect influences our results. Epiphrates, who worked for these people and prayed for these people, who labored in their behalf and who sought to bring them to full maturity had high expectations and his expectations were fulfilled because it's demonstrated that he could leave them and that church could remain strong and true. He's a model, I think,

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for any pastor or anyone seeking to bring another to Christian maturity. Paul says in his last word about Epiphrates, "I bear witness that he has worked hard for you." That's what he wrote to the Colossians. "Your pastor has worked hard for you." He's just a man merely mentioned but he's a man who did not forget to remember. He remembered Christ, he remembered

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Paul, and he remembered his people. And my beloved brothers and sisters, we are called to remember Christ, to remember the needy, and to remember the family of God of which we are a part. This is our ministry. We must never forget to remember. Let us pray. O God, we thank thee for this one whose life passes before us in Scripture almost like

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the falling of a star. Yet it isn't a falling, it's a rising. And we know because of the testimony of the Spirit in including the life and example of Epiphras in Scripture, we know that he today has his reward. May we be faithful as he was faithful so that one day we too might hear the most blessed words of benediction. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

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The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit the Comforter be and abide with you both now and forevermore. Amen. We'll close our worship with our little song built on the tune "Edelweiss." Penny will play just a phrase of it, and as she plays, we'll stand and we'll sing it together. Penny?

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[singing] [singing] [singing] Good night, and thank you for being with us.

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[music]