Greetings from Companions through Paul
Colossians 4:10-14 · Bob Eckel · Oct 6, 2019
Colossians (2019), No. 32
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926191627178

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we're doing things a little differently today. This section is a little bit ABC kind of things. So we're going to read all five verses here, and then we're going to kind of go into a little bit different than a rabbit trail for a while, and then we're going to come back to the verses individually. This is not hard doctrine here that we're talking about here. This is more of a historical lesson. Morning, Bonnie. Morning. So let's read these verses. They are in bold print here on the screen.

Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you with Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, about whom you received instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him. It's all in parentheses. And Hesus, who is called Justice. These are my only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are of the circumcision, and they've proved to be a comfort to me. And Epaphras, who is one of you, a bond-servant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers. that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. A little bit of doctrine there, right? For I bear him witness that he has a great zeal for you and those who are in Laodicea and those in Heropolis. Luke, the beloved physician, and Demos, greet you.

So here's kind of what came to mind as I read this for the first, second, third, and fourth time. Who are all these guys anyway? So we're going to pause here a second and we're going to look at each one of these guys and who they are and then we're going to come back and try to put this into some form of understanding. And by the way, we have one more lesson questions or two? A review. Yeah. All right, good. Actually, I might ask for a prayer for you. I've got some travel and ADA and unrelated things work-wise next week. Margaret and I are going to the Mediterranean for our cruise.

Okay, who is this guy? Well, he's a Macedonian from Thessalonica, and I'm giving you some scripture there to turn to if you want to document this more. I don't think we really must spend time going back to those verses. I think what I'm giving you is the information we have about him. And what else?

He's a tribal companion of Paul, and actually the scripture says he accompanied Paul to Rome. Now, this is kind of an interesting statement. He was a fellow prisoner with Paul. So what's that mean? It says here in 410. Well, the evidence is questionable according to multiple commentators. And he may have been only temporarily confined someplace according to Wiest and Lightfoot, but we don't know much in the way of details.

I can't envision him in the same prison for the same duration Paul was. But it says he was a prisoner with Paul. Is that a spiritual prisoner? Or, in fact, was this confinement in some way. And some commentators think he actually was jailed, perhaps not in the same place. We're going to come back to another one of these guys in a second, who was also called a prisoner with Paul.

All right. So he's circumcised, as was John Markin Justice. So this this section appeals to three Jewish believers. But the rest are Gentiles. So we got this. And just pause here a second. Isn't one of the messages in this epistle really Jews and Gentiles are one? I mean, Paul brings that across in multiple epistles, doesn't he? Once you're a believer, who cares if you're a Jew or a Gentile? You're now the Lord.

Absolutely. So anyway, I think that's something to really reflect on in this passage is that Paul's letter to these individuals, all these guys, if you will, is a mixture of Jewish believers and Gentile believers. All right. Little tease there. Well, I only did it on the first slide. We got all these various animations. Comic relief, right? Do we need comic relief? So he's a fellow laborer with Paul. It's interesting how often Philemon is actually referred to in this section in terms of some of these individuals.

So he was seized in Ephesus with Gaius. We don't have any more details than that. And so that's Aristarchus, that's all we know about him and I think the scriptures that we've alluded to really describe everything we know about this guy. So he's a Macedonian, he's a travel companion of Paul, the question is was he imprisoned or not as a spiritual imprisonment. He's a Jew, circumcised, fell a labor and he's also previously been seized with another believer.

Mark, we're not going to spend as much time on him, but first of all, he's a cousin of Barnabas. The question is, it says that his sister was John Mark's mother, so is he really a nephew? I mean, would he be a nephew, not a cousin? I don't think the Greek really is necessarily translating this perfectly. It says he's a cousin, he's a kin.

Let's just leave it at that. This guy's in the family with Barnabas. And Wiest, I like this, Paul may have feared that Mark's defection from him, which led to the sharp quarrel between him and Barnabas, might prejudice the Colossians against him. And the mention of his relationship to Barnabas was probably intended as a recommendation to their kindness. He seems to have been unknown to the Colossians. I like that. Kind of puts that all in perspective, doesn't it?

And of course, this is the author of the Gospel of Mark. And so the desertion from Paul, you can go back and look at that, is something that ultimately, remember, Paul didn't want him with him. And so ultimately, John Mark went on his own, actually with Barnabas. So it was a diversion of the path going forward. What this shows to me is kind of Paul's forgiving. I mean, this past, whatever it was, you know, he's now listing him in this kind of list of people that he's addressing in the terminus of the Epistle to the Accostians.

So 2nd Timothy 4.11, only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you for he is useful to me for ministry. So this is kind of near the close of Paul's ministry in terms of saying that John Mark or Mark was really an important brother in the Lord that related to the ongoing ministry to follow.

Barnabas. He's a Levite from Cyprus. He was sought out and traveled with Saul, or actually initially Saul. Barnabas was very involved with Saul after his conversion. And we could go back to Acts 11 through 15's five chapters, we're not going to go back and read. But that whole section of scripture deals with how Barnabas interacted with Saul and then Paul during his trip to Jerusalem.

It's really kind of an interesting section of scripture to look at. So we could pick and choose and take bites out of that section this morning, but I thought that might take too much time. He accompanied Paul to Galatia and who also was accompanied by James and Cephas and John that's in Galatians chapter 2 and that was covered in the pulpit by Roger and Mike split that I don't recall exactly.

Jesus, Jesus, justice kind of interesting here this is translated from the Hebrew as Joshua and from the Greek it's Jesus or Jesus and from the Roman translation is justice. So we got all these kind of different names for the same person. Lightfoot says it is a common name or surname of Jews, meaning Jesus and proselytes, denoting obedience and devotion to the law. Okay, so that's kind of a literal translation of his name. As noted, these are my fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are of the circumcision. So that's what, you know, Paul has to share about the individuals who were just mentioned here.

And he and Aristotle, and were these among the few? I mean, I don't know. Maybe there were more, but the question is how many Jewish believers were actually part of this? Because the ministry to Colossae was in a Gnostic environment and to the Gentile world predominantly. So at least he's got some Jewish people with him. He mentions right there that he has three close pals who are also believers and also people who are helping teach the Jews what Jesus is all about to those who are interested. And these are not Judaizers, these are people on board with the grace message that Paul is bringing.

So the question I raised, which is unanswerable, were these among the few. Those are the only ones named here. So we have to assume that those are the ones that Paul wanted to identify. And he and Aristarchus proved to be a comfort to Paul. And that's reflected here and elsewhere. Paphras, I think, is an interesting individual. He's a native of Colossae. And he's described here as a bondservant, the Greek term is doulos, which is something meaning a very close relationship. And the only other person noted as a bondservant in their relationship to Paul is Timothy.

And that's noted in Philippians 1.1. You have to assume here that Epaphras had a special relationship with Paul. He doesn't know this for Barnabas. He doesn't know this for John Mark or Luke or anyone else that he's been historically associated with. So this special relationship to Paul is something Epaphras ultimately was part of.

He's called a faithful minister in Colossians 1.7.

We've covered that earlier. And in the scripture it says, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ and a warrior who has great zeal for you and those who are in Laodicea and those in Heropolis. So that's part of the text we're studying. We're going to come back to these verses, by the way, individually after we cover all the individuals noted here. Fellow prisoner with Paul, this is noted in Philemon 123, is this like Aristarchus?

And I think ultimately this is debated among the commentators. In a sense it's a contradiction in scripture, but is it really? So the question is at different times, at different locations, at different durations, there was actually this truly confinement in terms of a legal term of being imprisoned or confined to a shelter that did not give the liberty that was expected of the age. What do you think about that?

I mean, it said both were prisoners, but if you read between the lines, spiritual prisoners? I think they gutted it out with Paul. Okay. Would that make them a spiritual prisoner though? I mean, if they're prisoners with Paul, wouldn't that have to be literal to interpret that? Penny for your thoughts, maybe a nickel for your thoughts. Going big time. Nobody has any thoughts, okay? Yeah, I think you can speculate all you want. I mean, if this is a contradiction, we can dismiss it. I mean, I don't want to get into politics, but nevertheless. Do you want to say something or cough?

What do you mean by spiritual? Well, I get of the times, you know, kind of being isolated in terms of their view of this grace message in a world that's faced with legalism. Are they really referring to themselves that way? What do you think? I honestly am not.

He was forward-looking himself that way. So that would be your interpretation, you think, Roger? That kind of seems like, you know, it's like I said, you're a fellow brother in the teaching and how he holds, and I, you know, whatever. His favorite take.

But it does say prisoner and in Rome. So the fact that the geographic location has been mentioned makes me think that these guys may have been tied up for a short time. I don't know. We just don't need that. Wasn't there a time when they were sort of under house arrest too? Didn't that refer to in a couple of places? Not that I could find for these individuals. I think it was Paul when he was in prison, even like in Philippi, Silas was with him, who was his co-worker then.

But you know, some of those times when he'd been arrested, and possibly other guys, you know, literally. Okay, well let's move on to Luke. Luke's the beloved physician, noted in this section. The term beloved indicates, also indicates that he was a physician to Paul. I think the question is, Paul had lots of thorns and all this kind of stuff and I'm sure there were periods of time where all the people that traveled with Paul experienced illness. So the question is, you can speculate that if Luke is a physician and provides medical assistance, wouldn't he have done it with Paul?

I would think so. I'm just thinking that this is one of the more extensive listings of his fellow brotherhood that were with him. In a lot of places he mentions a few but he really lists a lot and they're pretty big heavy hitters too. Heavy hitters, I like that term. Maybe I should have said who are these heavy hitters rather than the guys. Big names in early Christianity for sure.

And traveling companion with Paul for sure, I mean that's noted here. And of course he's the author of the Gospel of Luke and also the book of Acts. And so we have that well documented. And when we were, when Byrne was teaching Acts, I think we kind of saw the way Luke wrote.

It was never a reference to himself, was it? I mean it's kind of like John and Luke very much left themselves out of these books. And of course the Gospel of Luke is directed to whom? Matthew is to whom? Jews. Mark is to whom? Rome is like a newspaper. That's why I look at Mark. Luke is to whom? Gentile world. And John is to whom?

That's a simplistic way to look at the gospel account, but I think it makes a lot of sense and helps. If you're sharing this with an unbeliever and they say, I've read Matthew and I don't really understand it, you can point out to them that maybe a different gospel account might be the one to look at first. We would typically recommend John when we have the four gospel accounts. Demas, kind of an interesting character here, and Roger we may ask you why he was mentioned. Notice, what does it say about Demas? Look at verse 14, what does it say? Also Demas. Also Demas. Also Postscript, Tom. Yeah, it kind of is, Tom. Postscript is what Tom says. So, fellow laborer, Philemon 124 calls him a fellow laborer.

But this is interesting because he had forsaken Paul, having loved this present world and had departed for Thessalonica, that's 2 Timothy 4.10. What do you make of that? We'll come back to that as we look at the verses individually. Maybe they've just been put on the shelf by the Lord and given the chance to think this one over. So does the Lord put people on the shelf? Okay, so disobedience is to what? What's disobedience to? Disobedience to the faith, right? It's not to a legal system, it's to the faith that he calls us to. Well, I'm going to comment on that with the individual verses, so we'll come back to that. But this is clearly later in the ministry. All right, so we're going to go to each verse individually and see if we pull out some pearls here. We know who all these players are now, right? The field is full. All right, so let the birds... What's that? Yeah, that's some broadcast, but not all. Never mind. Do you want to talk football? All right.

Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you with Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, about whom received instructions, if he comes to you, welcome him. So that's the verse. What does this welcoming or receiving, which is, by the way, an imperative, look like? What are your thoughts here? So I have an additional thought to consider. It can be interpreted as simply open your door or hand, like hello. Open your door to receive. Or alternatively it can relate to hospitality. What are we talking about here do you think? I think it's hospitality. Okay.

And what would hospitality look like in that day or today? make them feel like they were at their own home right in your home kind of implies something much more superlative than simply shaking somebody's hand or greeting I mean, it seems like he's telling them, these guys are solid, don't be afraid of what they're going to do. Okay, except Demas maybe, but at that time, well keep in mind, Demas at that time may have been a beloved brother in the Lord, it's simply he departed, we're told later in scripture, and that chronologically I'm sure was later than what Paul's describing here.

Hebrews 11.31, by faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace. I think, you know, Rahab, I mean, we hate to go back to that as an example. Hospitality was a pretty good one. These are people should not even know.

I mean, anyway, it's in the New Testament. Hebrews relates to that. In Hebrews 11, that's the chapter of those who live by faith. and here's a woman who was not of Jewish heritage who ultimately became essential in terms of what would follow. So a great woman of scripture, again neatly mentioned in Hebrews 11.

Let's turn to the next verse, Colossians 4.11. And Jesus who was called justice, these are my only fellow workers for the kingdom of God who are of the circumcision. Remember we're bringing John Mark into this. and we're also bringing Aristarchus.

And they've proved to be a comfort to me. So back to the theme we alluded to a little, Jews and Gentile believers were often not on the same page. And the question I would ask the class is, do you think this comfort to Paul was similar among them? This is speculation only for you. Well, he does it in phases, stick with the Hebrews for a while, stick with the Gentiles for a while in his commentary.

It's intended for the whole audience. Everybody gets prayed for, everybody deserves a good handshake and a welcome. They're all one Christ. And this is a repeated theme, so you'd have to believe that the relationship that Paul shared with both was quite similar. So I think the comfort of Paul was likely very similar between the two. These are mature believers who are listed in the, if you will, the great list of people who were in fact very special to Paul. They come from very different backgrounds, so the way they might have been different just because they were from very different backgrounds.

The thing that often I'm reminded of in the world system in which we live is that we talk about biases, diversity, prejudice, and all these kinds of terms, and it makes me think of the cross as the great equalizer of all men, all women, for all time. The cross. Everybody's the same at the foot of the cross.

And I think these were more mature believers who in fact walked in that atmosphere of grace that really was a comfort to Paul in similar ways with different backgrounds. I think this was a very, very effective group that is addressing the believers at Klossy. Alright, on to verse 12. So, laboring fervently. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon.

Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon. Agamemnon That's part of it. Okay.

So the description of a prayer here I think is very much like what the Lord himself was experiencing in the garden. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly than his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. That's the use of the same Greek term. So we're talking about a really wrestling in prayer, if you will, for the circumstances that these individuals were facing.

So, again, I promise this, what does Paul mean by standing perfect and complete or fully persuaded or assured in all the will of God? What's that look like? That's what a minister of the word of God does. I'm sorry, I'm hearing something back there. That's what a minister of the word of God does. He focuses on us being made complete by the Spirit of God showing us Christ just like we are showing Christ.

Is that an atmosphere of cockiness or elitism or something like that? No, it's not. What is it? We're all together in this. Alright, that's the body. It's suffering with Christ. That's basically what that means. Alright, how do we suffer with Christ? That Christ be formed in you, Paul said, is one way. Is that suffering?

It can be. From the standpoint of, here's a person who has the wrong perspective of something, and you pray for him, then you might be, by the Holy Spirit, made perfect and complete. Alright, that you may stand perfect and complete, it's you though, right? I mean, what Paul is addressing is Wayne, he's addressing Patty, he's addressing each and every one of us. We pray with agony for those, sometimes it's a wrestling kind of environment, we pray fervently, the Lord in the garden is the same Greek term.

But nevertheless, I think it's that we may stand, what makes us stand full and complete and assured in these circumstances? It's positional truth, isn't it? Isn't it our positional truth? We have everything in Christ Jesus. We may doubt that at times.

I mean, the flesh shows up. But the more we focus on our position, read the Hungry Heart today, we're so thinking about ourselves and how God's ministering to us, but in fact we need to put ourselves in Christ's perspective and have that life by the Spirit led truth live out within each and every one of us. We fall short, but you have strength in position. This agonism I word is an agony, it's a process. and we're concerned about those who don't.

Well, but you may stand perfect. Perfect's the idea that we do stand perfect, don't we? There's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. It's mature. Mature, okay. So, isn't the goal of, you know, that we're mature in Christ, we come, as Paul says, we all come to maturity, I've written the verse, but anyway, God's desire now is that we become mature in Him, you know, fully trusted. So that's the ultimate goal, but we won't reach that until glory.

Is he talking about how we're supposed to pray for each other? Like when I'm praying for our fellow Christians that they can be in this place? Well, it says that Epaphras, he's always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you, meaning all of us, may stand perfect and complete. So that's the prayer, I guess we pray for the body, that ultimately the foundational truths of scripture would be manifested in each and every one of us, and that's really the positional truth. Every believer for every other believer.

One of the things that has not been talked about is the will of God. What is the will of God? I was going there, what is the will of God? One vision is that you may know Him and the fullness of His majesty. When I think of the will of God, I think of what Christ said to the doubting members of the Jewish hierarchy, and also think about Romans 8. So the will of God is being conformed into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what did Christ say to the Pharisees when they say, I forget what the question was, but it was, you know, what is the will of God?

What did Christ say to them when they asked him that question? says, believe on him who he hath sent. Wow, I mean that's only in John, but what a good place for that. The will of God to the Pharisees, the doubting, you know, self-righteous individuals was to believe in him, meaning me, who the Lord has sent. Tom and then Roy. Tom? I'm thinking that one verse, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men to me. Okay, that was a promise, wasn't it? Including you, right? And me.

I'm thinking of the verses that say that he wept and he cried. He wept, cried, okay. Yeah, and isn't that of his will? And he wanted to gather you like a hand together and you wouldn't run. That's his will. Okay, good thoughts here. So the will, this process of confirmation, and I still love the Gospel account to believe on Him of which He is sent, of whom He is sent. So great, great answer to a very, very difficult question. What's the will of God?

You know, there's a good example too in Mark. I think Paul probably prayed for Mark when he deserted Him. More likely because there's no sign once they got back together there was any issue here. and we're just going different paths. The Lord used that. It's an application here that Mark might be made complete.

Alright, good. Good comments. Onward. I just had one scripture here. Romans 15. Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another. So in a sense that kind of relates to this verse that Paul has written to the church at Colossae. Let's look at that again. I myself, Paul is confident concerning you, meaning the body, this was to the Romans, my brethren, that you are also full of goodness. That goodness is only You know, by the way, this is the end of Romans.

Romans already has taken you through the idea that you're made righteous and you've been buried with him, baptized with him unto death, and risen with him in newness of life, full of goodness. That's positional truth, hopefully transformed into condition, filled with all knowledge. That's knowledge of Scripture, everything they've been presented, and able also to admonish one another. That's kind of this body of believers praying for one another and ultimately standing firm in the truth in which we are saved.

Good, verse 13. For I bear him witness that he has a great zeal, who are we talking about here? Epaphras, right? So I bear Epaphras witness that he has a great zeal or concern for you and those who are in Laodicea and those that are in Hierapolis. Laodicea and Heropolis, by the way, geographically are located very close to Colossae, and likely churches, I mean this is commentation, but several different commentators thought that these churches were likely founded by Epaphras. Remember, he's a bond servant, he's close to Christ, and I suspect that closeness relates to the ministry that he was involved with.

That's speculation, but anyway, this is what ultimately the commentators, several of them, thought. I think we claimed that, somebody else did too. What does this great zeal look like? I think there was one instance, and this is just a baby example, and I forget where it was in scripture, but Paul kind of complimented a certain group of people who said if it were possible, That's zeal, David. Okay, that's zeal. Let's all, me and Karen, go ahead. I want to go back to a couple verses here. I think he was the one that prayed fervently for them all. Prayed for what? Prayed fervently for them, and so zeal and prayer. Also, great zeal can be translated deep concern. And that's why I used parenthesis concern.

Let's look at verses 5 and 6 again, and Colossians 4. David, would you read those please? walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know ye ought to answer every man.

That kind of fits here, doesn't it? That's good applied doctrine. I think that's what this seal looks like. We're enthusiastic about the Lord. We're led circumstantially to share this truth. Ultimately, you know, redeeming the time, that means we, you know, now's the time. But also with salt, that means we have to be founded in truth to really share it effectively.

Tom, go ahead. Kind of like high octane truth. Yeah, I put 91 in my Mustang. Yeah, OK. They told me to. Not that I could go faster, of course. What's this laughter all about up here? Never mind. Alright, onward. And I think it's a good reminder, it's not what you do, it's who you are. In a sense, sharing the Lord and zeal is who we are. And we all have different personalities and when opportunities avail we may address this in different ways because we're soft-spoken, we're more outspoken, we all have a certain amount of knowledge about the truth, but nevertheless we're all part of the body and we all are positioned in heavenly places and that truth needs to be presented as the time is being redeemed in a way that's seasoned with salt.

Colossians 2.4, now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. I mean remember we're dealing with a Gnostic environment around these individuals and I think this zeal probably relates to the sharing of the gospel in a way that's being doubted by the many individuals to whom the Colossian believers face on a day-to-day basis.

All right, last verse. Luke, the beloved physician, and oh yeah, Demas, we greet you too. It's almost kind of an afterthought there, isn't it? But no, I mean, Demas is part of the group. At that time, you know, he had, as far as we know, was part of the body and he got a little distracted going forward.

Macaulay claims that Luke was with Paul in prison. Do you agree? Luke had a freer ministry than Paul. He was there to document and Paul was there to teach. Okay, I mean the description of Paul's imprisonment comes from Luke, doesn't it? In Acts. I mean, so, he must have been pretty close to the circumstances. Patty? And even in 2 Timothy, when he was in prison, I mean, he does mention Demas. He says, only Luke is with me. That's good, that's a good point. Only Luke was with me and Demas wasn't at that time. Good.

Alright, again back to Paul's role as a physician. Did he give medical advice? I would think so. Everything Luke knew about the medical profession at that time. It wasn't like he wrote a prescription and we went down to the pharmacy to get it filled here. That sounded profound. Let's hear that again. What was that? That's what I thought you said. Mad Magazine. How many people read Mad Magazine?

The rest of you are trying to appear self-righteous. Anyway, no modifier in terms of Paul's experience with Demas. He simply mentioned he's being greeted here. So that makes us raise our eyebrows a little bit. This is almost certainly before Demas was distracted by the ways of the world.

And we'll return to the fact that the epistle of Colossians was written at least 20 years before 2nd Timothy. Many people doubt that actually, who wrote 2nd Timothy? I mean, they think it may have been Luke or someone else who wrote this. I don't know, what do you think? Who wrote 2nd Timothy? Well, you know, according to the dates of these scriptures and how accurate those are, I'm not quite sure, it said 90 to 140 A.D. is when 2 Timothy was written.

I don't know. I mean, that would have to be John, wouldn't it? I mean, that late? I don't know. But anyway, I think Demas was ultimately greeted, but the knowledge of what would occur in Demas's life was not really apparent at that particular time. So any other thoughts on this? Oh, good for you. There's another thought coming from the back. What's that? You are a doctor. I guess.

And if you were associated with a man of God and going here and there, around, certainly you would be giving him advice and keeping him healthy. Well I think the Lord's provided an example. What an intimacy there must have been between these two men. Especially since we know that Paul had some kind of an infirmity. Well we know he had some form of an infirmity.

And wasn't it possible, because it's mentioned other places, that when Paul was in prison, you know, back then, if people didn't come to you and bring you food and things, you were not fed by the Roman guards. I mean, it's not like, you know, you couldn't become an attorney in jail and things like that. You were dumped in there and you didn't have people who came to you. So there were people who were coming back and forth bringing food and ministering to you. Sure. And you and I have seen the prison that Paul has been in several times. It was down underground. It's a hole. They just throw you in this hole. You're in this dark place.

But it's interesting that even though he was arrested under the government of Rome, they were obviously permissive to allow food to be brought. He survived that imprisonment. So the whole issue, Peter's never mentioned here. And if you look, is there anybody who thinks that Peter ever was in Rome? I don't think there's really ever any documentation. Boy, if you go there, there's all kinds of things. Yeah, really, Peter's the rock.

Yeah, I was just thinking what a mercy of the Lord to provide Luke to be with him. Really true. And the question is how much value was a physician in the presence of Paul and his various maladies? There are numerous medications that have come from plants of the earth, so it's possible that he would implement the best of the times in terms of recommendations. I look at Luke as a very humble man.

Again, the book of Acts doesn't reflect at all on who's writing it. And it's not written from a medical perspective. It's written by a true apostle of the Lord. And he wrote two books. Not just one, but the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist. I think the Lord uses us all in very special ways to meet the needs of the body. I'm thinking that God meets our needs and what was the need of Paul.

Any other thoughts on this section? As you read the Old Testament, you kind of wonder, why does God provide this section of scripture for us? How does that relate to us at this time, all these names and all these genealogies and everything? I'm not questioning the Lord in terms of what's in scripture, but this section is mostly historical, but I think woven into that are relationships that relate to each one of us in the body of Christ and what we're called to, doesn't it?

Let's in closing look at the verses that follow. Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea and Nymphos and the church which is in his home. And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of Laodiceans, and that ye also read the epistle from Laodicea. And say to Heraclipus, take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that you fulfill it. Salutation by the hand of me, Paul, remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.

So if you think of Laodicea, and I think this is going to be covered in the next few weeks, what do you think of when you think of the seven churches of revelation in terms of Laodicea? Does anybody remember the message to that church? A lukewarm church. And what would Christ do with a lukewarm church? It's not pleasant what he'd do with that. Anyway, just thinking ahead a little bit about what's going to follow. I'm not sure how much that's going to really be covered. Any other thoughts on this section today?