When it comes to success in most industries, sports, and even homes, success is a byproduct of community. There are groups of people working together to see success in the home, the workplace, or on these sports teams. We even have phrases that try and capture this, like, teamwork makes the dream work, or there's no I in team, or takes the village to raise a child, you name it, we have many phrases like this. But these cliches do not exist because they are untrue or uncommon. They exist because they are common and frequently true. This is not to say that there are some sports teams, or some industries, or some families where there is a solo parent or a solo individual having success. Does it happen? Yes, it's totally possible. But it isn't normative. There are exceptions to the rules. Even in the most solo sport that we could have in today's culture, F1 racing, there are pit crews, and there are lap teams, and there are engineers. The list goes on. There are different roles given to different people so that the driver may truly succeed in crossing the finish line. Each person is doing their part, whether seen or unseen, so that the goal could be accomplished. And the same is true in gospel ministry. To have a healthy and successful gospel ministry, we see that gospel ministry is done in community. That is the normative way of God working. Even for the Apostle Paul, whom we see and look at and say that he was this super Christian, he even did ministry in community. What we see in this passage is that Paul and his companions collectively sought God's goal with their goods and their gifts. We see in these verses that gospel ministry is done in community. We see this in the three different lists that Paul gives us. We see this in his list of encouragers, his list of comforters, and his list of benefactors. And those lists will serve as our outline this morning. Seeing this main point that gospel ministry is done in community, thus we collectively are to seek God's goal with our goods and our gifts. And we will see this in Paul's list of encouragers, comforters, and benefactors. Look at me at our first point, encouragers. The list of names, given the last few verses of Colossians, are ones that we easily gloss over. We can think that they don't matter, or they don't have any value. These words are not the clear instruction that Paul gives early in Colossians. They're not the teachings about doctrine. But like I prayed earlier, we believe in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, that all Scripture is God-breathed, profitable for teaching, reproof, for brook, correction, and training in righteousness. That's why in our services we walk through a narrative account in our call to repentance. Or even next week, Lord willing, we will work through Matthew's genealogy. And even looking at this epilogue, we believe that God has given Paul these words, to rebuke us, to correct us, and to train us. These names, they might be distant to us, but what Paul says here is given for our benefit, even if we are reading them 2,000 years later. Though there are names here that might not be familiar to us, their work and life is for our instruction. So please look at me at verse 7. Paul tells us of Tychicus, a fellow minister and a servant of the Lord, that he will deliver this letter that he has written for him. But Tychicus is more than a postman. He is a preacher, a fellow minister. When Paul uses that word, he is giving him the same office that he himself addresses himself as. Tychicus is mentioned in 2 Timothy, he is mentioned in Titus, and we are told almost that he is like this itinerant preacher. He is like the pulpit supply of that modern age. He is being sent to the different places to care for these fledgling churches. Along with him, Paul sends Onesimus, who is a freed slave, likely a Gentile, but also likely a resident of Colossae. Paul says he is one of you. And given the context, what we see here is that they are given the task of sharing how Paul is doing, but also giving clarity to what Paul has written here, so that the church would be encouraged. That is the goal. That the church of Colossae would hear from God through Paul by Tychicus and Onesimus. These co-workers of Paul had the weighty task of preaching and leading a message that was not their own. As someone who does this most weeks of the year, it is a wonderful task, but it is very difficult. But it is God's chosen means to comfort and instruct his people. Preaching is not something that we have made up in the present day. It is an activity that has been passed down through the ages to comfort and encourage and exhort God's people. And particularly for the church of Colossae, they lived in a time where multiple gospel workers are in prison for their faith. They are not just guilty by association. They are guilty for the same reason that Paul was in prison. They were guilty for being workers of the gospel. So Paul, the good pastor, though in change, encourages the people of God. And you can think about this. Onesimus and Tychicus are putting their lives at risk. They are bearing the cost to continue on in ministry. But this condition that Paul found himself in did not detract from the faith. Instead, what he sought to do was to encourage his people. If you were to take one major note from the letter of the Colossians, I hope you take it as this encouragement. Because that is what Paul says we should take. He is sending his coworkers to encourage the people of God to stay the course, using their time, their gifts, and all that they have to preach and edify the church. That they would continue on encouraged in the Lord. In this we see that gospel ministry is done in community. Paul is not this lone ranger who is just working for the gospel by himself. And neither are his coworkers. We see that the mission of God is not a solo mission. Last week we were instructed on how to pray and how to witness. This week we are seeing that that mission is not accomplished alone. God uses his community to accomplish his purposes. Not through one person. Instead it is done through, in and through the body of Christ both locally and globally. What we should see though is that what is described here sounds like it is given to pastors. It is given to officers or elders. And that is true. Likely, Tychicus was an officer of the church and he is sent out to do this work. But that being said, doesn't mean that you and I are not to participate in encouragement. We are. We are. This is not just a work for elders. We might not be living in the dire straits of first century Rome. But we are a people who are prone to fear and to discouragement. And these fears and discouragements can persist in our souls. When we look at the conditions of today, we are people who need courage that we would see the next day. I need you. You need me. We need each other as we seek to not fall to our own cowardice. But instead to hold fast to the Lord even in the midst of trial. Whether it is ridicule, whether it is discomfort, whether it is opposition or persecution. Well Paul is saying for the people of Colossae and to us today is to hold and stand firm in the faith. As I wrote this message, I was thinking of our current climate. I thought of our parliament right now as they consider Bill C-9. If you are unfamiliar with Bill C-9, it is a bill that would classify portions of scripture as hate speech because they do not accord with the popular beliefs of gender and sexuality. We, they are people, good Christians seeking to amend this current bill. But as we consider this current climate, we can be pressed to fear. But church, we are not the first generation that has experienced this. That has experienced persecution, if you want to call it that, or even experienced the consequences of being outlawed. Paul knew this treatment. His fellow prisoners knew this treatment. But not only Paul, but throughout the ages we read of faithful followers of Christ like John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress who was jailed for 12 years in Bedford, England, for preaching outside the Church of England. Through his time in jail, he wrote one of the greatest literary works in history. John Bunyan was not this crazy academic. He was actually ridiculed as a tinker. An uneducated man was passionate and convicted of his faith and he sought to instruct God's people. He used the time, redeemed it for God's purposes. And that was still true for the Apostle Paul. Though in jail, he sought to bless, to encourage, and to benefit others. Paul did not give in to the temptation to be a doomsdayer or a cynic. He was hopeful in all things because he knew his God. He encouraged others to do the same. And what we see here is that courage is contagious. We do not need to poison the well, church, with cynicism and fear. Instead, we can be hopeful, encouraging one another despite our present circumstances. The government, our neighbors, our colleagues, they will do what they will do. We have little to no control. But what we do control is how we will speak, how we will think, and how we will live in the midst of trial. So what we need today is not to shrink back in fear, not to be cynical, not to just bolster out in all this criticism. Instead, what God calls us to is to continue on in faith, to encourage one another with the word of God, knowing the truths of this letter that Paul taught. Or wrote, that Jesus Christ is the Lord of lords and kings. That all thrones and dominions are to him and for him. Even when it doesn't look like it or feel like it, that truth is true. So may we commit ourselves to gospel ministry looking to our God, with the goal of encouraging one another to use our gifts, to persist in the faith. And I know this is easier said than done, but each of us in our weakness, as we seek to strengthen one another's hands and weak knees, God uses that because this courage is contagious. And so we've seen in this text that gospel ministry is done in community. We've seen this in Paul's list of encouragers. Now let us look at his list of comforters. Look at me at verses 10 to 11. Eris Starkis, who is in prison with Paul, is also communicating with Mark and Justice, who are likely around the prison, speaking to Paul. These individuals are not just ministering alongside Paul, they are ministering to Paul himself. It's hard to know exactly who these individuals are. We don't have lots of information on Eris Starkis. We do know that Mark was related to Barnabas, but Jesus and this individual Justice, we really have no other record of. But these individuals sought to minister alongside Paul and to Paul. Mark was even poised to go and visit Colossae. But these men, what they did was comfort the Apostle Paul as he was in prison. They are men of Jewish descent. This is what Paul means, that they were of the circumcision and they labored for the kingdom of God. Seeking to care for one another as they cared. Seeking to care for one another, but also caring for the world. This was the posture of these men as they sought for God's kingdom to come on earth. That was their goal. They didn't seek after this goal at the neglect of caring for each other. Instead, they sought to be missional at the same time. Something that we should think about as we consider these truths is that we don't want to become so missional that we forget the workers. But we also don't want to be so maintenance driven that we only look at ourselves. Gospel ministry is a community project that takes into consideration both maintenance and mission. If we only look after maintenance and our comforts, we will drift into being a country club. If we only look to be missional, we will become a sending agency with unhealthy missionaries. There are bitches on both sides. But church, we do not need to pick between either or posture. Instead, Paul shares here that we can labor in both maintenance and mission towards the church. The example and instruction given here is not to just influence us on how we interact with pastors, but also how we interact with one another. I think especially how we interact with other officers of the church. This means seeking to care for our elders and our deacons. It's not just their job to care for you. It is right for them to care for you. They should be caring for you. But I encourage you to consider what it looked like for you to care for them. And I don't say this in a posture of contempt towards you, Bedford Presbyterian Church. I think in many ways you excel at this. I think of my first-hand experience as your new pastor that many of you continue and consistently ask how I'm doing, how Dina's doing. Or even when we first got here, you guys gave us meals and chairs and tables and microwaves, especially as our shipping container was delayed. Or I can think of your acts of care towards Don and Lois in the midst of his heart attack and onwards. And so this is something that you excel at. They're amazing things and we do not take them for granted. But I ask you to consider what this looks like towards one another. Not just towards your pastor or former pastor. What does this look like towards the elders, the deacons and each other? We labor for the good of the world on mission, but also for the good of one another. The word comfort can feel like we shouldn't have that as Christians. And I think that is just a big fat lie that people have taken to mean something you shouldn't. There has been a glorification over the years of what I would call the suffer gospel in the West. In many ways, I think it's a reaction to the prosperity gospel, thinking that being opposed or suffering or hurting is somehow succeeding in ministry. But that's not the case, church. Suffering will happen in life. And there is an expectation we hope that people would be comforted in those times. That's a good thing. But being prosperous will also take place and we should seek to be comforting one another in those times of prosperity. It's almost easy in the times of prosperity to become lackadaisical. Neither of these places, prosperity or suffering, tell us that we are either sinning or succeeding. They are simply just the byproduct of life. Regardless of which epoch we find ourselves in, whether it's a time of prosperity or suffering, would we seek to be comforters and workers of God's kingdom wherever he has placed us? As we see, gospel ministry is done in community. It's hard work, but we need one another. This is not just work that's given to a select few. It's one that we bear together as we seek to share God's news with the world and with one another. Because there are days where we must lift each other's heads towards the good news of the gospel. You do that for me, I do that for you, and may you do that for one another. All people alike. So we've seen that gospel ministry is done in community. We've seen this in Paul's list of encouragers, comforters. Let us look at our last point, benefactors. Unlike the last two words in our outline, those words are found in the text and in many ways they are common. But benefactors need some explanation. And a benefactor means to give your money to someone or to a cause, typically money. But it can mean more than that. Paul in verses 12 to 18 shares about a variety of people giving of themselves their goods, their gifts, all for the sake of the church. Both locally and globally, or I guess more so in this case regionally, that these individuals are benefactors for gospel ministry. For ministry today, we still need benefactors, giving to the church so that we can participate in ministry with one another. In verse 12, we are reminded of a paphorus who is likely the church planter and pastor of Colossae. Not only laboring in Colossae, but also in Heropolis and Laodicea. This would be the equivalent of me being the pastor at Bedford, but then also pastoring a church in Halifax and then pastoring a church in Dartmouth. They weren't large distances, likely 15 kilometers each way. They were sort of set in a triangle like these three cities are. And a paphorus is pastoring each of them, encouraging each of them. You can imagine how much work that was. And a paphorus, like any good pastor, labors in prayer so that his ministry to his congregation and beyond, that his people would be mature in the faith. Not just in Colossae, but also Laodicea and Heropolis and beyond. Heropolis was spending his goods and his gifts towards this ministry. And Paul commends that and articulates that. Next, we are told of Luke and Demas in verse 14. Luke is the writer of Luke and Acts, the gospel of Luke and Acts, or book of Acts. Luke is one of Paul's close companions, collecting an orderly account so that his writings would benefit the church. He again is using his gifts, his time, his finances to this very end. As for Demas, who is seen positively in this portion of the text, we know later in life he denies the faith and leaves Paul. We see that in 2 Timothy. Though God seemed to have Demas as one of Paul's closest companions, we know that he did not keep the faith. And I think that gives us a sense of pause and sobriety as we consider our own lives and our own hearts. And I encourage us to pray for one another that those who have professed faith keep the faith. Just because we find ourselves in ministry doing things for God, with God, in brackets, in quotations, doesn't truly mean that we're Christians. Which is a scary thing. And I don't say this to scare you, I say this to encourage you to work out your faith with fear and trembling. Church, I know you've been around the block once or twice and that you've seen this for yourselves. There will be those who deny the faith and depart, those whom we even labor alongside. We pray that that would not be the case in our church and so may we pray that God would keep us and lead us and protect us. Lastly, Paul mentions Nympha and Archippus, who are both in Laodicea. Paul instructs in these verses that they should circulate this letter in multiple cities, particularly Laodicea. He also says that the Colossians should read the letter to the Laodiceans. If you know your Bibles, you know that we do not have the letter to the Laodiceans. I'm sure it was a good letter, but God did not preserve it for us today, so I don't think we need to be concerned about it. God gave us these words to instruct us and to lead us. But returning to Nympha, she is only mentioned here one time. She's not mentioned anywhere else. She's mentioned that the church of Laodicea met in her house. It was likely that Nympha was this wealthy patron who had a large enough home that the church could meet in it. It's not till the third and fourth century where church buildings become a thing, where they're built, but until that time there was a series of house churches and a large part, and this was in large part because Christianity was a persecuted religion, so they couldn't have this public-facing witness. But what we see with Nympha is that she used what she had for the sake of gospel ministry. She sought to benefit the church with her possessions. In many ways, you do this yourselves, as you give to the work of our church so that I can be employed, that we can keep the lights on in here, that we can give this building and bless others with it. You give so that it can be rightly entrusted to the church. But the example of Nympha is truly amazing. She is likely a widow or a single woman supporting the church with what she had. And throughout this list that we've seen, we've seen people of all different backgrounds and places doing gospel ministry in community. These different people, whether Jew or Gentile, with varied gifts and goods, sought to benefit the body by blessing each other with what they had. In so many ways, I ask that you continue in what you already are doing today. In other ways, I would ask you to consider where greater faithfulness might be needed or even expected if God is so convicting you. Just like archivists in this passage, we are told of a young man or maybe an older man who is not fulfilling his ministry. There were talents that were being buried, gifts not being used, goods not being shared. And just as Paul called to archivists, I called to figurative archivists today, that you take responsibility, that you use the ministry that God has entrusted to you. Not deferring responsibility, as we heard last week, but seeing in God's economy that God has given much to those that God has given much, much as expected. For those who are given and do not use, what was given to you in the first place will be taken away. And so church, would you use your lives well? Seeking out to do gospel ministry in this community project. There is not just some super individual that's going to accomplish God's mission in the world. It is God's body working together for his goal with their goods and their gifts for his name sake. And so would we be encouraging, comforting and benefiting the body as God has called us. And if God is convicting you in any particular area, would you respond in faith today? This is a hard text and I don't want to moralize it or spiritualize it any further. And so I leave this and bear this for you to consider how God may be calling you. But as we close, let's close with this. There was one who was more, who did more than just encourage, comfort and benefit believers. He was rich, but became poor so that we would be rich. He was righteous, but became sin so that we could be righteous. He died so that we could live. Jesus Christ, the head of the church gave of himself so that we would know him. That we would seek his goal with our gifts and our goods. And with this gift that's given to us, we don't respond as an act of compulsion or even requirement. This life that we are now given to lead is a gift church. And so as we share in it now, would others share in it also? And would we give our lives just as Jesus gave his? Let us pray.