PT-1 "The Man with a Servant's Heart" (Col. 4:7-8)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/10/2017 7:42 PM

My Worship Time                                               Focus:  PT-1 “The Man with A Servant’s Heart”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 4:7-8

            Message of the verses:  “7 As to all my affairs, Tychicus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bond-servant in the Lord, will bring you information. 8 For I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts;”

            John MacArthur writes that “Tychicus means ‘fortuitous,’ or fortunate.’”  When you look at the meaning of his name as can be seen as fortunate we have to agree that he was indeed fortunate in serving the Lord with the Apostle Paul.  Tychicus’ name is mentioned five times in the New Testament and even though not a lot is said about him we can be sure that what is written about him shows that he was given a rich profile of him.

            I will list the five times that his name is mentioned in the New Testament. 

Ac 20:4 And he was accompanied by Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, and by Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.

Eph 6:21 But that you also may know about my circumstances, how I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make everything known to you.

Col 4:7 As to all my affairs, Tychicus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bond-servant in the Lord, will bring you information.

2Ti 4:12 But Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.

Tit 3:12 When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, make every effort to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.

            The background from the first mention of Tychicus in Acts 20:4 takes place near the end of the third missionary trip of Paul.  It was Paul’s desire to take a collection from the Gentile churches that he started to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem because of a famine that was going on.  He wanted the Jewish believers to understand that the Gentile believers did love them.  Paul planned to take some Gentile believer from Greece and also from Asia Minor which was representatives of the Gentile churches and one of them would be Tychicus.  This took a great trust in the Lord to do this as there was hostility between these different churches.  It also shows that Tychicus had a servant’s heart to do this task as traveling in that day and age was certainly not like it is in our modern world today. 

            Paul’s letter to the Colossian church came two years after his trip to Jerusalem and he went through a lot during that time period, most all of it was spent in prison.  As you read the ending chapters of the book of Acts you will read about a sea voyage that was very dangerous, but the Lord had promised Paul that he would get to Rome.  (We will conclude this section in our next SD, God willing.)

6/10/2017 8:12 PM