Colossians 1:7 and 4:12: Epaphras: A Man of Prayer

INRODUCTION

Thomas Boston, who lived in the late 1600s and early 1700s, was a Scottish pastor who was known for his godly leadership and tender-heart. He served in a little country parish in Scotland. He wrote a memoir that has been read ever since by the Christians in Scotland.

In 1699 he wrote in his memoir that he was deeply troubled for the welfare of his people. He writes that in his anxiety he asked a member of his congregation, James Minto, to pray for his people. He described his friend James Minto as “a godly man, a mighty pleader in prayer, though otherwise of very ordinary abilities.”

I wonder, what quality it was in James Minto that convinced his pastor that he was “a mighty pleader in prayer.” Was it because he had heard Minto pray with fervency and urgency? Did he have evidence that Minto obtained remarkable answers to his prayers? Was it that he had learned that Minto spent much time in prayer? I suppose it was all of these.

Today I want to read about a Bible character who was like James Minto, “a mighty pleader in prayer.” His name was Epaphras. I will read to you three short mentions in Paul’s letters to the Colossians and to Philemon in the Bible that tell us all we need to know about Epaphras:

Paul writes his letter to the believers in Colossae from a prison cell somewhere, perhaps in Rome. At the very beginning of his letter Paul tells the believers that he thanks God for them and rejoices that they have been growing in the faith and good works ever since the learned the truth of God from their minister Epaphras. He describes Epaphras as “our beloved fellow servant…a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf” (Colossians 1:7).

And in the last chapter of the same letter he sends along a greeting from Epaphras, who, we learn, is with Paul in the prison. He writes, “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.” The phrase I read—“always remembering you earnestly in his prayers”—is literally, ”He is always wrestling in his prayers on your behalf…” And it is translated that way in newer translations.

Then in his letter to his friend Philemon, which appears to have been sent along with the letter to the Colossians, Paul mentions Epaphras again. He writes, “Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you.”

Those few words tell us all we know about Epaphras. But they tell us that he was the missionary evangelist who brought the gospel to Colossae. He was a faithful pastor of the church in Colossae. His church responded to his leadership by becoming outstanding for its faith and love.

Epaphras had come to Paul with a report of his people—and perhaps to ask Paul’s advice in dealing with a false teaching in his region.

But while in Rome he had been arrested and was now in prison with Paul.

The greatest thing we know about Epaphras was his remarkable prayer life. Paul writes: “He is always wrestling in his prayers on your behalf…”

I. Let us go in our imagination and watch Epaphras in his prison cell in Rome, thousands of miles away from his home and from his congregation that missed him greatly.

A. One blessing for Epaphras was that one of his companions in prison was the apostle Paul. There were other people there: escaped slaves, thieves, bandits, and maybe other Christians packed into that small, dark room. Archeologists have uncovered ancient prisons, and they were grim places.

Jesus said, “When you pray, go into your room, and close the door…” But that command of our Lord didn’t apply to Epaphras. He didn’t have any room to go into; he didn’t have any privacy. Probably some of the prisoners mocked him when they saw him praying so earnestly. But that didn’t deter him.

B. Epaphras was anxious about his people back in Colossae. They needed him. And that made him pray all the harder. But Epaphras’s anxiety was good kind of anxiety because he turned it into prayer.

Epaphras prayed urgently because the needs of his people were great.

Epaphras prayed when he went to bed. He prayed when he woke up in the middle of the night. He began each day with prayer. He prayed with Paul. Whenever the face of a loved one in Colossae came to mind Epaphras prayed for that person.

Paul watched Epaphras pray. He noticed how earnestly he prayed for his people, and when he wrote his letter to Colossae he told them about how their pastor wrestled for them in his prayers.

C. Epaphras prayed for his friends in his church back in Colossae. They were always in his mind.

He prayed for the parents that they would have wisdom to guide their children.

He prayed for the children that they would grow up strong and good and love Jesus.

He prayed especially for the single mothers and single fathers. There would have been single parents because many people died very young in those days.

He prayed for the single women in his congregation who needed husbands and for the single men in his congregation who needed wives, that they would find godly partners.

He prayed for those who were poor or handicapped or sick.

He prayed for those who were drifting from the faith.

He prayed for the believers who were slaves that God would preserve them from bitterness. He prayed for the masters who were Christians that they would be gentle.

He prayed for the rich Christians that they would be generous, and he prayed for the poor Christians that they would trust God.

But most of all, Epaphras prayed, as Paul says, that all would “stand mature and fully assured in everything God wills.”

II. Epaphras prayed hard. The Greek word is agonizamenos, from which we get our word, ”agonizing.” It’s best translated, “wrestling.” Epaphras was “always wrestling in prayer” for them.

A. Epaphras didn’t wrestle in prayer because he thought that God wouldn’t bless his people unless he begged and bullied God into doing what he wanted. Epaphras knew that God loves to answer prayer, but he also knew that God wants us to mean business when we pray.

B. He knew that it takes serious prayer to release God’s power. God is limited by his people’s casual prayers. We read in the gospels that Jesus could do few great works in his home town of Nazareth because of the people’s unbelief.

God’s power is released by believing prayer. God has put his people in charge of some parts of his work.

I heard a famous theologian explain it this way: “When we pray, we line up our will with God’s will, and then God is able to work” (John Polkinghorne, physicist and theologian).

C. Epaphras wrestled in his prayer because he shared in the sufferings of his people. He felt the distress of the believing woman with the unbelieving husband. He felt the distress of the believing slave who was abused by his master.

Sympathy is to feel the hurt in another’s heart, and compassionate prayer is to pray with the same sense of grief that is in the heart of the one for whom we are praying.

CONCLUSION

Let’s let Epaphras teach us how to pray for our loved ones.

Epaphras teaches us to pray compassionately, to share the struggles and joys of those we pray for.

Epaphras teaches us to pray most of all for the spiritual welfare of our loved ones.

Epaphras teaches us to pray passionately. If we can’t feel the urgency of our prayer, let’s just keep praying and make up in frequency what our prayers lack in weight.

A missionary from the Fiji Islands told me that he once heard one of the island believers pray to God: “Lord, make us bulldogs in prayer!” Epaphras was a bulldog in prayer.

When we get to heaven we may find out that the best work we did on earth was our prayers.

When we learn how much our prayers accomplished, we may be sorry we weren’t more diligent in our praying.

My father’s Grandfather Sommerville came from Scotland. He was a coal miner and very poor. I never knew Great Grandfather Sommerville; he died in 1918, long before I was born. But we have stories in our family about him.

Great Grandfather Sommerville had three children: my father, Uncle Jim, and Aunt Maggie.

When Great Grandfather Sommerville was old he lived alternatively with the families of his three children—my father’s family, the family of his Uncle Jim, and the family of his Aunt Maggie.

As a child, my father always enjoyed the months when his Grandpa Sommerville was in their home.

Great Grandpa Sommerville was very hard of hearing. When he prayed, he prayed out loud. He would go upstairs to his room, shut the door, and pray. Because he was so hard of hearing, he didn’t realize how loud he was praying.

My father—as a child—liked to creep up the stairs and listen outside the door of his grandfather’s room to hear his prayers. Because he was so hard of hearing, Great Grandpa Sommerville didn’t know how loud he was talking. One day, listening outside the closed door, my father heard his grandfather scolding the Lord, in no uncertain terms. He said to the Lord, “Now look what you’ve done!” He held the Lord accountable. He talked more freely to the Lord than he did to anyone else.

At Great Grandpa’s funeral, Dad’s Aunt Maggie greeted her brother, my father’s father, with tears in her eyes. She said, “Oh, Willie, who will pray for us now?”

Let’s not forget to pray—especially for our children and loved ones. It will make more difference than we think. Make a list, and pray over that list every day. Pray for your children’s work, for their health, for their marriages, for their families, that they will love and serve God and that they will show their love by serving others.

And let them know that you pray for them.

And pray for all the people you know here at Village Ridge. They are your neighbors, and Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves. One way we love other people is to love them in our prayers.