COORDINATED MINISTRY

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need.

Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith.

Grace be with you all.

Titus 3:12-13, 15

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like for the Apostle Paul during his years of Gospel ministry, especially in regard to the challenges he faced. For from the moment he received his Gospel calling after his Damascus encounter with Jesus, Paul labored tirelessly for the cause of Christ and the salvation of others.

Christianity was a fledgling religion at the time, far less established than other world belief systems. And so as Paul embarked on his missionary journeys, he was first introducing and then attempting to entrench the Gospel through establishing Christian churches in places where there was sure to be push back and opposition. And yet, he was undeterred in his drive to serve Jesus and answer His call to evangelize to the “ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

As he did this and planted churches across what we know as Europe and Asia today, he also had to identify, train, and appoint missionary leaders to assist him as he couldn’t be everywhere at the same time. Through the Book of Acts and his epistles, which dominate the New Testament after the Gospels, we read of Paul writing directly to leaders he has appointed to pastor churches (i.e. Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete) but we also read about how he was constantly coordinating ministry, dispatching and retrieving missionaries from one place to another. It had to be something constantly on Paul’s minds as he tried to make sure all planted churches and their congregations were ministered to properly and protected from attempts to introduce false teaching.

As we close out our study of Titus, we get a brief glimpse into some of the ministry organizing Paul was always engaged in. Look again at his words here:

As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need.

Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith.

Grace be with you all. Titus 3:12-13, 15

In just two verses, we find Paul dictating movement for six men.

Of interest, Artemas, who Paul was possibly sending to Crete to relieve Titus, is only mentioned here in the scriptures and we don’t know much about him outside of that he had to be trusted by Paul to carry on Titus’ Gospel efforts on the island. Likewise, Zenas, identified as a lawyer, is only found in these verses but we know he is on Crete and being dispatched along with Apollos, a converted Jew who Paul first met in Ephesus and eventually spent a lot of time ministering in Corinth (Acts 18:18-27, 1 Corinthians 1:12, 3:4-6 and 22, 4:6, 16:12). You may remember Paul sharing this with the Corinthians as they were debating whether he or Apollos was the greater apostle:

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 1 Corinthians 3:6  

Note that Titus was to send off Zenas and Apollos with “everything they” needed to journey where Paul wanted them and the destinations aren’t mentioned.

Tychicus was also mentioned along with Artemas as possible replacements for Titus who Paul wanted to come to be with him in Nicopolis, the location on the west coast of Greece that the apostle had chosen to stay for the winter. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul identifies Tychicus as the bearer of his letter and calls him a “dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord (4:7). We also know that Paul’s dedicated missionary partner was dispatched to Ephesus at one point as well (Ephesians 6:21, 2 Timothy 4:12). He was no stranger to being deployed by Paul when needed which underscored how Paul trusted him.

After spending most of his letter instructing Titus in regard to leading and strengthening the Cretan Christian church, Paul shows us a glimpse of the ministry coordination that was needed to ensure all the churches he established were well cared for. This ministry coordination has continued through the history of the church to present times but we need to remember that it wasn’t as easy to travel from place to place in biblical times or before the advent of modern transportation, industrialization, and commercialization. Logistics were far more difficult in New Testament times than they ever are today, for sure.

And yet, the Gospel and the early Christian churches not only survived but thrived because ultimately, it was the Lord who ensured it happened. Paul and the others played their respective parts with some planting, some watering, some weeding, and some continuing to care for what was planted but ultimately it was God who made it grow, just as He does today and will so forevermore.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.