Spreading Hope

You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Colossians 1:7-8

Epaphras had been teaching the Colossians the truth. Epaphras was the man who started it all. We do not know much about him, although he is mentioned in a couple of the other letters of Paul. He evidently was a layman, and had probably been part of the group that Paul himself taught when he was in Ephesus for three years.

There Paul rented a hall (the school of Tyrannus), and for five hours a day, six days a week, for three solid years he taught the Scriptures. I would have given almost anything to have attended that special curriculum, taught by Paul. Many who were present went out through all the provinces spreading the truth, and among them was Epaphras. He came into the insignificant city of Colossae and probably started a home Bible study. He had friends also in Laodicea and started another group there and another one over in Hierapolis.

Epaphras simply told the people who came the truth about Jesus: the meaning of his death, the glory of his resurrection, his accessibility to them by means of the Spirit who came on the day of Pentecost. That began to excite them and awaken them in their hopeless condition. They found hope again, and faith and love came along with it. A healed community of beautiful people came into being and caught the attention of many in those pagan cities. That is God's favorite way of evangelism.

As you hear the Scriptures expounded by a pastor, perhaps you may think that if you only knew the Bible like him, then you could be of use to God. But don't you see that you already are called as an evangelist? You are out there, rubbing shoulders with people who have no hope, hearing their sad stories, meeting them in the streets and in the stores, having coffee with them. You are the ones who can spread the word of hope. That is how the gospel spread throughout the Roman province of Asia, and hundreds of churches came into being. The gospel has power to change, power to awaken, power to give hope, and out of hope springs faith and love.

Where you live is your corner of the world. Perhaps you too can see these very things happening there. What excitement will come into your life when you reach out with the good news, the only source of hope in the world, to the hopeless ones around?

Father, thank you that you are the God of hope. You have sent a word of truth into this broken, despairing world. Send me to the hopeless ones around me, and help me to demonstrate, by the joy and peace of my like, that I have found hope. Amen.