Epaphras: Who Are You Becoming While You Wait?

Introduction

"Are there people here tonight who are waiting for an answer from God and have not received it yet?" With this question, Estelle Martorano opens her message during an evening of fasting and prayer at Église Momentum. Her father, who brought the message the evening before, introduces her that night: she grew up in the church, was baptized there and has just entered the pastoral team's training program.

She starts from her own waiting. For seventeen years in Bordeaux, she has been wondering whether she should stay or leave for Paris or Brussels. She prays, she fasts, and receives no direction. During that time of prayer and fasting, she reads a few passages about a figure she had not paid attention to until then: Epaphras.

That is where the title of her message comes from: "Who do you become when you wait?" God does not only ask you where he should send you. He shows you who he wants to form in you while you wait for his answer.

Message Outline

1. When the Answer Does Not Come

• Estelle Martorano has always seen her parents move. To her, it seemed normal that one day you have to leave. She has the feeling of a season coming to an end, without certainty.
• She takes a time of prayer and fasting: "no answer from God." She then tells herself: "OK, Lord, I have no answer, but I see the character that perhaps you want to form in me." If the answer is limited to this figure, Epaphras, she will be content with it.
• Right after, an unexpected opportunity opens up in Paris: housing cheaper than her shared flat, in a big shared house with young women from different denominations, with a garden. Everything about it attracts her.
• She asks for advice from a couple in the church whom she admires for their wisdom, stability, faithfulness and love for the house of God. The answer: "We fast and we pray. We don't act on an opportunity, we act on a conviction." Even without an opportunity, if it is a conviction, God will provide.
• Being honest, the opportunity attracted her, but there was no conviction in her heart. So she stayed. "While waiting, I'm not moving."
• Her advice: pass opportunities through the filter of God's Word and of what God tells you in your heart. Conviction, "is not letters of fire in the sky," it is a peace: "Lord, I know this is where you want me."

2. Who Do You Become When You Wait?

• To the question "Lord, where do you want me?", Epaphras brings another perspective: "It's not where I want to send you, it's who I want to form in you while you wait for me to answer."
• Epaphras is an example of character for all believers, not only for the pastoral team or the apostles.
• He is mentioned only three times in the Bible, and few people know who he is. Estelle Martorano herself admits that she did not have him in mind before studying these texts.

3. Will You Be Ready to Be Faithful Where You Are?

• Paul writes that Epaphras "is one of you" and that he spends himself without counting for the Colossians, for those in Laodicea and for those in Hierapolis (Colossians 4:12-13). The Colossians received the teaching of Epaphras, "our beloved fellow servant" (Colossians 1:7).
• Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis are three cities close to one another, in the Lycus Valley, in present-day Turkey. Epaphras comes from there. He knows the people, he teaches them, he encourages them, he serves them.
• Paul had never been to Colossae when he wrote his letter. Epaphras was a relay. Some commentators even think, without it being established, that he founded the church in Colossae. We do not see him on a missionary journey, at least it is not mentioned: we see a faithful heart for the place where he is.
• Perhaps you are waiting for an answer about your studies, your job, or the person you are dating. Perhaps you long for revival in your family, your church, your workplace. God wants to form this character in you: "Be faithful where you are."
• God will answer: "When you call on God, he answers. Whoever seeks finds." But two principles of the kingdom show that character matters even more than what God wants to do with you: whoever is faithful in little things is also faithful in great ones, and the greatest among you will be your servant.

4. Little Things Last a Lifetime

• You can read these verses as a stage to get through: I am faithful in little things for a time, then God will move me on to great ones. "In fact, no, the little things are there all your life."
• It is not because one day you step onto a stage that everything else disappears. "Ask any pastor here": serving others never stops.
• This is not a message meant to discourage: "There is a beauty in faithfulness." She picks up a thought shared by one of the church's pastors: "There is a reward for faithfulness that is only revealed with time."
• In marriage, if you stay faithful, a communion and a complicity grow with time. "There are things that only faithfulness can reveal."
• The idea is not "be faithful and keep quiet." There are beautiful things to live in the season you are in today: your children, your spouse, a job that is not yet the promotion you hoped for. God wants you to see, beyond his hand, his beauty in its entirety.
• "Live well the season you are in. Live it to the fullest, completely, with faithfulness." There will be a next step, but God wants your character during the present season.

5. Will You Be Ready to Be a Companion to Those Who Are With You?

• Paul describes Epaphras twice as a companion: "my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus" (Philemon 23) and "our beloved fellow servant" (Colossians 1:7).
• The word translated "servant" goes back to the Greek doulos, which means slave. And a fellow prisoner is "not much more fun." We do not know whether Epaphras was literally imprisoned with Paul, but he was at his side in the hard things.
• We hear less about him than about Paul, Barnabas, Silas or Peter. And yet, "he gets his hands dirty like the others." He does not follow Paul because he is Paul: he follows Christ and the spread of the Gospel.
• It is not about being the employee of your pastors. We are all companions to one another: companions in service, in storms, in hardship, for Christ.
• "The kingdom of God is not built with isolated individuals." Epaphras gives himself as much as Paul, even though they do not have the same responsibility. Each one goes with what he has received.
• Perhaps your name will not be mentioned as much, you will not be out front, you will not have the recognition you would like. Are you able, in spite of everything, to be a fellow servant to advance the kingdom of God?
• The prayer marathons bring together online the churches of Bordeaux, Paris, Brussels and Sans Frontières: "That's what being a fellow servant is. We all pray for one another and advance God's work together."

6. Will You Be Able to Carry Others in Prayer?

• For Estelle Martorano, this is one of the most beautiful passages about Epaphras: he "never ceases to fight for you in his prayers, so that you may stand firm as mature men, fully disposed to do all the will of God" (Colossians 4:12).
• She invites you to "lift your head from your need" to look at the church and the people beside you, and to fight in prayer for their maturity. God develops in you compassion and love for the needs of others.
• She picks up a sentence from Monday evening's message: "When one person wins, the whole church wins." When someone intercedes and is answered, the whole church is answered.
• We pray for a mature church, one that finishes the race, where we do not see Christians abandon the faith in the middle of their lives. A church full of the Word, that moves forward with wisdom, that distinguishes between conviction and opportunity and that leans on the Eternal.
• Epaphras is rarely talked about, and yet he moved the church forward through his prayer.

7. Fully Disposed to Do All the Will of God

• It is not only about praying for God's will to be accomplished, but for a heart disposed to do it. When God opens a path, you will be able to enter the next season with the maturity, the discernment and the abilities it requires.
• Whether it is for a job, a move or a child, God wants you to be able to receive what he has for you. He does not only want to move you "like a pawn," he wants to make you someone mature.
• Estelle Martorano does not know whether God will one day tell her to go to Paris or Brussels. But when he answers, she wants to be faithful where he places her, to support those around her and to intercede for them. "Lord, beyond what I want, I want what you want."
• Epaphras "did not only ask God to change the circumstances of the Colossians. He asked God to form the Colossians."
• "What comes next will be beautiful, but today, there is something for you too." Look at where you are today and the people beside you, and let yourself become pliable in God's hands.
• Her prayer for the Church: a mature church, ready to receive what God wants, that holds firm when things get hard. "Beyond what God wants to do through us," God wants "a mature people, a holy people, a people who love him."

Key Takeaways

• While you wait, God does not merely prepare a direction: he forms your character.
• "We don't act on an opportunity, we act on a conviction." Conviction is a peace that God gives, not necessarily a spectacular sign.
• Faithfulness in little things is not a stage to get through: it lasts a lifetime, and it carries a reward that is revealed with time.
• The kingdom of God is not built with isolated individuals. Like Epaphras, be a fellow servant, even far from the spotlight.
• Carrying others in prayer means asking God to form them, not only to change their circumstances.

Personal Application

1. What answer are you waiting for from God right now, and what might he want to form in you during this wait?
2. Is there an opportunity that attracts you without any conviction in your heart? Have you passed it through the filter of God's Word?
3. In which "little things" of your current season can you be faithful this week, and what beauty might you see in them?
4. For whom can you be a fellow servant, even if no one notices?
5. Which person in your church, or who is drifting away from God, will you carry in prayer so that they hold firm and grow in maturity?

Verses Cited

• Colossians 1:7
• Colossians 4:12-13
• Philemon 23
• Luke 16:10
• Matthew 23:11-12
• Matthew 7:8

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Epaphras in the Bible?

Epaphras is mentioned three times in the New Testament (Colossians 1:7, Colossians 4:12-13 and Philemon 23). A native of Colossae, in the Lycus Valley, he taught the Colossians and spent himself for them, for those in Laodicea and for those in Hierapolis. Paul calls him his beloved fellow servant and his fellow prisoner, and says that he fights constantly for believers in his prayers.

What should you do when God has not answered yet?

For Estelle Martorano, the question is not only where God wants to send you, but who he wants to form in you while you wait. She invites you to stay faithful where you are, to be a companion to those around you and to carry others in prayer. God will answer, but he also wants you to be ready to enter the next season.

How do you tell an opportunity from a conviction?

Estelle Martorano shares advice she received: "You don't act on an opportunity, you act on a conviction." A conviction is not necessarily a spectacular sign, it is an inner peace that says: Lord, I know this is where you want me. Opportunities are passed through the filter of God's Word and of what God says in your heart.