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Speaker 1We're going to sing and have a good time. Hopefully, we'll sing some of those folks out of the vestibule and into here and I thank you for coming out on a day where they are warning us. It's going to get rough. So, would you stand with us and we're going to sing victory in Jesus.
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Speaker 2I heard an old, old story of how a savior came from glory, how he gave his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me I heard about his groaning of his precious bloods atoning then I Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 1Christ.
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Speaker 2And bought me with his redeeming blood. He loved me ever I knew him and all my love is due him. He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood. I heard about his healing of his cleansing power revealing how he made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see and then I cried to Jesus come and heal my broken spirit and somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victory. Oh victory in Jesus, my savior forever.
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Amen.
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Speaker 1You been playing that one this week, haven't you? Yes, you have. Standing on the promises, standing on the promises of Christ, my king. Would you sing with us? And I saw some of you looking at your hymnals.
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Hymn number four ten, If you want to sing your part
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Speaker 2on this
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Speaker 1one, standing on the promises.
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Speaker 2Standing on the promises standing standing on the promises of God my savior I'm standing on the promises of God standing on the promises that cannot fail when the howling storms of doubt and keep us sail by the living word of God I shall prevail standing on the promises of God standing on the promises of God my savior standing standing I'm standing on the promises of God standing on the promises I now can see perfect present cleansing in the blood for me standing in the liberty where Christ makes free standing on the promises of God standing on the promises of God standing on the promises I cannot fall listening every moment to the spirits all resting in my of God my savior I'm standing on the promises of God
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Speaker 1Amen. Thank you, Lorraine. Y'all can have a seat. I have just a few announcements. Actually, why don't I invite Eric on up first?
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Eric Wacob is the outgoing moderator chief elder. Moderator. He's outgoing this time up until the our congregational meeting is on February 5. It's been backed up a couple of weeks because probably because of my illness actually. But February 5 is the congregational meeting.
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It's been posted.
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Speaker 3Yep. And that February 5 meeting will be in between services, so you want to come an hour early that Sunday. That's just in all about a month, a little less than a month. But I'm here to talk a little bit more about our fundraising campaign for the kitchen and fellowship hall. And I have some really exciting news.
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By the end of the year, we have a $176,000 that has been pledged towards that project. Praise God and thank you for your support. Yeah. Of that $176,000 $153,000 is actually in the bank. So that's phenomenal to me.
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That is really exciting. We have almost 90 donors, 90 people participating. From those totals there, you can see that many people have already given kind of at the end of the year. Some people like Colleen and myself have made a pledge that will give over the next several months to help us out. So either one of those options is still available.
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If you'll recall, are hoping to raise about $250,000 both for improvements to the kitchen and to the fellowship hall. And so we've got a great start. In fact, we are so far along that we have now committed to beginning work about the April 1 on the kitchen portion of the project. So we have enough that we can confidently, through God's blessing, move forward with at least the kitchen portion of the work. We're we're not gonna stand up here very often now and and make announcements asking for your continued support for the for the fellowship hall, but, we are still hoping to raise not quite 10,000 more dollars excuse me, not 10,000, 100,000 more dollars to be able to do the fellowship hall portion.
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It's very exciting. Total number that we had included some contingency, which we think is wise. So we have enough in the bank right now to to confidently move forward with the kitchen part, and we're gonna start that at the beginning of April, and we're really excited. So for those of you who have already contributed, thank you very much. It's great to see what God's doing through your gifts.
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For those of you who are still considering, please do. We still have a ways to go to be able to do everything that the the body, you as a congregation have identified as needs to the facility, and we're really excited about that. But praise God for how far along we've gotten. So thank you.
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Speaker 1Thank you. So I have a couple of other announcements. One of them is this Church on Fire weekend coming up. That's not literal. I pray.
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It's figurative. Don and Marlon Young will be here and they'll be talking about, it's not about Christ. It's it's not just talking about Jesus but actually experiencing Christ. Anointed one, the Messiah, and it'll be a prayer focus. So, it'll be about praying and experiencing God directly.
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So, Don and Marlon will be here January twenty eighth and twenty ninth and thirtieth and that'll be a Friday evening, a Saturday, nine to one, I think he said and then Sunday morning, he'll be preaching the normal sermon time on the thirtieth. So, Don and Marlin will be here looking forward to seeing them. He's not had a chance to preach here since he left before I got here and so, I have invited him back and I'm looking forward to it. I've read through the materials and it's really good. It's about having a hunger for God and then having that hunger fulfilled by God.
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So, I think that y'all will enjoy that. It's Don and Marlon that weekend. Connect hour, y'all know is coming. If you come for the connect hour already, then, that'll put you in the place of being here for that congregational meeting on the February 5. It should start just after 10:00.
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There is a kitten in that basket. It's the cat's meow is what it says. That's that slide I did not make. I don't know where that came from. Carl says, we're not gonna be giving kittens to anybody.
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Do not fear but Monday nights in the fellowship hall, every Monday night at 06:00, we have Monday, Monday nights at 1st B, meal, music, and a message and we will not have cat. So, that's what's happening tomorrow night and it will actually be, I can tell you what it's going be about. The passage in Luke where Jesus says, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks and so, Carl said, he's been preparing it for a couple of weeks now and he said, whoo. That's that's a hard one to get a hold of. When you when you think communication is not the problem, what you're communicating is what's in your heart is the problem.
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So, anyway, that'll be good. Joy flows out of the heart through the mouth too. Come see what Carl has to say tomorrow night and it's, yes, you knew that I was going to miss it, didn't you? I didn't have a slide for precept study. Precepts happens on Thursday mornings at 09:00.
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You're not too late and the study is on the book of Hebrews this time around. So, Jane Cranenburg, would you wave your hand? If you would like, you could talk to Jane and she'll give you more details but 09:00 Thursday will do it, okay? Just be here. And that's it.
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Would you stand and greet one another? And peppy little Florine and I will bring
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Speaker 2you back together with a song. Amen.
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Speaker 1A beautiful song. Yeah, is. It With a great message. You're my all in all, five eighty three. Hymn number five eighty three.
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Speaker 2Listen to these words. Taking my sin, my cross, my shame, rising again I bless your name you are my all when I fall down you pick me up when I am dry you fill my cup you are my
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Speaker 1Amen. Amen. Y'all can have a seat except the front line and I'm going to ask you all to come forward. Would you pray with me? Lord, I thank you and I do.
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Thank you like Eric for all of the blessing that you have given, that you have given to this community through this church, that you've given to that Monday night crowd and the Boy Scouts and everything else through this church and I just want to say thank you for your provision through your willing and obedient servants And God for this, assembled gathering right here and the one this morning, the one that'll be tomorrow night, that you would bind us together, lord, with cords that can't be broken, that you would, bless that breaking of the bread in that kitchen. And let now lord as we consider the gospel going forth and you building your church. I ask that you'd use us all as instruments. Tune our hearts to sing your grace.
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Speaker 3Amen.
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Speaker 1And lord that you would use everything that we are and everything that we do to bring glory and honor to your name. So, Lord, right now, come to the time where we give back a portion of what you've given to us, an acknowledgment that you are the one, Lord, that you direct the way that work will go, and you direct the way that you would have us go. In Jesus' name, Lord, would you bless and multiply these offerings to do your kingdom work here, outside of this valley, and to the ends of the earth. In Jesus' name, Lord, we ask for your blessing on this offer. Amen.
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Amen. Thank you, Florine. So this morning, we're gonna get to so we finished the book of Romans last week. After one, almost exactly one full year. So we started seventeenth January last year.
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We're just shy of being a whole year in the book of Romans and we did a whole chapter last week, 16 with 28 names of people that he wanted him to greet and you know, holy kiss and all that sort of stuff. Had four, five of his running buddies that he listed at the end and after a full year of a long book and a major theological treaties, the next one in line chronologically is this book, Philemon. And I'm going to pronounce it Philemon. That's why we say it in Georgia. I don't know what y'all call it.
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In Mexico, it's Filimon but this is Philemon and we're going to do the whole enchilada today. The whole book of Philemon in one sermon 125. Actually, it's only about half the sermon. I'm going to get you up to speed before we get to Philemon on the chronological events that happen in the first century in between the writing of Romans and the writing of Philemon but first, before I get to that, in both services last week, I mentioned the guy named I called him Saucy Potter. I've heard people say it's socipiter.
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I've heard people say it a lot of different ways. We had lots of names to discuss and learn last week. I'm going to make a quick retraction of something that I said and it's a very minor detail. It was bolstering point but not the point itself but Sosipater or Sosipater was one of Paul's running buddies that I mentioned. I mentioned him last week.
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He was probably the same guy that's mentioned in Acts 20 verse four which is this and Paul was accompanied by Sopiter which that's just a different name for Sosopotters. It's one of those diminutives. It's like Juan or Juanito. So, Sopiter of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, and Byrestargus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derby, and Timothy. When he mentions another fairly inclusive list of diverse people together.
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So, those are probably the same guys. So, Cypiter and Sopiter are the same guy. Last week, I said that that Socipiter was probably the same guy that got his fanny kicked and I said, Fanny, I think in both services, I apologize for that. First of all, and second is, Sasa Potter is probably not that same guy. That was Sostenes and it was in a riot at Corinth in Acts 18.
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I've been reading Acts 18 through the end of the book over and over and over to try to get these events in my head and I think that I confused him with Sostenes and they all took hold of Sostanes and two or three of y'all in both services gave me that look like, I don't think he I don't think that's true. But nobody wrote me a letter. Nobody said anything. I did not get an email. I recognized it when I read through Acts that afternoon and I thought, I hate that feeling.
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I feel like I've sent something that's not quite right or not quite true. So, I wanted to tell you a quick retraction. They took hold of Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue and began beating him in front of the judgment seat but Gallio, who was the pro consul at that time, Gallio was not concerned about any of these things. Now, we know when things happen and where they happen because the Bible tells us that but we have to put some pieces together and Gallio being the pro consul at that time tells us when these events happen. So, the approximate dates of New Testament events.
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We take all of the scriptural information and put these things together and come up with a timeline. That helps me and so I've been presenting from that chronological framework. You can see zero to thirty three AD. Some people say thirty AD. I don't care which one you adhere to.
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The crucifixion matters whether it happened in '30 or '33. So, the life and ministry of Jesus happened from his, honestly, from eternity past but from his birth on this Earth, zero to thirty three AD. Thirty three AD, Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose again and then Pentecost happened sometime later, not many days later. The early thirties, whereas the event centered around Jerusalem with the crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and the church was fairly closely centered in what we now call Israel or Palestine. That area, especially Jerusalem is where the disciples were and they huddled together and the church was growing and it was growing some outside of that from people who are present at Pentecost but it was not spreading the way Jesus said, I'm going to build my church.
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Now, at the martyrdom of Stephen, it says, and they were scattered. They were scattered and they took the gospel with them and the gospel found fertile ground and began to spread especially after the early thirties when this guy, Saul, was going to persecute Christians. Those followers of the way but on the road to Damascus, Saul was converted by Jesus. He became Paul, the apostle, the sent one to go out and he knew from early on that he would be the one to go and spread this to the Gentiles. There is a tendency for church folk and for people who have accepted that God is and that he is true and he's helping their lives.
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There is a tendency to huddle and not spread and so we see that with Israel. We see that with early disciples and then, when once they get it though and they get that this is to spread. Paul went on missionary journeys. Peter and Philip ministered right there in Palestine around Jerusalem up towards Galilee. What we would today, a lot of people would call Palestine and I know that that is a slur for to Israel.
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I know that it means Philistine but I'm going to use it anyway because that's what everybody knows where we're talking about. Peter and Philip were ministering in Palestine and Paul and Barnabas had been centered in Antioch for some time and they started off on the first missionary journey. That brings us up to about '44 to '49 is that first missionary journey. The late 40s and early 50s, James was probably the first New Testament book was written and we studied that in order. We went through the life of Jesus and John which is a late book.
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We went through the life of the early church in Acts and we use that as a framework to get to James, probably the first book written. Could have been Galatians but it's hard to tell whether Galatians was written early. Some people believe that or written late. Some people believe that. It's hard to tell so it's not on the list right here.
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James was written to Jewish Christians. It's a transitional time. It's kind of a transitional book. From fifty to '52, Paul went on that second missionary journey. In the early fifties on that missionary journey while he was ministering Corinth, he wrote both first and second Thessalonians.
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He wrote those to the church in Macedonia, Thessalonica where they were doing what they should have been doing. They're spreading the gospel. They, he said, I'm hearing all about your faith and I'm hearing all about the spread of the gospel by your proclamation and your word and he was encouraging the Thessalonians in both books, first and second. It was not primarily about sin. Do y'all remember that?
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It was an encouragement because they were doing what they should have been doing but they did have questions. They had questions about eschatology, the end times. Do you have questions about the end times? Tanya said, I I say to Tanya, well, he wrote first and second Thessalonians to answer their questions about the end times and Tanya says, well, it wasn't very clear to me. I don't think he answered any questions in first or second Thessalonians but he wrote that from Corinth to them to encourage them to keep on doing what they've been doing.
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In about '53, he starts his third missionary journey and so on that journey, while he's in Ephesus ministering for a good while actually, he wrote first Corinthians. First Corinthians is all about sin. It's one sin after another. It just keeps on going. It keeps punching because he had received a report back that his ministry in Corinth, the church was growing but there were thorns.
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There was division. There was strife, and there was sin. So from Ephesus, he wrote a letter to the Corinthians. He followed that letter up when he got his response with another letter, second Corinthians, but he was ministering at that time in Macedonia. We've put this together.
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And then about a year later, and we know this more precisely than almost any other one of the books because we do have those little indicators like Galileo was a pro of a k, blah blah blah. We we know when this happened. Winter of fifty seven, he writes the Romans and he passes it along to Phoebe which we studied last week. Phoebe takes it to the Church Of Rome. So, that's where we got up to up through last week.
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So, leaving Corinth, Acts says that he went up through the region of Macedonia. That's right here with Berea, Thessalonica, Philippi. It says, he then went across into Troas so that he had to cross the Aegean Sea right there, went through the winged Nike of Samothrace. There's an island called Samothrace out there. So, there's still a sculpture that was there in those days that's still in existence.
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He went from Troas, it says, down to Miletus where he met with the Ephesian elders. He had he had been with the Ephesians longer than he had been with anybody else and there they had that tearful, you know, partying on the beach. And he went from Miletus to Tyre by way of Patara. He got to Tyre and then a quick ship over to Ptolemais and then another to Caesarea. Acts tells of that journey.
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And when he gets to Caesarea, which is it look at the name, Caesarea. It is a Roman military outpost and a Roman governmental outpost. They have a lot of government type buildings and it's a big place and it's a city commerce but also government in a very strong way there. The church was strong in Caesarea and we get to this. As we were staying there for some days, the Caesarea, a prophet named Agabas came down from Judea and coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands.
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So, Agabas, imagine this, taking Paul's belt, binding his own feet and hands, and says, this is what the Holy Spirit says. In this way, the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. When he had heard this, we as well as the local residents began begging him not to go up to Jerusalem. Well, he says, the Holy Spirit says, in this way, these Jews are going to do this to him. It's a prophecy.
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We heard it and said, oh, anything but that, Paul, don't go there. Then, Paul answered, what are you doing? Weeping and breaking my heart. For I'm ready not only to be bound but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of Jesus. I'm willing to go into this fray and since he would not be persuaded, I love that line.
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Since we couldn't talk any sense into him, we fell silent remarking, well, may the will of the Lord be done. Alright. So, he goes that short trip from Caesarea up to Jerusalem. It's not north when I think of up to. I usually think north up is elevation wise up to Jerusalem and things happen like he said.
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In fact, if you look at Acts 21 through the end of the book, you'll see these things happen. A fascinating story about Paul's arrest. He was in the synagogue teaching. They got upset with him. They dragged him out into the court and it was there was a riot that was ensuing.
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They were among Romans. They were among Jews and the riot that was ensuing Paul's way out of it was to throw a theological grenade at him and say, he believed in the resurrection which started a squabble between Pharisees and Sadducees who one believe and one don't. That was pretty ingenious. While they were doing that, the Romans were able to get him and he was in captivity from the Romans but he kept him away from being killed by the Jews. His various trials began right there in Caesarea.
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In fact, he stayed and saw several trials there. And then he appealed to Caesar. He could have been let go if he had not appealed to Caesar, but Caesar is in Rome. So he set sail for Rome. He was shipwrecked on Malta.
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Remember in second Corinthians where he gives the list? He'd already been shipwrecked three times. This is the fourth time he's been shipwrecked that he mentions. That's rough. Then he arrives at Rome and then he ministers there under house arrest and the greatest little paragraph I think in one of the greatest paragraphs in Acts, it says, and he was able to continue in ministry there unhindered.
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Unhindered. At least he's not shipwrecked. He was house arrested and he was this man who had the traveling Jones obviously who was putting, clocking more miles than anybody else probably for the advance of the gospel was now suddenly at Rome and kind of stuck there and so as he stuck there, he writes the prison epistles which is what we're going into next because we're doing these things chronologically. And the book of Philemon was probably the first of those. It's the first extant book that we have.
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I can imagine Paul wrote a lot of letters, but the one that we have that was written to Philemon is an individual, not a church. He was writing to Philemon about one issue, about one guy. And we have that's actually a fragment from the early late 100, early two hundreds, and it's a verses 13 to 15. That's kinda cool. It was written about '61 or sixty two AD by the apostle Paul.
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If you ever watch any TLC or history channel or any other things that purport to be talking about the Bible. Oftentimes, they'll say, well, Paul did not really write this book. They they say it like they know. This one, Paul is, it's undisputed. Nobody disputes the fact that Paul the apostle wrote this book.
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I like that. It's one of the six books. Romans is another. First and second Corinthians. There, it's undisputed.
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This is definitely Pauline according to every even liberal scholar agrees. So, Paul, this is where it starts off. It's only 25 verses on. We'll go through all of em today. Paul starts off by telling us about his imprisonment.
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First thing, instead of saying a slave of Christ like he normally does, he says, in this one, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus. And Timothy, the brother, technically, our brother to Philemon. So this is a typical salutation. Remember how I said Romans salutation is really long and really detailed and it's got the gospel intermingled. This one is Paul is writing it.
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It's to Philemon. Philemon, our beloved brother and fellow worker. He's a Christian. We'll find out later how close their relationship is but Philemon is our Timothy and Paul's beloved brother and fellow worker. He considers him to be a soldier of the cross.
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He considers him to be somebody who is in the fray doing what it is that he is doing. He is working to advance the gospel of Jesus, the good news and then he goes on to say, and to Afia, which Afia and Philemon were probably a husband and wife. Most people would agree with that. It's a female name and tradition says that they were husband and wife couple. She's our sister and to Arkippus, our fellow soldier, also really close, probably one of Philemon's good friends, our fellow soldier for the cross and to the church in your house.
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Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I love the grace and peace and I remember when we're transitioning from second Thessalonians and we're going to first Corinthians, I said, this one's not about sin and this one is but both of those books start exactly the same way. Grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It puts Jesus and God on an equal, the and right there puts him on an equal footing.
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They are. He's the divine Christ. Grace to you and peace. So, in that sermon between Thessalonians and Corinthians, I said, always start with grace and peace. Paul always starts with grace and peace and I that was one of my main points in that.
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Always start with grace and peace and a fellow who sat in the back came forward afterwards and talked to me and he said, I disagree with you. I said, okay. That's fine. On what? He goes, always start with grace and peace.
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You should nail them to the wall. You need to hit them with sin because we've all got it and start right there and you need to start with judgement. I was like, wow. That's tough. He goes, I like hard preaching.
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I want to be pinned to the wall every Sunday. I don't wanna laugh in church. Okay. Well, hard preaching is this, giving to those who do not deserve it. Grace is unmerited favor.
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Loving those who do not deserve to be loved. That's hard preaching. Peace. When you're asking for peace for somebody that in your human flesh, you would really rather not see in peace. You'd rather see him in anguish.
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No. Grace to you and peace is hard preaching and he starts his books like that and he starts this one to Philemon. One individual guy, he starts like that. Grace to you and peace and we'll learn that Philemon was probably thinking about doing something Paul disagreed with. He had a little bit of an axe to grind with Philemon.
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So, he says, I thank my God always making mention of you in my prayers. They have a close relationship and when Paul prays and he thinks of Philemon, he thanks God for him. He thanks God for saving him and he thanks God for him because I hear of the love, your love, and the faith with which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all of the saints. I put that in highlighted in green because it comes up a couple of different times. So the saints, I hear the love that you have and the faith which you have, love and faith toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints.
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I know how close your Christian family is to you. I know how much they mean to you and I write to you and I mention you thankfully before God because I know how much the body of Christ, the church means to you toward all the saints and I pray that the fellowship, the Koinonia, this actual like fellowship of your faith may become effective. So, that the it's of his faith is significant. You're a believer and you love and have faith in your fellow believers. You're close to them.
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I pray that your fellowship may become effective, even more effective on this real world. I use the maps to show you this happening a real world, in a real time, in a real place. Faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. So, every good thing that's in him comes from Christ anyway. He's saying, I want for this to be effective for Christ's sake, for the advance of the gospel, for the building up of the church.
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For I have come to have much joy and comfort, Paul says, in your love, Philemon. I have come to have much joy and much comfort in your love. I know that you love me and that makes me smile because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother. You've got a church meeting in your house. You are doing the work that we're doing.
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You're our fellow worker and you're refreshing their heart and I love that. Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper. He's calling on his own authority in Christ as an apostle, as the apostle. We'll find out later that he's the one who led Philemon to the Lord and so he takes some authority in that and confidence. He says, I have the confidence just to order you to do what's right.
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He doesn't mind ordering people to do what's right, does he? We've seen it in Galatians. We've seen it in Thessalonians. We've seen it in Corinthians. We're seeing right now him speaking to an individual and he has the right as an apostle and he has a right as this man's spiritual forebear in Christ to to order him.
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Yet, for love's sake, because I love you, I rather just appeal to you. Since I am such a person as Paul, the aged, decrepit, and now also, I am a prisoner in Christ Jesus. I'm stuck here. I'm not the guy I was 20 ago, 30, almost 30 ago now. When I was running, running, running, running.
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I'm stuck in one place. I'm writing letters instead of going there. Since I'm such a person as this Paul, the aged rundown and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus, I appeal to you out of love for my child, Onesimus. Now, Paul was unmarried. He did not have a child but his spiritual child that he's talking about now was called Onesimus.
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Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment. So, Paul's ministry continuing unhindered. We see the letters and we're glad and thankful for those but we also see that there were individuals. He says another place, the whole Praetorian guard knows about the gospel. Onesimus was one of those who came to believe in Jesus because Paul was stuck in one place.
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Who was formerly useless to you? Now, that's a play on words because Onesimus actually means useful. It's like trusty. Okay? It's it's a it's not a nickname.
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It's a real name but it means beneficial or useful and so he says, this guy was formerly useless to you and I understand that. In those past days, he was formerly useless to you but now, he's useful to you and to me. I haven't mentioned Onesimus was or what he did. I have sent him back to you in person, Paul says. That is, I'm sending back my very heart.
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I have come very close to this guy. He's I've been training him up as a young believer and we are really close and he has been very helpful and useful to me. But now, I'm sending him back to you. I'm sending my very heart. I'm very close to him.
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I wish to keep him with me so that on your behalf, he might minister to me in my imprisonment in the gospel. This is a guy who knows how to serve and he is serving Paul right now during this time of imprisonment and he wishes that he could keep on. That's what he's saying. I wish to keep him with me but I'm sending them to you personally but without your consent, I did not want to do anything. So that your goodness would not be in effect by compulsion but of your own free will.
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I wanna give you the choice. I wanna give you the choice to do the right thing. That's what I'm trying to intimate to you what it is that you should do. I'm sending them to you personally. Now, I haven't mentioned the word slave but if we know in Christ and several other places that there's no slave or free or Gentile or Jew or Greek or Scythian or barbarian.
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He mentions lots of different stripes of people but in Christ, they are one. They're brothers sisters and when he says that Onesimus is now a brother, here he gets to this. For perhaps, maybe, this was the reason that he was separated from you in the first place for a while that when you got him back, that you would have him back forever. Forever, no longer as a slave. So Onesimus was, Philemon's, slave.
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This is a difficult book in some ways because it never Paul never decries the practice of slavery and past the civil war and past the civil rights movement as Americans looking back on it and going, how could he not just say slavery is wrong? How could he not just say, I command you to set him free and all the rest of your slaves? He he says, nope. I'm gonna let it be on love because slavery was a fact of life. In the first century Roman world, a slave had very, very, very few rights.
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A runaway slave had nearly none. A runaway slave and they had a very efficient system in the Roman Empire for catching runaway slaves and returning them to their owner. So when Paul sent Onesimus from where he was to where Philemon was in Colossi. So Philemon's at Colossi. When Paul sent Onesimus with this letter back to his owner, Philemon, the intimations about what he should do are not very, very strong.
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The truth is the the of the matter is that Philemon had every right to punish him in any way he saw fit up to and including killing him. Death was not off the table. You could kill a slave especially a runaway slave. He was his property. He could do with him as he pleased and eventually, Onesimus probably would have been returned by the Romans anyway.
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Paul, after he becomes a believer, after Onesimus becomes a believer and he had run away from Philemon, maybe after stealing some money, it looks like in a few verses, we'll see. Paul sending him back and saying, I believe in Jesus and I believe in the Holy Spirit and I believe that he'll do the right thing and he says that to Philemon several times that you would have him back forever and when Paul says forever, he means even unto eternity as a brother, you'd have him back forever. No longer as a slave but more than a slave. As a beloved brother, I know how you are, Philemon, that you have refreshed the hearts of all of the saints. And now, Onesimus is one of those saints.
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He's a beloved brother especially to me but how much more to you? You know him better than I do. You knew him pre Christ. When you knew him to see that guy come to Jesus, wouldn't that be incredible? So, how much more to you, both of you, both in the flesh because you know him and in the Lord.
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Now, he's your brother in Christ. If then, you regard me as a partner and Paul is Paul. Paul is the apostle Paul. By this point, he's very well known in the Christian world and Philemon looks like Philemon's a wealthy guy. At least he has slaves.
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You know, he has some money. He has a house church. He's meeting in his house. If then you regard me as a partner, Paul says to Philemon, accept him just as you would me. Treat him like you would me.
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There is no difference in Christ in our status. Well educated or not educated, freed man or slave, Jew or Gentile. But if he has wronged you in any way, this is the intimation that he might have stolen something from him. If he's wronged you in any way or if he owes you anything, then whatever that is, charge that to my account. I, Paul, he wants to verify.
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I'm writing this with my own hand and I will repay whatever debt he owes you. I'm taking it on. So Paul is doing the right thing. Paul has given graciously though that guy stole something. I'm going to replace what he stole even though I don't have to.
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I'm not bound to. And then he says this, not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self as well. You accepted Christ under my tutelage. I was with you and we worked together for him. Not to mention it but he does mention it.
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Parenthetic expression. I love him. Yes, brother. Let me benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.
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He said, you always refresh all the saints and I've heard about that and I praise God for it and now at the end of the letter, he's coming back around. He says, now refresh my heart in Christ. I'm making a plea on a part. I'll pay you whatever he owes you but do the right thing with him. He's your brother in Christ.
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He never says, you should free him outright but that is what he's saying. Now, in the abolitionist movement in England and in The US back when politicians actually cared what the Bible said. Excuse me. That was a parenthetic expression right there. When people did search the Bible and scriptures for what was right, both sides used Philemon as their as a book to say, slavery is okay.
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Slavery is terrible. Both sides use Philemon in different ways because he does not decry the practice outright. The slave side said, he would have said so if he meant it. And because he intimates it and he says, he's your brother. Treat him like a brother.
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Treat him like you would me, a freedman. He's saying, you need to let this guy go. Yes, brother. Let me benefit from you. In fact, he's saying, let him go and let him come serve me.
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I will have him. If you won't have him, I'd love to have him here with me. He's useful, not useless. Having confidence in your obedience, he says, and this is something I think that we don't do very well today. A lot of times we try to manipulate people into a situation.
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You can read manipulation into what he's doing especially with his under his breath statements like, you know, I'm the one that led you to Jesus. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you since I know that you will do even more than I say. Do you all ever get personal letters like this where they tell you what you should be doing? I
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Speaker 2do. I do. Some of them
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Speaker 1are in the church that meets in your presence too. I get those. I get quite a few of those. No. I I get them every once in a while.
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And I think back to an earlier sermon on the book of Acts that I did that the the point was consider the merits of their murmuring. You have to consider what they're saying without pride. You have to have the humility to accept what they're saying. The Greek and, you know, the widows are being overlooked in the distribution. And the disciples looked at that and said, they're right.
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Appoint some people and y'all deal with that. We don't need to be serving tables. We need to be about the word of God but you're right. The administration could be better on that and they accepted it. So when I get one of those letters and I I do occasionally, I try to consider the merits of that.
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Now Paul is the guy in authority here. So he's saying, I I know that you're gonna do and you probably do more than I've even asked you to do. Setting him free. Treating him like a brother, accepting him back in, at least reconciling him. Even if you keep him as a slave, that you treat him well as a slave.
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At the same time, I also prepare me a lodging for I hope that through your prayers, I will eventually be given to you. He's told him what to do and then right before the end of the letter, he says, yeah, and get the bedroom ready because I might be coming to check up. I like that. He's he's sincere though. He's sincere.
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He would love to be able to get away from where he is and to get back to be with his friend Philemon and see the church grow and prosper and see what happens with Onesimus. We don't hear of Onesimus mentioned again in the Bible. We don't know if Philemon let him go or if what happened. We're not sure. But this is an earnest plea from Paul, the authoritative apostle to Philemon based on his love for him and his appreciation of what the Holy Spirit had done in his life that he would do the right thing.
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Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ, right here with me in Rome. In Christ Jesus, he greets you and so do Mark and Aristarchus and Demus and Luke, all my fellow workers, Luke actually, obviously written the book of Acts. He remembers. Luke was there. And then he ends the same place he began.
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The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Is it important? Is it important the unmerited favor that he's asking for from Philemon towards Onesimus, he starts the letter with as Paul to Philemon. Grace and peace to you. And he ends it with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
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He wants for Philemon's spirit to be so in line with the Holy Spirit that he would see that he needs to set. Onesimus free. I like what Martin Luther had to say. This morning, when I was reading and I was thinking how how awesome it was, the grace that God had given Paul, he extends to others whether they deserve it or not. It wouldn't be grace if they deserved it, right?
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He's asking for Philemon to extend the same grace that he'd received from Christ to Onesimus whether he deserves it or not. Obviously, he didn't. He's a runaway slave. By all law, he has the right to kill him. He stands under judgment.
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He stands under wrath because he's guilty. Yet, what he's pleading for him is that he will, in grace, in mercy, set him free. Martin Luther said, even as Christ did for us with God, the father. Thus, Paul also does for Onesimus with Philemon. And I'm asking that we, first, be that the people that are here today, we would, because we have received the grace from God, that we would extend it to those, even the most difficult of people, that we would extend it.
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The guiltier, the more grace abounds. So, that's the end of the little bitty book of Philemon. So, I'm going to ask Florine if you'll come forward and we'll sing whatever comes up on that screen. Yes, higher ground. Alright.
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Very good. Like Caesarea to Jerusalem, higher ground. Would you stand up? And we'll sing hymn number five forty nine.
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Speaker 2I'm pressing on the upward way new heights I'm gaining every on
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Speaker 1Amen. Thank you very much. By the grace of God, he can get us to higher ground. Now, unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our savior, be glory majesty, dominion, and power both now and forever. Amen.
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That's from Jude, another little bitty book with only one chapter, 25 verses right there. Now, unto him who's able to keep you from falling. Think about that. And to present you faultless, blameless, without spot before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our savior. We don't know why he does what he does the way he does but perhaps, Paul says, this is the whole reason in the first place to introduce you to Jesus.
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To him, the only wise God, our savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now and forever. Amen. Amen.
