Philemon

Well, good morning, everybody. So glad to see you this morning, whether you're here, any of our campuses, watching online, so glad to see you this morning. You know, Abraham Lincoln, one of the former presidents of the United States, left us with some great writings. The "House Divided" speech, probably you remember, or the "Gettysburg Address", or even the Emancipation Proclamation, all incredible writings. One of the things that are forgotten oftentimes in Abraham Lincoln's writings are some of the letters that he wrote that were more personal or private in nature. In fact, Lincoln actually had a box of letters that he kept, and the title of the box on top of the box, it said, "Never signed, never delivered." Now, what Lincoln would do is when he would have arguments or get upset by the way that people treated him or talked about him or did some of the things that they did, he would write his letter out, and he would probably vent a little bit and maybe, you know, make his argument for whatever, and then he would put it in the box, never signed, never delivered, and he would leave it there for at least 24 hours, maybe 48 hours, and then he would take it back out and decide whether or not it should actually be sent or not. Not bad wisdom. I don't know if that pertains to the day and age we live in because it seems to me like maybe over 150 years ago, Abraham Lincoln solved our social media problem, right? Because when you write letters, you have to actually think about the words that you say because you don't really get to just push delete real quick, and then you know, you actually have to wad it up and throw it away and start over. So you're thinking about the weight of the words that you say. It's really a pretty extraordinary thing, and it's not so impulsive. You know, it's impulsive on social media because somebody says something and then we respond, hit, send, send. It can just be impulsive, we can just do it. To write a letter, like you have to write that thing out, you know, and you have to massage your hand after a while and then write it out. Then you have to put it in an envelope. Then you have to actually purchase stamps. What are those things? Like a thousand dollars now. I don't even know what that's all about. You have to purchase stamps, put 'em on there, put 'em in a mailbox like you got work to do still, right? There's nothing in impulsive about it. So sometimes when we see letters, we actually get a look inside of the hearts and the minds of people in a unique way that we don't always get in the kind of right now impulsive nature of what we do with social media. Now, you probably know that in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul wrote a whole bunch of letters, and they were teachings to the church of Jesus Christ. But there's one specific letter that often gets forgotten that the Apostle Paul wrote maybe because it was a little more personal in nature, it was addressed to a person, and maybe because it really was addressing something that at the time may have been a little more private in nature in terms of what Paul was addressing. The title of the letter is Philemon. Now, some of you may have heard of that letter. Some of you may not have heard of that letter. Some of you may have never pronounced that letter correctly. Some of you have maybe skipped over that letter before. I'm not really sure. You're like, "Philemon? I don't even know who that is." It's Philemon, but that's okay, right? We're all learning in this. You're like, "Yeah, I'm not even sure why it's actually in here." Well, I'm really glad that it's actually in the canon of scripture because it is a beautiful story about real people at a real place in time, in real circumstances, and how the gospel of Jesus Christ affected the decisions that they made. This is extraordinarily relevant if we'll pay attention. And so what I want us to do is I want us just to walk through the book. If you're trying to find it, it's right before the Book of Hebrews, right after the Book of Titus, if that helps you in the New Testament at all. If not, just use the table of contents. That's perfectly fine as well. Or if you just have it memorized completely because you have the whole New Testament memorized, just stare at me and act like you do, okay? All of that is fine. Let's start, and here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna just walk through the contents of this one chapter book and find out what it has to say about what's going on then, and maybe what else it has to say ultimately about us. Let's begin in verse number one. That would be the normal place to start, right? Here's how it begins, "Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our dear friend and fellow worker, also to Apphia, our sister, and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your home: Grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." Now, this is a relatively standard opening in all of Paul's letters. It's usually a greeting that establishes who's writing it, and it's Paul who's writing it. Paul is saying, "I, Paul, I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus and I'm writing this. And by the way, Timothy, our brother, he's here with me," but Paul's really the one that is writing this letter, and he addresses it to Philemon. What do we know about Philemon? A couple of things. We know that he's a dear friend and a fellow worker of Paul because Paul says that, right? We know from later on in the contents that really Philemon owes Paul his life spiritually, which means in all likelihood that Paul led Philemon to faith in Jesus Christ. Where that was, when that was, the circumstances about that, I don't know, but I know that he had an opportunity to impact Philemon's life with the gospel, and Philemon, as a result, is now a dear friend of Paul and a fellow worker in the gospel. We also know that he's probably a man of some means because the church in that area actually met in his home. So he's probably a man of some means. We also know he is a family man, because Paul lists out Apphia and Archippus and the likelihood is that's Philemon's wife and possibly son. It's also possible that that's his wife and his brother, but we're not completely sure, but the likelihood is these are family members of Philemon. We also know that he's probably from Colossae where the Letter to the Colossians was written, and we'll talk about that in just a minute. But the reason that we know that is because when Paul wrote the Letter to Colossians, he mentions one of Philemon's family members in it, Archippus. Here's what it says in Colossians 4, "Tell Archippus: 'See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.'" So in the Letter to the Colossians, he's noting the family of Philemon, and so we know that Philemon was from this area and right around Colossae was also Laodicea. These kind of areas were right there together, right? So they would share some of these letters and be able to have them read among the whole group, so that's how he begins with a greeting. And then Paul moves on to something that's also standard for him, and that is he offers Thanksgiving and offers a prayer for those that he's writing to, and he does this in most of his letters. Here's what it says in verse number four, "I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord's people." Now, after Paul says grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ in that greeting, that's when he used the plural. He was talking not only about Philemon, but also about Apphia and Archippus and the church that meets in their home. He was saying grace to all of you, but then when he starts writing, I always think, my God, is I remember you. That's singular. He's now just talking to Philemon. So when he's referencing this prayer, and he's referencing this thanksgiving, he's talking about Philemon because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord's people. What Paul is saying is that, Philemon, I'm really encouraged by your love. I'm really encouraged by your generosity, and I'm encouraged that we are in a partnership. He says, "I pray that your partnership with us," that's the word. Maybe you guys have heard this word before in Greek, koinonia. Koinonia is the word that talks about intimate fellowship or partnership, and Paul's setting a seed early on in his letter because he's gonna come back to that very same word a little bit later in what he's going to ask of Philemon. But he says, "I'm so grateful that we are in this deep fellowship, this intimate partnership, Philemon. You are a friend and a wonderful worker, and I really appreciate your love and generosity." Then he gets to the content of what he's actually writing about in verse number eight. Here's what it says, "Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul, an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus, that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly, he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. I am sending him, who is my very heart, back to you. I would've liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I'm in chains for the gospel. But I didn't want to do anything without your consent so that any favor you would do would not seem forced, but would be voluntary. Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me, but even dearer to you both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord." You see now we're coming to the content of what this letter that Paul is writing to Philemon is all about, and it's actually all about this man named Onesimus that were introduced to. Now, Onesimus is a slave that becomes clear as we read the contents of this, but what's more is that Onesimus was a slave of Philemon. This is what's so interesting. Now, pause for just a second. The New Testament actually talks about the idea of slavery and doesn't actually talk about it favorably. There are places in the scripture, and Paul in specific, where he talks about this idea of slavery and doesn't look at it as something that's consistent with the nature of the gospel, but the nature of slavery in that context was slightly different. It wasn't a race-based slavery like we have come to know in American and European history, this was slavery that happened as a social custom, and sometimes slaves were treated really well and had jobs as your local market person or pharmacist or whatever, right? Other times they weren't treated very well, but the idea of slavery was not something that the New Testament looks positively on. In fact, it looks negatively on that idea. And what Paul was doing in his teaching was actually working to kind of subtly and sometimes directly overturn such a thing. It wasn't that he was trying to appeal to lawmakers and law givers and felt like he could change the entire social order, but what he was teaching would actually free people as they began to embrace the reality of the gospel. So who is Onesimus? Onesimus is actually the slave of Philemon who has run away for some reason, and he's come to Paul. We don't know exactly where Paul was imprisoned when he wrote Philemon. Many scholars talk about it being Rome. It's possible that's the case. It could also have been an Ephesus. It's also possible it was in Caesarea. We're not 100% sure, but it's really immaterial to what we're trying to study. What happened was Onesimus ran away from his master for some reason. We don't actually know and aren't told why he ran away. We do know because of later on what we read is that apparently it left Philemon in a bit of a financial lurch. So could it have been that Onesimus stole from him and left and ran away because he was scared of the consequences? We don't know exactly, but it was something along that line. Onesimus found Paul. He probably had to go a long way to do it, and I don't know why he did it, and I don't know the circumstances. Did he run into somebody else that said, "You need to meet a friend of mine," and they took him to the prison to be able to meet Paul? I don't know. Did he come because he knew, "Hey, Philemon's actually friends with Paul, and so I'm gonna see if I can figure something out and maybe not get into bad trouble." Maybe, I'm not sure what the circumstances are. Here's what I do know that when Onesimus came to Paul, Paul did what Paul does. He shared the good news of Jesus Christ with him, and Onesimus came to faith in Jesus Christ and was transformed. Just like Paul did when Philemon found Paul and somehow they interacted however that looked, and Paul shared the good news of the gospel with Philemon, and he came to know Jesus Christ as his savior. So I don't know all of the circumstances here, but I do know this. Paul leads him to Jesus and calls him his own son. And now what he's saying, he's writing to Philemon and saying, "Hey, I've got a new son in the faith." Philemon's probably going, "That's awesome." And here's his name, Onesimus. And Philemon's probably going, "Wait, like my... The one who did this to... Wait." And here's what Paul says, "I'm gonna send him back to you." Now, did Paul say I'm gonna send him back to you because Paul was kind of ambivalent about slavery? No, Paul actually had a plan for what he was doing with Onesimus because Onesimus was now acting in support of Paul's work and ministry. He was helping Paul in the process. While Paul was in prison, Onesimus was now serving alongside of Paul. And so you know what Paul does? Paul is gonna send two letters with Onesimus and another man named Tychicus so that they can deliver these letters, one to the church at Colossae and one to one of the house church leaders in the Colossae region named Philemon. Why do I know that? Because when Paul writes the Letter to Colossians, he says so. Here's what he says, Colossians 4, "Tychicus will tell you all..." I love that name, Tychicus. Somebody just do that when you get pregnant, all right? Just name him Tychicus. "Tychicus will tell you all the news." You're like thinking to yourself, "I'm not doing it." I don't care how cool you think it would be, Jerry." "Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He's a dear brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord. I'm sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances." In other words, his being in jail. "And that he may encourage your hearts. He's coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here." So Onesimus and Tychicus are being charged by Paul to bring letters to the church at Colossae. One that is the letter of instruction to the whole church and one that is specifically addressed to Philemon about a particular situation of which Onesimus is involved. Could you imagine Onesimus giving the letter to Philemon and going, "Paul wants you to read this"? Okay. And then it's literally about what happened with Onesimus and what Paul is asking Philemon to do. You know what's interesting about this? Paul actually addresses these two letters differently in terms of who he says is writing them. He says it's him. He says it's Paul, but the way he frames them are completely different. Watching Colossians 1, notice what it says, Paul, an, what? Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, right? Why? Because Paul is going to be giving now to the Church of Colossae instruction, apostolic authority for instruction of how Jesus has taught them to live, right? But how does he introduce Philemon? Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, who's a dear friend and a fellow worker. And then look what he says in verse 9B. He says, "It's none other than me, Paul, an old man and also a prisoner." Can you just hear Paul right now how he's appealing to Philemon? He's appealing to him as a brother, and he's appealing to him by saying, "Look, you're my friend. You're my fellow worker. I'm not coming at you with apostolic authority right now. I'm an old man, and I'm in prison. And what I want you to do is I want you to respond as Jesus would have you respond." That's how Paul approaches this. But to the Church of Colossae, he says, "It's Paul the Apostle, and I am bringing to you the authoritative apostolic teaching for the church in that place." It's really remarkable. And then notice what he says as we continue on in Philemon verse number 17, it says, Paul says, "So if you consider me a partner..." Do you remember that from the very beginning where he says, "Our partnership in the gospel, our koinonia"? Paul says he was seeding something that he was gonna come back to. He says, "So Philemon, if you consider me a partner, if we are in koinonia, intimate fellowship, then welcome Onesimus as you would welcome me. If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back, not to mention that you owe me your very self, Philemon. I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you and the Lord, refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I ask. And one thing more, prepare a guest room for me because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers." Do you know what Paul's doing here? He's actually anticipating the obedience of Philemon. He's anticipating the reconciliation that will happen between Onesimus and Philemon. And he's also anticipating this isn't going to affect his friendship with Philemon because he basically says, "Hey, I know I've made an ask of you. Oh, and by the way, one more thing if you get the guest house ready, because when I get out of here and answer to your prayers, I wanna come stay with you, eat your food, hang out with you, you know, do all of those things," right? So Paul is anticipating that this is not going to interrupt their friendship. And then after all of this, Paul closes in kind of a standard way. He says, "Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit." Paul begins with grace, and he ends with grace. And this is basically the Letter of Philemon. So this is the forgotten letter, right? This is the letter that sometimes gets skipped over, not read. We just skipped to all the big letters. You know, we're like, "No, man, I'm reading Acts. No man, I'm reading... You know, I'm reading 1 and 2 Corinthians. No, I can't wait to read Ephesians. It's like Philemon, I can't even pronounce that. It's one page, I'm skipping it, and I'm going on to read something else," right? So what's interesting about this is something that you noticed that Paul normally does that he didn't do in this letter. Remember you noticed, right? Here's what Paul didn't do in this letter that he does in every other letter that he writes. He didn't make explicit the gospel. Every other letter, he makes it very explicit. He talks about the reality of the death of Christ and talks about the reality of the resurrection of Christ and talks about the implications of all of that. He doesn't in every letter that he writes, but doesn't do it in Philemon. That seems a little odd, doesn't it? Coming from the Apostle Paul who is always preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why is that? I'll tell you why. See, when he wrote to the Colossians, he made clear the reality of the gospel in his Letter to the Colossians because he was teaching the whole church. When he wrote to Philemon, he's writing to a friend, it's personal, somewhat private, and he already knows that Philemon knows the reality of the gospel. Philemon has been charged with leading a house church in his area. He knows that he knows the reality of the gospel. What Paul is saying is this, "I now want you to model the implications of the gospel in this real life circumstance. I'm not teaching you, I'm challenging you to put the teaching of the gospel into real flesh and bone in this particular circumstance that you're in right now." You see, even though the gospel isn't explicit in this letter, the gospel is implicit and the implications of the gospel can be seen very, very clearly. In fact, let me offer you three implications of the gospel right here in this letter. Here's the first, a new identity. When the gospel takes hold of someone's life, they now have a brand new identity. Watch how Paul describes Onesimus. Verse number eight, he says, "Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, Philemon, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul, an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus, that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly, he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. This is a beautiful portrait of the transformation of Onesimus, and it really is beautiful. And if you realize what Paul was doing when you were reading it in Greek like you were just prior to coming to church today. When you were reading the Greek text, you would know this, that Paul is actually using a word play here that we don't pick up in English. Here's why. Because the name Onesimus means useful, that's what the word means. And Paul says, "Onesimus was not useful to you. But now because of his transformation, he is useful to both you and me." In other words, Onesimus was not Onesimus-ing until he was Onesimus-ing. The useful one was not useful until he was useful. This is really a beautiful picture of a life that has been transformed just 'cause what Paul says is that Onesimus is now here, he's new, he's different, he's transformed, and he's working alongside me. I know Philemon, "If you were here," Paul says, "I know if you were here you would wanna be serving alongside me, but Onesimus is doing that right now." Isn't this interesting what Paul does? Listen to this, in the very beginning of the letter, he calls Philemon, a fellow worker, and then what he shows on Onesimus as is a fellow worker. He's basically now exploding everybody's minds about what was the social order and saying there's a new identity that's in play here because Onesimus is no longer what he was. He is now someone different, and he's useful for the sake of the kingdom of God, both to me and Philemon to you as well. It's a new identity. You see, Paul told us that's what happens when the gospel gets ahold of our lives. Remember what he wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians? He said this, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone and the new is here." You see this is about a new identity for Onesimus and that's a gospel implication in this letter, but there's a second one and that's there's new relationships. See, when the gospel takes hold in a situation, not only do we experience a new identity, but now the relationships change. Watch how much they change in what Paul is saying. Listen to his words. I want you to say them with me when I point out to them, all right? Paul says, "I appeal to you for my..." What?

- [Congregation] Son.

- Son Onesimus. Who became my what?

- [Congregation] Son.

- Son while I was in chains. No longer he is a...

- [Congregation] Slave.

- Nope. But better than a slave, he's a dear what?

- [Congregation] Brother.

- Brother. He's very dear to me, but even dearer to you both as a fellow man and as a, what?

- [Congregation] Brother.

- Brother in the Lord. Do you see what Paul is doing here? The gospel up ends the social order in holy ways so that now the relationship of slave master is not the relationship that Paul is talking about. Paul is now talking about the relationship of brother or son. You see, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, everything changes for us. You know, at Christmas time, we've got a kind of, you know, a tradition here at The Chapel where we do candlelight. Many people do that. We didn't invent it. Actually, we did. We invented it. We invented candlelight singing at Christmas Eve. Thank you, everyone, just wanted everybody to know that. So we do that as a tradition, but we sing the Christmas carol, "O Holy Night". Do you know that within that Christmas carol and we sing at every single Christmas, there is truth that rises up out of Philemon. Change shall he break for the slave is my brother, and in his name, all oppression shall cease. You see, this is what's actually happening here when the gospel begins to play out in this particular circumstance that no longer is it about being slave, it's about being brother. And Paul brilliantly reinforces this teaching when he teaches the Colossian Church, so that when Philemon is also reading the apostolic teaching, he's also probably having to contend with his own particular circumstance. Paul brilliantly reinforces this teaching when he teaches the Colossian Church, so that when Philemon is also reading the apostolic teaching, he's also probably having to contend with his own particular circumstance. Listen to how Paul did it. Colossians 3 says, "Don't lie to each other since you've taken off your old self with its practices and you've put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator. Here, in other words, in the new self, there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all. Therefore, as God's holy or chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone." Could you imagine Philemon as a part of the greater church in Colossae reading this apostolic teaching from Paul? "Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." You see, Paul brilliantly pulls all of this together and says, "Not only when the gospel enters in do we have a new identity, we go from being useless in the kingdom to being useful for the purposes of God because of his grace in Christ." But we also now have new relationships, not defined by slave or free, not defined by Jew or Gentile, but defined in Christ. And now it's about being in the family of God. We're no longer slaves. We are sons and daughters and brothers and sisters in the family of God. What an incredible truth this is. But he also talks about another implication, and that's a new perspective, a new perspective. Let me just quickly give you those perspectives. First one's love. You see, instead of operating from a perspective of obligation, Paul appeals to Philemon in love. Listen to what he says, "Therefore, although in Christ I could as an apostle of Jesus who has seen the resurrected Christ, who got blinded by Him and then healed by Him and who has spent time with Him and who's been commissioned by Him, although in Christ I could be bold as an apostle and order you as somebody in one of the churches that I have apostolic authority over you. I could order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love." Why? 'Cause that's what Jesus taught us. That's how he taught us to respond to one another. You remember what Jesus said to his disciples before his crucifixion in John 13, "A new command I give you love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another." You see, love is the basis from which we now have a perspective because the gospel is God loving the world so much that he gave His son. And the expectation is that when we now see the world through the prism of the good news of God in Jesus Christ, that we appeal to our brothers and sisters in love. But there's another perspective, and that's one of dignity, not only obviously is Onesimus dignified now not as a slave, but as a son and as a brother, right? But Paul actually shows it to Philemon. Watch this, watch the dignity he shows Philemon. Verse number 14, "I didn't want to do anything without your consent so that any favor you do would not seem forced, but would be voluntary." Do you know what Paul did with his brother Philemon? He honored his volition and his own agency and his own ability to choose. This is remarkable because it comes out of Paul's love for his brother. And now he says, "Because I love you, I want to give you this opportunity. I'm not coercing it. I'm not forcing it. I'm now giving you this opportunity." He shows him the dignity of choice so that now when Philemon chooses to forgive, when Philemon chooses to receive Onesimus, he's doing it out of love for God and out of motivation of the gospel. Not because he was forced or coerced to do it, but there's a third truth here, and that's that we have a new perspective of trust when the gospel gets involved. Listen, in fact to verse 15, Paul says, "Perhaps the reason Onesimus was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever." In other words, what Paul's saying is, "I don't know the whole scenario." Maybe he did, but I don't. I don't know the whole scenario as to why Onesimus took off. I know it left you an alerts. I know it was tough, whatever, but I don't know why he took off, why he ran away like all of that, right? But you know the God that we serve is a redemptive God, right? That he redeems things and that you can trust that in his sovereignty, although what he may have done may have been unlawful or what he may have been done, maybe he stole. I don't know what he did, right? It might have been all of those things, but do you think that God can even use that for his purposes? And maybe what God did is allowed for this occur, didn't cause it but allowed for this to occur so that Onesimus would get to Paul, Paul would share the gospel. Onesimus would come to faith in Christ, and then Onesimus would come back now as a brother instead of a slave. God knew this. We can trust Him. And do you know why? Because what the gospel teaches us is that God has always known that we've had a need and God has always known how he was gonna solve it in Jesus Christ. And there is nothing that could thwart the plan of what God was going to do to solve the need of humanity and salvation through Jesus Christ. And so with every turn and every whoop in war that has happened through the course of life, God has still brought to fruition the reality of His salvation in Jesus. Because He's sovereign and He does what He says He's going to do, so he can be trusted. That's what the gospel gives to us. So the gospel isn't explicit in the Book of Philemon, but the implications are clear, aren't they? They're clear. Do you know what else, by the way? They're also clear in the people that are involved in this book. The main characters, Onesimus, Philemon, and Paul, the gospel comes through loud and clear through their lives. For instance, Onesimus is a picture of grace. Onesimus himself is a picture of grace. Think about it. He's a slave. He was useless. He ran, but because of grace, he was made useful, not only to Paul, not only to Philemon, but for the sake of the kingdom of God. Friends, I wanna remind you of something. We are all Onesimus. All of us. We're all Onesimus. All of us have been slaves to sin, useless for the sake of the kingdom of God. We've run and rebelled and we owe what we could never repay. But God in His grace to us in Christ has made a way for us to be redeemed and forgiven and useful for the sake of the kingdom of God. And some of you needed to hear that today because maybe in your personal life you've been trying to do things your own way. Whatever it is, you've made mistakes, you know it, you've sinned and you know it. You couldn't possibly not know it. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, the Bible says. Every single one of us have sinned and offended God, every single one of us. So you know it and I know it. We've all sinned, right? Sometimes what we've tried to do is we've tried to be the antidote to our own sin. We've said, "Well, we're going to change, and we're going to fix some things, and we're going to help ourselves, and we're going to get a little bit better." Let me just go ahead and tell you none of that works. If it did, there was no point in the Son of God coming and putting on himself the justice of God against sin that He bore. That seems like a colossal and infinite waste of time. If you and I could just, you know, pull ourselves up by our belt buckles and our bootstraps and make ourselves a little bit better. But the gospel is not about making bad people better, it's about making dead people come to life. That's what the gospel's about. So just because you think you're not so good, and now you've made yourself a little bit better, by whose standard? Your own, typically, and your comparison to somebody else. That's not how the gospel of grace works. Every one of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And we are... Listen to this. We are separated from God. And if it had not been for God's grace in Christ, God satisfying His judgment on His son in our place, we would have no hope of forgiveness, no hope of heaven, would be separated from God in a place the Bible calls hell, getting exactly what we deserved, which is separation from God for all eternity because that's what we chose. That's where we'd be. But God, in His infinite grace, He's shown us something different. And friends, every single one of us we're Onesimus. We all, all of us, have been slaves to sin, have been useless for the sake of the kingdom of God, but because of His grace in Christ and through faith in what Jesus has done through His death and resurrection, we can be made useful for the glory of God and for the good of others. We can no longer be slaves, but be sons and daughters, be brothers and sisters. We are all Onesimus. He's a picture of grace. Philemon is a picture of forgiveness. Philemon is a picture of forgiveness. How do you think Philemon would have responded when he's reading this letter? Can you imagine being Philemon and getting this letter? You're like... And you're starting to read the beginning. It's like, "Paul, yes, I got a letter from Paul." How special would you feel? You get this letter, it's delivered to you and it's from Paul and you're like, "Yes, and Timothy even saw what he was writing. I like Timothy, this is awesome." And then Paul calls him a dear friend and a fellow worker and says, "Grace and peace to you." And Philemon's probably like yes. And then Paul says, "Hey, I've got another son in the faith." And Philemon's like, "Yes." And he says, "His name is Onesimus." And he's like, "What?" What? There was a thing. A thing happened. And I've been put out, but I wonder if Philemon was actually remembering not only in what Paul wrote to the Colossians, but it was also remembering the words and the teachings and the parables of Jesus because he knew them. You know, like the parable that Jesus tells about the unforgiving servant who owed his master tons and tons and tons more than he could pay off in a lifetime. And he was forgiven of it. And as soon as he was forgiven, he went and found somebody who owed him a couple of quarters and started choking him. You give me what you owe me. He had been forgiven for more than he could possibly ever repay, and he's trying to choke a few gumballs out of a guy. I wonder if that rolled around in his mind. I wonder if the parable of the lost son. You remember the one. Two brothers, had a dad, and the younger brother took his portion of the inheritance and left and took off with it and spent it. And then eventually, came to his senses when he's in a pig pen and says, "I'd rather be home with my dad as a slave of his." I wonder if those were running in the back of his mind because here's what happens. Philemon probably recognized when Paul wrote this letter to him that Paul was saying, "Hey, Philemon, you are a living parable. And you're going to make a decision about this particular circumstance that's going to say something about what you think about God. And all the people around you in the house church there, they're going to see how you make decisions and what it says about how you think about God." Friends, brothers and sisters, listen to me. We are all Philemon. Every one of us is a living parable. Every single one of us come face to face with the circumstances of life and have to then answer the question, how does the gospel speak to what we choose to do now? How then when we make that choice will people see the reality of God and his love for us in Christ? Because we're all living storytellers by our choices. Do the choices that you make, do they say that God is a God who forgives or a God who harbors bitterness and anger? Do the choices that you make communicate that God is generous and open-handed and loving? Or does it communicate that God is hoarding and stingy and keeping as much from you as possible? We're all living parables. We're all Philemon. We're all Onesimus. Onesimus is a picture of grace, and Philemon's a picture of forgiveness, and Paul is a picture of sacrificial mediation. I don't want you to miss this. This is super important in this story 'cause I want you to listen to what Paul says in verse 17. Paul says, "Philemon, if you consider me a partner, welcome Onesimus as you would welcome me. If he's done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back, not to mention that you owe me your very self." Do you know what Paul is showing us? Jesus. Because that's what Jesus did for us, friends. You see, we were not reconciled to the Father. We were in a very bad position owing what we could never pay. And what Jesus has done on our behalf is said, "I will pay. It is me Jesus, with my own hands. I will pay for the sins of humanity. I will take upon myself that which I don't owe, but I will take it upon myself and sacrificially make a way for sinners and the Father to be reconciled, and it's because I am willing to pay." Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin because God is just, and He will deal with sin. And He did that in and through the person of Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus himself is a sacrificial mediator. And maybe there are times where we are certainly not Jesus, but maybe there are times where we too need to pay a price to be able to see the reconciliation of people around us to God, so that's the letter. There's a lot in it, isn't there? There's a lot to be able to apply, but you're probably wondering something still. And I know it, I already know it. How did it turn out? Hey, Jerry, this is pretty big ask that Paul gave to Philemon. How did it turn out? I don't know. But here's what I think. I don't know for sure, but I think it turned out really good and really beautiful. And I'm gonna tell you just a couple of historical reasons why before we leave. The first reason is 'cause we have the letter. If Philemon got this letter from Paul and had no intention of ever responding in a way that looked like the beauty of who Jesus is, I'm imagining he would've wanted to do away with that letter. Maybe just wad it up and thrown it away, but we have it. We have it. I think because he lived it out, and then it became shared among the churches to be able to help them understand the practical realities of how the gospel plays out in real life situations. We've got the letter. But there's something else, couple of things. In this book by Elwell and Yarbrough called "Encountering the New Testament", I just wanted to throw it out there 'cause it's where I found it. They talked about this archeological find that was right there in that same region, that region of Colossae-Laodicea right there. And we have this, like there's an inscription of found from that timeframe, and it's an inscription from a slave to the master that freed them. And while the slave's name is not noted, the master's name is Marcus Sestius Philemon. Wow. I don't know for sure if that's the same, but come on. This is the same place at the same time. Come on. And by the way, in addition to that, Ignatius, who was one of the early church fathers who was actually the bishop at Antioch before he died, wrote some epistles to some different places like just as he wanted to write some things. And he wrote one to the Ephesians, and he actually said in the Epistle to the Ephesians, not the one that's in our New Testament that was written by Paul, but Ignatius wrote this in about 108 to 110 AD. And he wrote about meeting and discussing and talking with the wonderful godly bishop of Ephesus at the time whose name was Onesimus, By the way, the math works. If Onesimus was a relatively young man, which it seems that he was when he ran away, then he would've been roughly around 70 at the time of this intersection with Ignatius. Can you imagine friends, the life of Onesimus? He went from slave to son to brother, maybe to bishop. That's called grace. From useless to useful because God's grace worked through him. And Paul and Philemon, God's grace can work through you as well. So whatever it is that God asks you to do, I know this, is to look front-facing into the beauty of what God has done in Jesus Christ in the gospel, and then make your choices consistent with that. Let's bow our heads together. We're dismissed in just a moment, but I would be remiss if I didn't give those of you here who maybe have never had an understanding of forgiveness of sin and a life being changed in Christ, an opportunity to do that. In just a moment, there'll be some people when we dismiss, that'll be standing at the front of the worship service, worship center here. And they would love to take a moment and be able to talk to you about what it means to receive Jesus, to have your sins forgiven, to go from living in the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. You can't do that yourself, only Jesus can do that. And so if that's your need, I would encourage you to take one of these men or women by the hand and respond to the good offer of grace that God has offered you in Christ Jesus. And Father, for those of us who may claim to know you, I realize that we sometimes need to be reminded that we are all Philemon, we're all living parables. We all are confronted daily and weekly and monthly and yearly with real circumstances and real issues that we need to apply the reality of the gospel to. For some that may mean paying a price to forgive people in their world. For some that may mean showing generosity so that the world can look at us and not see us as hoarding but as open-handed because we have a God that is so gracious and generous to us. But whatever it means, I pray that we'd be responsive to the truth of the gospel in our own lives and our own circumstances because you've been so kind to us and Jesus to take us from slaves, to sons and daughters, to brothers and sisters. So thank you for your kindness to us. May we be those kinds of people to respond in accordance and in step with the gospel. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.