Philemon

Introduction:

As we continue with our worship of the Lord this morning, and we get ready to dive into the Word this morning, let us take a few moments to prepare our hearts to hear from the Lord this morning.

Let’s Pray Together.

Here is what we believe about the Scriptures in a nutshell...

16 All Scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.2 Ti 3:16–17.

20 Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, 21 because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Pe 1:20–21.

12 For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. Heb 4:12–13.

17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth Jn 17:17.

There is a lot more that could be said about this topic, but it boils down to when we are talking about the Word of God, or the Bible, we are talking about a divinely inspired book that was given by God to us so that we may know Him and His ways in the world. The Bible is the Word of God given to us so that we may know HIM, COME TO HIM, and be Changed BY HIM. This is what we call special revelation…meaning we would not know the things about God or salvation if God did not reveal them to us.

But there are times in our lives when we lose sight or focus of these truths. We do not always treat the Bible like we should. We do not always treat it as if it were the very words of God. There are times, if we are honesty, that we neglect, or forget about, certain books in the Bible…because they seem small and insignificant to our lives. We just don't know how we are to handle them or what we are to do with them.

You can think about books like Leviticus in the OT. You can think about Obidiah. You can think of Hababkkuk or Amos. These books are on a list that rarely crosses our minds.

But it isn't just OT books though. Think about how many NT books that we do not talk about often. 2 or 3 John. Jude. 2 Peter, doesn't even get that much attention to it.... Nor does the book of Philemon.

And yet, we still believe that all of these books, no matter how small they are in the Bible, how insignificant they might seem to us, we have to come back to what we believe to be true about the Bible, that what is written down for us is useful in the hands of God for some purpose in our lives. We have to see that. We must see that truth. We must see that God is speaking to our hearts when we open this book, and we have to be willing to see exactly what he is saying to us.

Body:

This is why, over the next few weeks, as a Church body I want us to walk through Philemon together. This is a book that is not talked about a whole lot. It is a book that kind of has a shaky history to its interpretation, but it is a book given to us by God for our transformation.

So, as we turn to the Scriptures this morning, I want to invite you to turn with me to Philemon 1 and we are going to read the whole chapter together. This will not be on the screen, and we are certainly not going to hit all of it this morning, but I want you to see the whole of the book before we dive into it.

Let’s read this text together. Hear the Word of the Lord this morning...

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother: To Philemon our dear friend and coworker, 2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your home. 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I always thank my God when I mention you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love for all the saints and the faith that you have in the Lord Jesus. 6 I pray that your participation in the faith may become effective through knowing every good thing that is in us for the glory of Christ. 7 For I have great joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

8 For this reason, although I have great boldness in Christ to command you to do what is right, 9 I appeal to you, instead, on the basis of love. I, Paul, as an elderly man and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus, 10 appeal to you for my son, Onesimus., I became his father while I was in chains. 11 Once he was useless to you, but now he is useful both to you and to me. 12 I am sending him back to you—I am sending my very own heart., 13 I wanted to keep him with me, so that in my imprisonment for the gospel he might serve me in your place. 14 But I didn’t want to do anything without your consent, so that your good deed might not be out of obligation, but of your own free will. 15 For perhaps this is why he was separated from you for a brief time, so that you might get him back permanently, 16 no longer as a slave, but more than a slave—as a dearly loved brother. He is especially so to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

17 So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would me. 18 And if he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—not to mention to you that you owe me even your very self. 20 Yes, brother, may I benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. 21 Since I am confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. 22 Meanwhile, also prepare a guest room for me, since I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you.

23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings, and so do 24 Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my coworkers. 25 The grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ be with your spirit.(Phm 1–25.)

As you can see, this book is not overly complicated. Paul is writing a letter to Philemon and the church, which we will talk about here in a few moments, concerning a Slave, Onesimus, who has run away....and it appears that he had stolen some property from his master, Philemon. This book as been used, incorrectly I might add, to justify slavery and it was also used in the abolition of slavery… and this is a topic in which we need to make sure that we have a firm understanding of in our day and age…but it is more than that. This book is not written about slavery. This books primary aim is to talk about forgiveness…living the Christian life, and seeing others as brothers and sisters in the Lord. This book is about breaking down social barriers and living life based on the Love that Christ has for us.

With this understanding in place, let us dive into verses 1-3 this morning as we begin this study.

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother: To Philemon our dear friend and coworker, 2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your home. 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Phm 1–3.)

This book starts off, and will continue to follow, the general format of a letter in the 1st century. We are introduced to the writers of the letter and to whom the letter is written. The introduction ends with a wish and desire for the hears of the letter.

Let’s walk through this together.

Who wrote the Letter? Well, the text says that it was Paul and Timothy.

Most of us understand who Paul is. Paul was once a guy who was trying to destroy the Church, but Jesus got a hold of him and changed his life forever. Paul was one of the apostles who went about preaching and proclaiming the Gospel.

But, look at how he identifies himself here… Paul, a Prisoner.... This is a little unusually for Paul....in fact this is the only time in an opening of a letter that Paul says that he is a Prisoner of Christ Jesus. When you look through all of the letters that Paul had written you will see him saying.. Paul an apostle or Paul a servant…but only once does he say… Paul a prisoner....and he labels as a prisoner of Christ Jesus.

Now, I don't think Paul means Jesus is holding him against his will for some crime that he had done. Paul is talking about him being in prison because of preaching the Gospel.

You see, Paul faced many hardships in his life because of his devotion to Jesus. He was beaten. He was left for dead. He was also put in prison for his preaching of the Gospel....and this happened more than once.

At the time of this writing, it is believed that this imprisonment is the same one that we read about in Acts 28, when Paul is in Rome. This is also the same time frame in which Paul would write some other letters like Philippians and Colossians.

So, we have Paul in prison writing this letter with Timothy, who is described as “our brother.” I want you to watch how Paul describes each of those that are named here in this section, because I think it is so helpful for us to see how we should be relating to other Christians.

Let’s talk about Timothy real quick, just so we have an understanding of who he was. Timothy was a convert to Christ. We first meet him in Acts 16 before Paul’s 2nd missionary journey. His mother and grandmother were Christians, but it is believed that his Father was not. Timothy followed Paul on his journeys and as such, was very close to Paul, and he was useful to the Gospel ministry as well.

Now that we have a good understanding of who the letters are coming from, let’s talk about to whom the letter was written.

Look at verse 2 with me.

To Philemon our dear friend and coworker, 2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your home.

This letter is written to Philemon....let’s talk about him first. What we know about him only comes from this letter. He is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. But we know this....he is called dear friend and coworker. He is a believer in Christ. Paul considers him a coworker....so we could assume that he is a faithful Christian who is busy about doing the work of Gospel Ministry.

We can also tell that he must be a wealthy man in that time because he does own some servants and has a house that can hold a small church gathering.

But this is not just written to him, but also to Apphia, who is believed to be Philemon’s wife, who is called “our sister.” Notice the familial language that is used to describe the relationship between those who have placed their faith in Christ. This too is the only place that she is spoken of.

This is also written to Archippus, whom some believe to be Philemon’s son, and look at how he is described, “Our fellow soldier.” He is involved in preaching the Gospel. We know this because this is not the only placed he is talked about.

Hold your spot there and flip back to Col. 4:17 with me. Listen to what it says, “And tell Archippus, “Pay attention to the ministry you have received in the Lord, so that you can accomplish it.””

This is where we start to get an idea on where these people are from. These people are part of the Church at Colosse…and we know that because that is going to be the other place that Onesimus is talked about also.

Then finally, this is written to “the church that meets in your home.” This language sounds so strange to our ears. To us, churches do not meet in homes....they meet is big buildings that can hold a lot of people. How is a church supposed to meet inside of a small home? But we forget, this was how the church meet for like 400 years before going into buildings.

We never think that a church should meet in a home, but I think we have to see that as a valuable option for some. Just because a church does not have a building, that does not make them a real church. The place does not matter, it is what they are doing that makes a difference. We have to see that.

Finally, we see Paul send them some greetings. Look at verse 3 with me

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

We have to see this as not just some formality that Paul is doing here. This sets the stage for the discussion that they are about to have. Paul wants this letter to be built on the Grace and Peace that can only come from God our Father....and the ONLY MASTER THAT WE HAVE.... Our LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Conclusion:

We can read through the opening part of this letter and think that it is just telling us a bunch of details…and do not get me wrong, there are a lot of details in this opening part of the letter. There are important parts of this letter that we need to understand so that we can understand what else is written in the letter. If we do not understand the context of the letter, we will not understand the letter correctly.

However, it would be wrong to read this as only informational and not transformative in our lives. You see, what this opening does is reminds us that...

We ALL Are Servants Of Christ.

You do not have to be a big named hotshot to do work for the Lord. God will use each and everyone of us who is willing to be used for his service.

Yeah, we may never accomplish anything great in the eyes of the world, but we are not, or at least we should not be, seeking to please the world. Our aim in life is to please our Master…and even that is built upon the grace and peace that comes from Him. WE are not trying to earn grace and peace…that is given to us through Christ. But, because we have grace and peace....we should strive to live our lives for Him.

Let us be brothers and sisters in Christ, who are working together for the advancement of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Let’s Pray together.