Changed By The Gospel

Introduction:

As we continue with our worship of the Lord this morning, I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Philemon 1:8-16 as we continue with our Study of this small book.

Hear the Word of the Lord this morning.

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. (Phm 8–16.)

Before we dive into this passage, let us prepare our hearts before the Lord to receive what He wants to do inside of us.

Let’s Pray Together.

One of the darkest spots on our history as a Nation is that of slavery. I know that I do not have to go into grave detail in explaining what slavery was.... many of us are familiar with what happened. We know that many Africans were captured, beaten, kidnapped, and then sold to white people to be used as instruments of labor. Many of them were not treated like humans; rather, they were treated like animals. We know and understand that their conditions were not right. No person should ever be treated less than just because of the color of their skin, their social rank, etc. We get and know that. We know that this was a problem in the culture at large. It was over this issue that we had the Civil War, for crying out loud.

We know that this was a problem, not only as a culture but even within the church itself. We have to acknowledge that fact. Even in the SBC, our history revolves around this issue. Not the issues if someone should own slaves or not, but rather was about if the Baptist Church should have missionaries who owned slaves.

And it is not like this issue was resolved in the 1800s, although slavery was technically abolished then. We know that segregation was still a problem in the nation, and in some places and in the hearts of some people, this is an issue that is being fought.

Now, I say all of this because when we read passages like this one from Philemon, we bring all that we know and thank about slavery into the text.

As we move into this part of the letter, we have moved past the greeting and blessing sections, and now we are discussing the heart of the letter. And as we move into this section, if we are not careful, we will read our experiences of slavery into the text instead of letting the text speak to us. I do not want us to do that. We need to see and understand the context in which this letter was written to understand better what is being said and how this might apply to us.

Body:

So, before we get into walking through this passage, let me share a few things about 1st century slavery and that of the New World.

In his book, Slave of Christ: A New Testament metaphor for total devotion to Christ, Murray Harris explains that in the 1st century, “slaves were not distinguishable from free persons by race, by speech or by clothing; they were sometimes more highly educated than their owners and held responsible professional positions; some persons sold themselves into slavery for economic or social advatage; they could reasonably hope to be emancipated after ten to twenty years of service or by their thirties at the latest; they were not denied the right of public assembly and were not socially segregated.....; they could accumulate savings to buy their freedom; their natural inferiority was not assumed (pg. 44).

So we can see, right from the get go, slavery was not quite what we normally think of when it comes to this topic; but there is more.

In this book, Murray also points out that what we normally think of Slavery, the Bible does speak against. The Bible is very pointed that a person should not be used or abused for personal gain.

In 1 Timothy we read these words,

9 We know that the law is not meant for a righteous person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral and males who have sex with males, for slave traders, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which was entrusted to me. (1 Time 1:9-10)

We can see that the Bible is not ok with people being kidnapped and then sold for profit. This is all over the Bible by the way, not just here in this text.

So, when we are reading sections that pertain to slavery in the New Testament, we need to understand that we are not talking about is not what we typically think of. Is that to say that it was ok? No, that is not what I am saying. Is that to say that slaves were always treated correctly? No, that would not be true either.... but we do have to understand that it was a little different… and that is why we do have these statements in the Bible about how Masters and Slaves were to live with one another… this was much more like a business contract than it was owning them… and this became especially true when it came to the Christian Community. As one writer has said, in particular about Philemon, is that, “What this letter does is to bring us into an atmosphere in which the institution (of slavery) could wilt and die.”

The Gospel breaks down these barriers that society makes. In Christ, there is neither male nor female, slave nor free, Greek or Jew, IN Christ, we are all on level grounds… and this the idea that we see in this passage.

Now that we have a good understanding of the context, let us walk through this passage together.

Let’s start by looking at verses 8-10 together.

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. (Philemon 1:8-10)

Paul starts off with “For this reason...” This points back to what was said before in verses 4-7. Paul had just talked about Philemon’s love for all the saints and the faith that he had in Christ....this is the reason that Paul is going to bases his appeal on. Since Philemon has a great love for all of the saints and has faith in Christ, Paul is about to ask him to do something that will demonstrate that love. Paul is not going to do this as a command- make note of that fact. This is not Paul telling Philemon what to do, Paul is trusting, because of the love and faith that he has, Philemon is going to do what is right. Could Paul tell him what to do? Yes. Paul could use his authority here and tell him the right thing to do, but instead, being a good Pastor, Paul is going to leave it up to Christian conscience for Philemon to determine what the right thing is.

So, what is this appeal? Paul is going to appeal for his son, Onesimus. The question has to be then, how did Onesimus become his son? Paul tells us. While Paul was in chains (in prison) their paths crossed and Onesimus must have given his heart to Christ. We get to see a glimpse of what we have been reading about in our Study of Philippians playing out here. Remember, Paul was always spreading the Gospel and talking about Christ....even when he had been arrested for it. He just never shut up. He could not…he would not keep it to himself....and somewhere along the way Onesimus and Paul came in contact with each other and Onesimus gave his life to the Lord.

What was the result of their encounter? Look down at verse 11 with me.

11 Once he was useless to you, but now he is useful both to you and to me.(Phm 11.)

How The Gospel Changes A Person. What does this say about Onesimus? “Once he was useless to you...” how would you like that to be said about you? That is just awful. We don’t know why Paul said that. We don’t know the circumstances surrounding this statement, but we do see how the Gospel changes Him....for the one who was once useless in now “useful both to you (speaking to Philemon) and to Paul. What a transformation. We get to see the Gospel in this one sentence. It changes a person from the inside out. The Gospel has transformed his life.

We still have not seen the problem at this point. We still do not know what the appeal is. This is where we start to see this letter to take a turn. Look at verse 12 with me.

12 I am sending him back to you—I am sending my very own heart ( Phm 12.)

Why is Paul sending Onesimus back to Philemon? As we will see next week when we go over the last section of this letter, apparently Onesimus has ran away from his master....but not only did he run away he also must have taken some property with him. Now, we would think based on Philemon’s character this had nothing to do with mistreatment.....but rather had something to do with Onesimus....but here in this verse Paul is letting Philemon know....I am sending him back to you....and look at how Paul describes Onesimus- “my very own heart.” This is language of deep affection. Onesimus has become very dear to Paul. He is now a brother in the Lord.

Paul expresses his desires.... look at verses 13-14 with me.

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 (Phm 13–14.)

Paul’s desire was to keep him with him in his imprisonment. He wanted to do this for the gospel- so that Onesimus might help Paul and serve him in Philemon’s place. But, instead of keeping him- he is sending him back. He did this because he did not want to force Philemon to do the right thing, he wants Philemon to do the right thing on his own accord. Notice the play on Christian freedom here. Paul wants Philemon to do what is right, not out of obligation but his own free will- meaning out of his own desire.

Think about this for a moment. How often do we want to force people to do the right thing.... because we know that it is the right thing to do? We do this all of the time. What if, instead of taking everything into our own hands…we let the Spirit of God do His work and we just got out of the way. What if we let Christians live out Christian convictions the way the Spirit was leading them instead of throwing our judgement at them because that is not the way that we would do it? This happens so much in ministry....and honestly it does not need to be that way. What if there were a greater purpose than what we see?

This is where Paul turns his attention. Look at the last few verses with me. Look at verses 15-16.

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 (Phm 15–16).

The emphasis here is on Onesimus being a Christian. Paul says that maybe he was separated from his master so that Onesimus might come to know Christ. What looked like a devastating loss…what was rebellion on Onesimus’ part.... what upset Philemon because a worker ran away.... What if it had a greater purpose? That is what Paul is saying here. All of this had a greater purpose, and the outcome is much greater than it would have been.

Because now Philemon is going to get Onesimus back, but no longer as a slave…more than a slave....as a dearly loved brother...thus breaking the social barrier over their day. He is no longer a slave. He is now a brother in Christ- and in him there is no difference. Slave and free are the same in the eyes of God.

Conclusion:

As we think about this passage....here is what I want us to see...

Main Point: Changed By The Gospel

That is what we are seeing happen here in this text. We see this in a number of different ways:

Onesimus’ life is changed.

He is no longer useless but useful.

His Heart has changed.

He is helping in the ministry.

He is more than a slave.

Social barriers are changed.

The Gospel really does make a difference in the lives of people and in the world in which we live. We have to see that.

We have to be willing to let the Spirit do His work, and we need to be content with what He says needs to be done.

As I was thinking about applications for this text, here are just some of the things that came across my mind:

We should let Christian Conscience have its place.

We need to be working to spread the Gospel to others.

We need to see that the Gospel is powerful enough to change lives.

The Gospel is what breaks social barriers.

We have to trust that God is working all things together for our good.

Because of Christ, we are now useful to the Kingdom of God.

If we have trusted in Christ, this we too are

Main Point: Changed By The Gospel