Reconciled By The Gospel

Introduction:

As we continue with our worship of the Lord this morning, I want to invite you to open your Bibles with me to Philemon 1:17-25 as we finish our study of this book this morning.

Hear the Word of 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 17–25.)

Let’s Pray Together.

As you can see, this text is not very long, and much like the rest of this short letter, it is not overly complicated. Paul has been very direct here… and I think that sometimes when we read through these shorter letters, we can hurry along, and we do not see how much benefit there is in these for us.

If we are honest, we know that we are not going to be in the exact situation that Philemon is in here in the text… at least we should not find ourselves in that exact situation. And because we do not identify exactly with what we read in the text, it is really easy to go on about our business without considering what is laying underneath the words that are said. Now, I do not mean that we are looking for a hidden meaning in the text. That would be wrong. We have to keep in mind....what this text means here in our context is what it has meant in very context in which these words are read throughout the centuries of the church. The meaning of the text does not change.... how they might apply to us does..... but the meaning does not.

So, when I speak about looking for what is laying underneath the words.... what I mean is we have to see what Biblical principals are at play here. It is what we call the principal bridge.

Our goal as people who study the word is to understand what the text meant in “their town” ( that is the original audience) and understand what it would mean in our town (that is application) and then think of a bridge that puts these two worlds together.

With some texts, this is much easier to do. Take for example....when we read the words… “Do Every Thing Without Grumbling of complaining...” What do you think that meant in their town?

What do you think that means in our town?

It means the same thing…now, might be we have different things to grumble and complain about? Yes! No one was complaining about their car not starting in the 1st century. That did not happen....but the principle is the same.

Body:

I say all of this because when we come to sections in the Bible like this, it sometimes takes a little more effort to see the principles that are at play here.

What I want to do this morning is do a quick walkthrough of what Paul is saying and then we are going to talk about the principles that apply to us.

Look at verse 17 with me.

17 So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would me.

What we have here at the end of the letter is Paul making his request to Philemon for Onesimus. If Philemon considers Paul to be a partner in the ministry and would welcome him.... then Philemon should not have any problems with welcoming Onesimus....and why is that? Because upon his conversion to Christ, as we said last week, Onesimus goes from being useless to useful. Onesimus in now helping in the Gospel ministry. He is more than a slave.... he is a brother in Christ....and because of this he should be welcomed.

Next, down in verses 18-19 we find Paul’s request to charge Onesimus' wrongs to Paul.

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.

Paul is going to tell Philemon not to worry about the wrong that Onesimus has caused.... Paul is going to settle his account for him. Think about how amazing that statement is. Paul is going to take on the debt of a Slave. This was unheard of in the ancient world.

Look at how Paul expects Philemon to respond. Look at verses 20-21 with me.

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

Paul is looking for Philemon to comply with his request. He is expecting Philemon not just to welcome him, but to let go our his debt....and quite possibly either let Onesimus go back to serve Paul, as some of the letter seems to lean that way....or Philemon is going to restore him back to his position instead of pressing charges, as was his legal right.

I am going to say, Paul is expecting Philemon to release him back to Paul… but maybe even quite possibly let Onesimus go permanently so that he can devote himself to Christian ministry.

Paul still has more to say here. Look at verse 22 with me.

22 Meanwhile, also prepare a guest room for me, since I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you.

Paul seems to be planning a trip to come to Philemon here shortly.....which is funny because remember, Paul is in prison....but he has the confidence that through the prayers of church…he is going to be released.

This is something very similar to what we have been talking about on Wed. Nights as we have been studying the book of Philippians together. Remember, Paul says something very similar there in chapter 1. Paul has great confidence when he knows that the Church is praying for him.

Lastly, lets look at the very closing of this letter. Look down at verses 22-25 with me.

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.

Paul ends with a very typical ending of a 1st-century letter. He is going to list out some other Gospel ministry brothers who send their greetings to Philemon. Paul is not only in his request here. Paul is letting Philemon know that he is not alone either.

Then finally Paul ends the letter with a reminder that all of this is to be done with the grace that comes from Jesus Christ.

You see, this passage is not complicated. I hope that you can see easily enough what Paul is saying here.... I hope that you can see what this meant in “Their Town” This is part one of understanding…part 2 is understanding the cultural context of the letter.... I think that we have a good grip on that one.

We can summarize this by saying Paul is making a request to Philemon to forgive Onesimus and to remember that they are now partners in the Gospel ministry.

Conclusion:

However, we still are not done yet with this text. Remember, we have to understand what it is saying in their town, understand the cultural context, and then we need to build a principalizing bridge into our town.

That is what I want us to do now before we apply this to our town.

What are some Gospel Principals that seem to be at play here in this text? These are going to be in no particular order, but I think here are some of the things that we can see.

Gospel Ministry Takes Partnerships.

Think about this for a moment. What does Paul start of in this passage? “IF you consider me a partner....” What does he end with? A whole list of people who are Paul’s coworkers. Paul could not do ministry alone. Paul depended upon other people to be busy about doing ministry. If we are going to be effective in reaching our area for Christ, then we too need to understand that we need Gospel partnerships. We need others in our lives who can come along side of us and help us carry out the mission.

We need to be that for somebody as well. We are the body of Christ. We need to work together so that we can accomplish the work that God gave us to do. Doing His Will is more important that anything else. Doing the work that He has called us to… is more important than our preferences.

The Gospel Reconciles People Together.

How badly do we need this in our culture. We are living in a world that is broken and fractured apart. We seems to fight about every thing… even inside of the church. Don’t think that are are excluded from this....no. But we must remember, no matter what are differences are.... the Gospel is what reconciles us back together. The idea of being reconciled means, by its very nature, that at one time we were against each other.... there was some hostility… but NOW, because of the Gospel.... we are walking together.

This happens in Gospel ministry for sure. We need to keep that in mind with our brothers and sisters in Christ. But more importantly, we need to see and understand that this is what happened with us and God. We are to be reconciled to each other because this is how God treated us through Christ. Because of the Death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, we are now reconciled to God....and we need to extend that to others.

This leads to the next point I want us to see.

The Gospel Calls Us To Forgive Those Who Have Wronged Us.

When we read verses 18-19 we need to see what Paul is saying to Philemon here. He is saying, I will take his debt. I will pay it. Charge that to my account....and also, do not forget how much you owe. Paul is pointing him back to his conversion.

I think about Jesus’ parable about the unforgiving servant here. You know the story. Jesus talks about a King who is going to settle account with his servants....and as he is settling accounts he comes to a man who owes what is equal to our national debt level....not really but you get the idea… this guy could not pay it back....so what does he do? He begs for forgiveness. And to our surprise, he is forgiven.

But then what happens? He goes out and finds a guy who owes him a dollar. That guys begs for extra time…but he is denied. He is thrown in prison until the debt can be repaid.

Well, as you can imagine the King is not too happy about this. He finds that servant, the one who owed a lot of money, and yells at him and throws him in jail to be tortured until the debt can be paid.

Jesus then ends with these words “So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of your forgives his brother or sister from your heart.”

Those are powerful words. But the point here is that if we have truly received the grace and forgiveness of God in our lives....then that should overflow to how we treat others. Yes we might have been wronged by them. Yes we may have been hurt by them. But haven't we been in the same spot before? Were we not forgiven....and of so much more? Shouldn’t we extend that grace to others?

The Gospel Calls Us To Pray.

I love the emphasis here on prayer. Paul is confident that the Prayers of the saints can accomplish much. There was a dependence upon prayer that I feel as if we are missing in our day and age. We need to get back to this. We need to get back to seeking God through prayer and trusting that He hears us when we pray.

We Need The Grace Of The Lord Jesus Christ In Our Lives.

None of these things are possible if we do not rely on the Grace of God in our lives to accomplish them. We are never going to be strong enough, smart enough, powerful enough, to do these things on our own. There is a reason as to why Paul starts and ends his letters with the Grace of God. We need His Grace. We do not earn it. We do not deserve it....but God, who loves us, so richly gives it to us. He is there for us in those moments.... we just need to look unto Him. We need to see that He is for us and not against us.

Now that we have walked through this process of understanding the text to the original hearers and have thought about the Biblical principles that lay under the text....the last thing we need to do is...

Understanding the Text In Our Town

How Can We Apply This To Our Lives?

You know this about me, but when I think about application, I tend to ask myself questions. So, let’s ask ourselves some questions to see how we can apply this to our lives.

Who Can I Partner with In Ministry?

What Does It Look Like To Be A Ministry Partner?

Who Do I Need to Reconcile With?

Who Do I Need To Forgive? For What?

Have I Accepted the Grace and Forgiveness of God In My Life?

Do I Really Believe Prayer Makes a Difference?

What Do I Need To Start Praying For?

Am I Trusting in The Grace Of Christ To Work In Me?

I am sure that this might apply to your life in different ways.... but what I am wanting us to see is that even this text, can apply to our lives.

God is at work in us. God is changing us to be more like Himself. That is His Goal. That is what He accomplishes through His Word. Let the Word of God rest on your souls this week. Look at how you might apply this to your life…and then walk in the Grace and Power of God.

Let’s pray together.