Week 1
Notes
Transcript
Message Intro: We finished our series Mighty. Now we will be starting a new series, simply titles PHILEMON. We are going to be spending 3 weeks digging into this letter and what it means for us as believers today.
WATCH: Bible Project VIDEO: PHILEMON
Big Idea: Reconciliation begins when we STOP RUNNING and take RESPONSIBILITY for what’s broken.
So, who are these characters:
Paul:
Dog. Dog of Dogs.
Missionary
Mediator
Philemon:
Money bags
Roman
Christian
Onesimus:
Lived in Rome
Part of Philemon’s house as his slave
Side Note about what slavery looked like in Early AD Rome
Philemon believed he had been wronged. Onesimus had stolen from me. Paul leads Onesimus to Christ and decides that the restoration of the relationship is far more valuable than whatever debt was owed.
So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self.
It can be really hard when someone has hurt you, to see beyond them repaying that debt. Maybe not to the extreme, but we mark them as dead to us or less than because they didn’t make right what they wronged.
When I was in college, mountain dew deal when we wronged each other.
Philemon mentions that Paul writes “I will repay it” with his own hand.
Often, Paul would have someone write his words for him. But he puts in this part in his own handwriting. Meaning he was serious.
Paul taught on this same type of reconciliation here.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
If you don’t understand RECONCILIATION, you don’t understand the GOSPEL.
How can we refuse to repair relationships when our worst one was fixed through Christ.
RECONCILIATION IS:
OWNING what you did
Taking steps toward PEACE
Trusting God with the RESPONSE
Reconciliation is not:
Excusing SIN
Forcing FORGIVENESS
PRETENDING nothing happened
Closing:
Personal Application
As we wrap up, I want you to think about these questions:
Who have I been avoiding?
What conversation have I delayed?
Where am I running instead of reconciling?
[Teachers Note: give students a few moments to consider the questions.]
Remember,
Reconciliation is your responsibility
Forgiveness is their choice
Obedience is your calling
The first step toward reconciliation isn’t fixing everything; it’s turning around and taking one faithful step back.
