Confronting Contamination
Confronting Contamination
6/2/2001 and 6/3/2001
Background of Philemon while they turn there.
-Paul was in prison in Rome. While there somehow he met a slave named Onesimus. He had ran away from his master and either stolen or damaged some of his master’s property. We don’t know how he got to Rome or exactly what he did to his master, Philemon. We know Paul spent some time in Colossae and the result is this church meeting in the home of Philemon probably pastored by Archippus. Apphia is probably Philemon’s wife. Obviously there is a close friendship between Paul and Philemon. Paul writes a letter to the church in Colossae, the book of Colossians and also sends this letter with it. It is delivered by two people, one of them is Omnesimus.
Philemon – Message Translation
-This is an interesting introduction to the subject of forgiveness and staying free from contamination.
v. 1-Paul calls himself a prisoner of Christ even though he is a prisoner of Rome.
-Interestingly Paul; who was in bondage told a slave running for his freedom how to be really free.
-Story of Corrie Ten Boom with former guard. Her definition of forgiveness is: “to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.”
v. 6 – I’m hearing good things about you.
v. 8-9 – He appealed on the basis of love, not his apostleship.
v. 10-11 – a great word play, Onesimus means “useful”. He is saying- Useful became useless to you but now he can live up to his name.
v. 15-16 – Whether related to someone or not, whether slave or free, there is a higher standard that we live by:GRACE and MERCY.
Example: Brother in airport, I knew he was my brother because he walked like my father.
-Read the list of people with Paul at the end of the letter: why is this significant?
-Paul had a falling out with Mark and Barnabas and later we know it was dealt with.
-Paul said Demas had forsaken him in 2 Timothy 4:9.
-Look at 2 Timothy 4:14.
-Paul had been through it with people.
-That leads me to an explanation of why I am talking about this.
-On vacation I had several things come up to the surface concerning people who I had run ins with as a Christian.
-I was born again and came into a weird church situation.
-Then I was in a situation after Bible School where a church and pastor and denomination was clashing. This church was being sued and going to court.
-I went to Scotland and worked in a church where the pastor years later lovede me one moment and threatened to blow up my house the next.
-I have been here almost 17 years and the normal stuff that happens has happened.
-I was thinking about all of that and I said one day to Becky, I’m surprised I survived.
-Every 3.3 years a pastor leaves a church and every so often people will rotate churches for one main reason: offenses.
-Unfortunately there are Christian casualties that litter the road to heaven because of not being able to resist contamination.
-I hear people say they left a church because they got hurt…on the inside I think how many times I would have left if that were my reason for leaving.
-God doesn’t lead you by offenses. You may need to leave a church, just do it for the right reasons.
James 1
27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Hebrews 12
13 "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no-one will see the Lord.
15 See to it that no-one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
1 Corinthians 16
8 But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost,
9 because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.
-I don’t want you to develop a persecution complex where you expect a hassle all the time.
-At the same time….there are people who know the truth and are emotionally in a mess or living in bitterness because they don’t know HOW TO FORGIVE.
-I know people in ministry who kept sharing the message but stopped sharing their life because they were offended and bitter.
-DON’T LIVE THAT WAY….BE STRONG IN THE GRACE OF JESUS CHRIST.
2 Timothy 3
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth--men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.
9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
10 ¶ You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance,
11 persecutions, sufferings--what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
13 while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,
chapter 4
15 You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.
16 ¶ At my first defence, no-one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.
-Paul wasn’t bitter, Stephen wasn’t bitter, and Jesus wasn’t bitter.
-All of them prayed that their persecutors would not be held responsible for their actions.
WHAT FORGIVENESS IS
-I heard a great example of what forgiveness is. The example is that of a small town sheriff. Like Andy, they pick up a lifetime long-term criminal who is sentenced to life imprisonment but at their jail.Every four hour for the rest of their lives they are going to have to feed and care for this person. After several months Mt. Pilot calls and says we have an opening here. Would you like to send your prisoner to the state jail? Of course you say YES.
-That is what forgiveness is, it means in the original to SEND AWAY.
-It isn’t saying the person is right or wrong is just saying that their judgment and punishment isn’t your responsibility.
-You aren’t excusing them, you are simply trusting them to God, they are His responsibility.
-We have thought that forgiveness meant to pardon someone, you aren’t God.
- I will add, in the case of Stephen, Paul, and Jesus it is as if they sent a note asking the judge to pardon them. That is Christianity.
-Example of Pat Robertson with testimony of woman with bad marriage. God told her to forgive. Pat said he would have said “leave him.” That is a very honest answer to a real situation.
-Forgiveness is transferring them to Jesus.
-It is technically a heartfelt decision to release the person from obligation. It is saying, YOU DON’T OWE ME.
-Bitterness comes as a result of unresolved anger.
-On vacation I felt like I couldn’t really forgive and love if I formed an opinion of them apart from God’s perspective.
-You know the story of Peter asking Jesus how many times he should forgive.
-The rabbinic tradition was to forgive three times. (Based on something in the Book of Amos.)
-Peter said should I forgive up to seven times, he was going that extra mile.
-Jesus said-70 times 7. He wasn’t saying 490 either, He was saying “UNLIMITED”.
-I remember rehearsing something in my office and concluding that I had acted correctly.
-It is as if the Lord prompted me that He wasn’t as concerned about who was right as much as who was now going to act right.
-Right and wrong became secondary to GRACE AND MERCY.
-Forgiveness begins with a seed of obedience.
-The process of healing begins at that point.
-Forgiving and forgetting isn’t Biblical.
-We have to have a memory of it, you are simply making a decision to send it away.
-You are transferring the responsibility of it to God.
-He is the judge, you are not.
WHAT FORGIVENESS IS NOT
(INSERT INFORMATION FROM McGee-Search for Peace)
PRAYER OF FORGIVENESS
CROP
CONFESS/REPENT/OBEDIENCE/PRAISE
-I would add prayer for that person and blessing them.
-God is God/we aren’t.
-Prayer for cleansing if our hearts are hard and bitterness has taken root.