Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Can you think back to a time when someone hurt you?
When someone did or said something to break the relationship or a trust you had with them.
What did you feel; anger, resentment, betrayal?
Were you ever reconciled to that person?
Did they seek your forgiveness, did you forgive them, did they even know you were hurt by their words or actions?
This morning we will be looking more closely at reconciliation.
Because reconciliation is at the heart of the message of Philemon.
Philemon is a very short but important book.
What Paul does in this short letter is nothing less than radical for the first century Roman empire culture.
One commentator says that if we had no other NT book, if this was the only one we had, we would know that something important was happening in the Roman empire.
A subversive idea was being adopted that would itself change the empire from within, and would cause it to be primarily Christian in a few hundred years.
It is this idea of reconciliation, but not just any reconciliation.
Paul was calling for this reconciliation across the biggest cultural and class barrier in the ancient world, reconciliation between a slave and his owner.
And Paul was calling for this because the new identity these believers had in being followers of Jesus.
As we work through this short book, we will see that;
RECONCILED RELATIONSHIPS ARE AT THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST,
Christians need to be reconciled to each other
2. Christian reconciliation is to be tied to our identity in Christ
Christian reconciliation is to be tied to our identity in Christ
Christian reconciliation is only possible because we have been reconciled to God through Christ
Before we begin let’s open in a word of prayer
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father we …
Background and Re-read Philemon
[Time: 10m, Total: 10+4 = 14min]
Introduction
Before looking at these themes in detail we need to set the story.
Who are the characters, what is the setting, and what is the issue Paul is trying to address..
Characters
PAUL.
The first character is Paul.
He is the author of the letter, and he says writing from prison.
He has several people with him.
Some who seem to also be in prison like Epaphras.
And others that are not, like: Timothy, Luke, Mark, and Demas.
Some commentators say it was during his Roman imprisonment, but many others think is was in Ephesus.
This seems more likely given what we will see later.
PHILEMON.
The second character is Philemon.
Philemon is the recipient to the letter.
But as verse 2 shows Paul is intending more than just Philemon to read the letter.
Paul says he is addressing it Apphia and Archippus who are thought to be Philemon’s wife and son.
He also addresses it to the church that meets in their house.
Philemon was a convert to Christianity and likely converted by Paul.
He is also a good friend of Paul.
He was relatively wealthy since as we will see he owned slaves and had a home large enough to have a house church.
It would seem the he lives Colossae, because we see many of the same names mentioned in Philemon and Colossians.
Including: Onesimus, Archippus and Epaphras.
ONESIMUS.
The final important character it he letter is Onesimus.
He is a slave owned by Philemon.
He has run away, he has become a fugitive slave, a very dangerous position to be in.
He may even have stolen from Philemon to help support himself while on the run.
Somehow Onesimus meets Paul, but we don’t know how.
And in that meeting with Paul, Onesimus is saved.
He becomes a follower of Jesus, and Paul has high praise for Onesimus in his letter, who is helping him during his imprisonment.
Setting
GEOGRAPHY.
Paul is in Ephesus and Philemon is in Colossae.
Ephesus is on the west coast of modern-day Turkey.
If you follow the Meander river valley west for 160 km you end up at the site of 3 Roman cities mentioned in the NT.
All very close to each other.
Laodicea, Hierapolis and Colossae.
mentions Laodicea and Hierapolis as places that Epaphras is working hard for them.
SLAVERY.
The final thing we need to deal with to understand this letter is slavery in ancient Rome.
It is somewhat different than the European and American slave trade we may be familiar with.
It was not based one ethnicity.
Roman slaves were generally gained though war.
A neighbouring nation or people were conquered and enslaved.
Jews for example were enslave during Pompei’s conquest of Judea.
You may have heard the slavery was similar to employment today.
It was not.
The life of most slaves was difficult.
They were owned as property and the owners had the authority of life and death over them.
Slaves in mines had horrible lives and short life expectancies.
Household slaves like Onesimus could have it easier but totally depended on who owned you of course.
Your life was not your own, and you lived and died, prospered or suffered at the whim of your master.
Problem to be Solved
So what is the problem that Paul is setting out to solve with this letter?
Paul realizes at some point that Onesimus is his good friend Philemon’s fugitive slave.
Maybe Epaphras even recognized him from Philemon’s household from attending the house church there.
However the problem became apparent, something needed to be done.
Paul decides the only thing to be done was for Onesimus to return to Philemon but with a letter in hand.
Onesimus needed to seek reconciliation as did Philemon.
Re-Read Philemon
With this background in mind lets re-read the letter.
Reconciliation
[Time: 7m, Total: 14+7 = 21m]
Explanation
The primary theme of this letter is reconciliation between two Christian brothers, Onesimus and Philemon.
But what is reconciliation?
To be reconciled to someone first there needs to be a broken relationship, a conflict between two people.
For Philemon and Onesimus the conflict arose because Onesimus ran away, likely stole some of Philemon’s possessions, and left others to take over his responsibilities.
The morality of slavery aside, Onesimus’ offence against Philemon was serious enough to have him executed.
For reconciliation occurs three things need to happen: First the offending person needs to ask for forgiveness, the offended person needs to forgive, and both then need to move forward in a renewed relationship.
When we sin against someone we need to ask for their forgiveness.
This can be very difficult to do I know, but the Christian life requires it:
· says – we are to confess our sins to each other
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