Day 7
Notes
Transcript
Welcome to Day 7
Today we are going to jump ahead a few years from when Jesus told His disciples to go and make more discples and see a little glimpse of what early christians looked like.
We are going to go through a whole book of the Bible today. But dont worry its only 25 Verses,
Philemon was a rich man in the city of Colossae, and it sounds like it had a big house, that a group of Christians meet in, and he even had some salves. Back in these days some slaves were treated really badly, and some slaves were treated really well, almost like a modern butler.
One of Philemons slaves was called Onesimus, which means useful, but it doesnt sound like he lived up to his name. He was a pretty useless worker and he ended up stealing from Philemon and running away from him.
As Onesimus ran away he ran into Paul, a man who had gone from killing Christians to setting up churches all over the place, including in Colossae. And maybe Onesimus ended up staying with Paul and helping him out. You see Paul had been arrested, not for doing anything wrong, but for telling people about Jesus. So Onesimus started helping out Paul, probably getting him food and helping him to keep in touch with other people.
We dont know exactly when, but while he was with Paul Onesimus became a Christian, and he knew he had to go back to Philemon and aplogise for what he had done. So Paul sent him back along with a couple of letters, one for the Christians who meet together in Philemons house which we can read in the Bible. one for Philemon
Paul starts our by saying hello to Philemon and thanking him for how kind he had been to Paul, and praising him for how much he loves Jesus and, Jesus church.
Then he goes on to tell Philemon how, even though he could command Philemon to do the right thing, he is going to ask nicely.
Paul asks Philemon to welcome Onesimus back home and forgive him, Paul tells Philemon how useful Onesimus has been to him in prison and how he loves him like a son.
Philemon shouldnt see Onesimus as a slave or worker, but as a brother
Paul offers to pay for anything that Onesimus owes Philemon, he tells him to charge it to him, But also that Philemon should remeber that he owes his life to Paul.
Becuase of how well he knows Philemon Paul was sure he would do everything he had asked and even more.
A few thing we can see from this letter
Early Christians didnt have big fancy buildings to meet in, they meet in each others homes
Paul didnt overlook someone like Philemon, he shared the gospel, or good news about Jesus with him.
Becoming a Christian totally changed Onesimus life.
We dont know for sure, but theres some records outside of the Bible which makes it seem like Onesimus went from being a useless work, to being an important leader in the early church.
‘a man of inexpressible love and your bishop’
The good news about Jesus changes peoples lives. tomorrow we look at what that means for me and you today.
