Paul, Philemon, and the Church
Notes
Transcript
Today we start a new short series.
We are looking at the New Testament letter called “Philemon.”
It’s not pronounced phil le mon,
but Philemon.
It’s a hard book to find in your Bible because it’s so small.
It’s only one chapter.
It only has 25 verses.
You could easily read it in less than 10 minutes.
Maybe less than five minutes.
But even though it’s a small book,
it’s a life-changing letter.
I thank God that it is included within our Bibles.
In it, we see God’s desire for reconciliation, and other themes of our faith—the Christian faith.
Let’s start today with Philemon 1-7
Phile 1-7 is found, again, in the NT.
It’s after the book of Titus,
and before the book of Hebrews.
Make sure you open to it,
or look it up on your phone.
Maybe even take some time in the following days to read and meditate on this letter through the Holy Spirit.
But for now,
Philemon 1-7 in the NIV, it says,
Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker—also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier—and to the church that meets in your home:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.
Let’s pray.
By way of introducing this book, I would like to look at three things.
First is who is this person named Paul. // draw stick figure and name Paul
Why are we reading his letter?
Second, who is Philemon?
Who is this person whom Paul addresses?
And finally, why does Paul refer to the church?
What is the purpose of the church?
How does it relate to the letter Paul is writing?
Then we’ll explore the themes that Paul included in his prayer.
But let’s start looking at Paul.
The reason that we are focusing on Paul,
is that this letter is written by Paul. // write point -author of Philemon - v. 1
He introduces himself in the first words,
“Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus.”
People have seen Paul as the most influential person in the Christian faith,
beside Jesus, of course.
He wrote a lot of the church letters that we have in the NT.
His letters are read regularly within churches because his words were so formative to the early church and all the churches since.
And the letter he wrote to Philemon is without exception,
although it’s a smaller letter and is often overlooked.
but
How did Paul become so admirable?
How did he get so much influence?
Paul’s origin story is interesting.
He grew up with the Jewish name Saul, - write he was a Jew with the name Saul
but in the New Testament, he always refers to himself as Paul, his Greek name.
He was Jewish.
He was from the tribe of Benjamin.
Paul was also Roman through his citizenship, by birth.
He was religiously an orthodox Jew,
just like his family.
And he received a thorough form of education. // write - he was educated
He was super bright in matters of theology, of the Bible.
Then...
When Jesus came into the picture,
saying that he was the Messiah,
and when the church began following Jesus,
Paul didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah. // write - at first, Paul did not believe Jesus
Actually,
Paul believed that the Jews who followed Jesus were heretical.
They were believing in a false god.
Christians, in the mind of Paul, were distorting the good book, the Bible.
So Paul took it upon himself to purify the Jewish religion by exterminating Christians.
He began persecuting Christians. - write, he persecuted Jesus’ followers
He officiated the murder of the first Christian martyr in the Bible.
He was there when Stephen died.
He was fiercely committed to eradicating apostasy.
It’s crazy.
This man went above and beyond to deal with Christians.
But, suddenly everything changed for him.
Paul was going to Damascus to persecute Christians,
and you could find this all in the book of Acts.
And on his way to Damascus,
he suddenly had an experience with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s read it.
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.
Saul was breathing out murderous threats against Christians.
And Jesus met him.
And confronted him.
And Saul’s life was forever changed. //Write: After meeting Jesus, his life changed (Acts 9-15)
Such a crazy experience.
But Paul converted.
He went from a Jew who persecuted Christians,
to a Jew who followed Christ.
Paul then went to the deserts in Arabia,
where he spent time with the Lord,
and there he was prepared for his global ministry. // write: he had a global ministry
Paul went to several countries on mission trips,
and he successfully started a lot of church plants.
Paul began to gain prominence within the Christian movement.
This ex-church persecutor gained so much influence that was able to confront Peter about concerns that he had.
Paul, an ex-church persecutor, confronting Peter, the spokesperson of the Apostles.
Evidently, Paul was respected within the Christian church and had received the title “Apostle.”
He even gained support from Christian churches to help him plant churches.
The churches gave finances to help Paul.
And Paul eventually started the church in Colossae,
which is the church he is writing to here in Philemon.
And he introduces himself,
“Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus”
...
“Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus”// write “Became a prisoner of Christ Jesus”
...
It’s crazy.
Paul started as a persecutor who murdered followers of Christ,
and now he has become a prisoner of Christ Jesus.
Typically,
Paul would introduce himself as an apostle.
He would say,
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus.
But here he introduces himself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus.
In this letter,
Paul empties himself from the authority that comes from being an apostle.
Instead, Paul identifies himself with the weak and powerless.
This is very important because of another character named Onesimus whom we will see next Sunday.
Paul refers to himself as a prisoner, because that’s what he was—a prisoner.
People didn’t like Paul’s ministry.
They didn’t like that he was changing up the world with this message about Jesus.
So they captured him.
And imprisoned him.
Paul was in a prison when he wrote this letter.
And although it might look like Paul is a prisoner of Caesar,
a prisoner of the state,
Paul recognized that he was a prisoner of Christ Jesus.
Paul was in prison,
not because of human decisions,
but because of and at the direction of Jesus Christ.
Hence, Paul was a prisoner of Christ Jesus.
Whenever I find the phrase “Christ Jesus” in the Scriptures //underline Christ Jesus
I am always reminded of people thinking that Christ is Jesus’ last name.
So people think that it’s weird that here Jesus’ last name, Christ, appears first.
Christ Jesus.
But Christ is not Jesus’ last name.
Christ is actually an honorific, a title.
Christ is the Greek translation of the Jewish title, Messiah.
Therefore, by identifying himself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus,
he was saying that he, a Jew, was identifying Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.
And it’s foundational to remember this.
That’s why I started with the kingdom series,
so that we could see Jesus as the king who brings shalom,
peace and order to the world.
Paul saw Jesus this way,
and he was willing to be a prisoner for Christ Jesus.
And although he was an apostle for Christ Jesus,
Paul wrote this letter to Philemon,
not so much as an Apostle,
but as a friend in Christ,
and he wrote this letter to the family of Philemon and the church that met at his house.
But he uses the second person singular “you” instead of the plural “you all”.
Like tu instead of ustedes.
So while he was writing to a body of believers, he was primarily writing to Philemon. //draw stick figure and name
Philemon was a resident of Colossae. // bullet point: resident of Colossae
Philemon had money.// bullet point: had money
He had a house big enough to host the church in Colossae.// bullet had a big house
He also had a guest room,
and had slaves. // bp: had slaves
We’ll talk more about slavery in the Roman world next time,
but for now, just note that Philemon was well-off.
It’s likely that Philemon was a successful businessman.
Philemon had become a Christian under the ministry of Paul. //bp: became a Christian under Paul’s ministry
Philemon was close to Paul.
Paul considers him a fellow worker. //bp: a fellow worker of Paul
They both work together in spreading the message of God.
Philemon did not allow his wealth to keep him in the background,
he was actively involved in the mission of the church.
The other characters, Aphhia and Archippus, are probably part of Philemon’s family.
Apphia is believed to be Philemon’s wife,
and Archippus, their son.
And they had church like us. // draw this house
I was reading this a couple weeks back when we had our second service,
and I’m like, look,
that’s us,
meeting in homes.
Kinda cool to see how things work out.
This series was planned since last year,
and we didn’t think about meeting in the Arroyo’s residency.
But here we are,
and now we’re reading about Christians who met at Philemon’s house.
Because the early churches did not have buildings of their own,
they met in private houses.
Philemon’s house-church probably consisted of the entire Colossian Christian community.
And there were many other house-churches that met,
and they were all united in Christ.
Crazy how God started this movement.
It started in houses.
...
In this letter,
Paul is primarily writing to Philemon,
but he also addresses the church that meets at Philemon’s house.
This letter, while it’s very personal—it’s between Paul and Philemon--
it’s not just between them, however.
It’s not private.
The entire church is involved in what is taking place in the life of Philemon.
If this happened during our time,
if a church leader was asking us something,
and the church leader involved the church,
while it was supposed to be a personal interaction,
we’re like,
“They don’t need to know.
Stop involving the church.”
And I know that we have been affected by gossip,
hurt by gossip,
so we have reasons to fear involving the church.
But involving the whole church is important for Paul.
Why does Paul address the entire church on what appears to be a private matter?
Well,
Paul sees that Philemon’s two households were intersecting.
His natural and spiritual life intersecting.
His private and public life intersecting.
The appeal that Paul makes to Philemon in this letter is not just for Philemon, but for the entire church.
The church needs to help Philemon with the request that Paul is going to make in this letter.
Although we should not gossip,
private matters sometimes need the support from a public community.
It takes a team,
a family,
a community,
a village,
to change personal things.
I know we don’t like to hear it.
We are so individualistic.
But we need community.
We need one another.
God sees a purpose within the body of Christ,
within the family of God.
In fact,
within this letter,
you see themes of a family.
This is a personal letter,
but God’s family is still important.
That’s why we see Paul reference Timothy,
as a brother in Christ,
Apphia, our sister in Christ,
and God, our Father.
We need the strength of God’s family to do what God has called us to do.
...
Philemon and the family of God met at a house-church.
Meeting at home really communicates this idea of being a family.
And we, like Philemon, are a family,
because God is our Father.
You know,
we might just think of one’s family as one’s immediate family.
Families are getting smaller and smaller in this world.
But the message that churches have about families is different.
Your family is not just those who share the same last name as you.
No,
we are family.
Everyone who follows Christ is my brother and sister.
Is your brother and sister.
This family transcends ethnic boundaries.
We have brothers and sisters on the other side of the world.
And we are all building each other so that we can do the will of our heavenly Father.
The Western ideal of individualism and self-sufficiency is challenged by this letter.
Many have lost this sense of connection within the church.
They think they ought to do this Christian thing alone.
While you should take personal responsibility,
we all need each other.
Christians are not alone.
You are not alone.
As a scholar once said,
When we are joined to Christ,
we are joined to one another.
And this is a blessing.
Together,
I can learn so much from all of you,
and you can learn from one another,
and together,
we can have a greater understanding of truth,
of grace.
Together, we can better love and forgive.
...
You want to know the health of a church?
Then tell me the state of the social-relationships within the church.
...
The church is much more than an association of people that gather just because they have similar beliefs.
No, the church is a family.
That’s how Paul saw it.
...
That means that as the actions of one member within a family affects the entire family,
the actions of one church member affect the church family.
Paul allows Philemon to make his own choice,
but Paul knows that Philemon’s decision would affect his house-church.
Your actions will have an impact on this community of faith.
It matters what you do.
There are repercussions to your actions which affect this church.
How you respond to actions will affect our spiritual health.
It matters greatly whether you show love or disdain for others.
It matters a lot whether you refresh the hearts of the saints,
or if you drain the hearts of the saints,
if you act selflessly or selfishly.
...
You’re not alone in making decisions.
It is wise to seek help.
Left alone,
we’re more likely to make wrong decisions.
But if we ask for help from those who are committed to Christ and who pray together,
we are more likely to do the will of our Father.
Verse 3,
Paul, as he typically does in his greetings,
he gives a benediction,
a blessing.
He said,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
These words,
you see them often if you read your Bible,
especially if you read the NT.
These words are not meaningless.
They were intentional words that would remind Philemon of what he had experienced.
Philemon had experienced God’s grace through Jesus Christ.
And he had experienced God’s peace,
but Philemon would know more about God’s peace if he did what Paul requested from him.
We’ll look at the request next week.
But for now know that Philemon had the two benefits that derive from the Gospel.
He had grace and peace.
In God’s grace,
Philemon had received the free and unmerited gift of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
In God’s peace,
Philemon had experienced the power of Jesus, which made him whole.
That’s what the message of Jesus does.
We can experience peace because of God’s grace.
And this is a work of both God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
as Paul wrote.
As we know, God sent his Son so that we could have salvation.
Therefore we have peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ.
This is the work of both.
...
In verses 4-7,
the last section of our time together,
we see Paul transition from the introduction to a prayer that includes a thanksgiving,
which is customary in the letters of Paul.
In this prayer,
we see Paul express that he is thankful for Philemon,
that he constantly prays for Philemon,
Paul explains why he prays for him,
and tells Philemon what exactly he is praying for.
Within this prayer,
there is no doubt that Philemon was a much-loved figure in the Christian community.
Paul knew Philemon personally,
and Paul’s prayer demonstrated that he had positive and happy memories about Philemon.
Philemon was an easy person to be thankful for.
Paul would remember Philemon,
and give thanks for him. // write: Paul thanked for Philemon in his prayers
Have you done that?
Remember someone and give thanks for that person.
If you haven’t you really should consider practicing this attitude of gratitude.
Paul practiced thanksgiving.
And he did it easily with Philemon.
He would remember and give thanks.
Remembering here is not just a mental activity of recalling somebody.
Remembering here means speaking to God to consider them and act for their benefit.
...
I think it’s a good practice for us to remember each other.
Pray for each other.
Call on God on behalf of one another.
...
In this prayer that Paul prays,
he evokes the Psalms--
the Psalmist would regularly pray to God with the address “my God.”
And Paul picked that up.
Whenever Paul prayed for Philemon, he gives thanks to God.
And as we see in verse five,
the reason that Paul would give thanks to God for Philemon was that
Paul heard about the love for all his holy people and his faith in the Lord Jesus.
and had faith in the Lord Jesus.
These are admirable qualities.
The Greek word for love,
and we’ll see this often in the letter,
is ἀγάπη (agapē) — write this
We’ve actually used the root of this word actually.
We used it when we referred to the Philemon.
Paul calls Philemon his dear friend.
In older translations,
Paul calls Philemon, beloved.
The Greek word for faith is πίστις (pistis) // draw and write
The idea behind πίστις is trusting, or having confidence in.
So Philemon ἀγάπη for the church,
the saints, holy people,
that’s what the church is—a community of holy people,
and Philemon ἀγάπη the church.
And Philemon πίστις Jesus Christ.
He trusted in Jesus Christ.
I think these are key marks of any Christian.
Or at least they should be.
We all know, for the most part.
that to be a Christian you need to believe in Jesus Christ.
You need πίστις in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
But I feel that we miss the ἀγάπη for God’s people.
We should not just affirm a theoretical statement of faith,
but we are called to live out the reality of what it means to have faith in Christ.
We don’t just believe in God, but we also love his people.
And his holy people are imperfect, but we are to love them.
We should love one another.
...
That’s what Philemon was known for:
his ἀγάπη for the church
and his πίστις for Jesus Christ.
And we will see Paul appeal to Philemon’s ἀγάπη,
because as Christians,
we act out of ἀγάπη.
But Philemon had room to grow.
Even though he believed in Jesus and the good news,
there was still room to grow.
So Paul prayed that their partnership in the faith may be effective.
Partnership.
That’s another thing that the church is known for//church references.
Within the church we have plenty of partnerships.
The Greek word for this,
and it’s also a popular word within some Christian circles.
The Greek word for partnership is κοινωνία. // write the word and connect to church
You could see in different translations like what this word conveys.
Yes, it conveys partnership,
it can also convey this idea of something being shared,
it could also be like an association,
or a fellowship,
and that’s usually how we refer to it.
We have κοινωνία with the church.
When you become a follower of Christ,
you become part of the κοινωνία
the partnership,
the fellowship,
of the faith,
that Paul refers to here.
...
You’re not by yourself.
...
And this partnership is important,
because through it,
we can grow as people.
God gave us κοινωνία,
for our good.
Paul said,
I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ.
As a church, we are supposed to help one another,
know every good thing.
understand the good that God has for us.
And that’s what this letter is about.
Paul is helping Philemon understand every good thing.
It’s discipleship.
Paul is helping Philemon be a better disciple of Christ.
That’s what the role of the church is.
The task of the church is to make disciples.
Everything we do,
all the relationships we have,
while they bring us joy,
the primary goal for the partnership that we have with one another.
The primary goal of κοινωνία is discipleship.
And part of discipleship is knowing that every good thing we share is for the sake of Christ.
And automatically,
when you believe in Christ,
you identify yourself in an intimate association—in κοινωνία.
And you have the responsibility, as I do,
to help one another grow in the faith for the sake of Christ.
And going back to the word κοινωνία,
it conveys this sense of mutual participation.
The pastor is not the only one active,
neither are the worship leaders.
No,
everyone in the κοινωνία,
every believer has a role to play.
In the grand scheme of things,
we are in κοινωνία, in partnership,
we are united to do the work of Christ here on the earth.
We are all in this together: (high school musical haha)
We all play a role in letting the world know about the work of Jesus Christ--
that we have fallen (hand motions),
but Jesus has redeemed us.
And God works through partnerships,
through the κοινωνία of the faith,
of the pistis.
Each person plays a role
Giving financially support,
praying.
doing personal evangelism,
or counseling,
practicing forgiveness and reconciliation.
...
And we end with verse 7,
where Paul again demonstrates that he is grateful for Philemon.
Paul is grateful for Philemon.
Paul is grateful for Philemon’s ἀγάπῃ.
And I hope we could say this,
and hopefully, it has been the case for us.
Paul said that Philemon’s love, his ἀγάπῃ, brought him great joy and encouragement,
because Philemon had refreshed the hearts,
the inward parts
of the Lord’s people.
We need people, like Philemon,
whose goal is to refresh the hearts of the church//line to the church
connect lines to players. like Paul and Philemon.
Refresh.
What do you think about when you hear that word?
Refresh.
...
I thought about refreshing a website on our phone.
I also thought about like on a hot day,
and drinking water,
that could be refreshing.
And that’s kinda like what Philemon did with the hearts of God’s people.
Imagine that,
refreshing the hearts of God’s people.
Philemon’s ministry wasn’t superficial;
it actually dealt with the hearts of people.
It can be easy to round up people,
get them excited.
But it’s harder to deal with the heart.
To refresh the hearts of the Lord’s people.
But that is what Philemon did.
And I believe that’s what we should strive to do.
The church should be full of people who refresh the hearts of one another.
We have spent looking at Paul, Philemon, and the church,
as we get into this small but amazing letter.
...
And I present two takeaways.
One,
Jesus changes lives.
He changed the life of Paul,
from a murderer to a life-giving leader.
He changed Philemon,
Philemon refreshed the hearts of the people.
People are not like this, although they should be.
In the beginning, humans were in harmony with themselves (hand harmony)
and that happened because they were in harmony with God.
But humans have rebelled against God.
And they have faced the consequences of that,
but God sent Jesus, his begotten Son,
to redeem us.
And faith, pistis,
and trust,
are necessary for you to begin to be redeemed and restored by the power of God.
So we’ll pray, and I encourage you to make that decision.
Two,
when you believe,
you become part of the church.
If you have already made the decision to be committed to Christ,
you are part of the house of God,
the family of God,
the κοινωνία of God.
You play a role in this family.
And fellow brothers and sisters play a role in your life.
Here are two things to ask yourself—write these
How can the church help me grow?
How can Encounter Church help you?
And then,
how can you help the church?
How can you be like Philemon, and refresh the hearts of God’s people?
How can you have agape for God’s people?
Think about that.
And pray about.
And put an action plan,
and let me know how I could help you.
Let’s pray.
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