Philemon III

MINISTER, Rev. Thomas O. Scarborough.

Paul's Epistle to Philemon. Philemon Verses 7-11.

I am continuing this morning with Paul’s letter to Philemon. And this morning we have reached verse 7.

The letter to Philemon was of course written to Philemon. Philemon was a slave owner -- and one of his slaves had run away. And that slave -- called Onesimus -- was saved through the ministry of Paul -- and Paul sent him back to his master. But because the master was a Christian, Paul said to him: “You have a new relationship now. And you have to live according to that new relationship.”

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Now the Bible story ends at that point where Paul sends this slave Onesimus back to his master -- but we know a few things about this letter from history.

One thing is for sure -- and that is that Philemon didn’t tear up the letter -- because we still have it.

Another thing we know is that that slave -- Onesimus -- became a famous bishop -- the Bishop of Ephesus. He was the bishop who decided that it was time that all the holy writings of the early Church should be gathered together from across the world, and put together in one place and one book.

And that is surely why we find this short letter to Philemon in the Bible. Onesimus made sure that he would preserve that letter for all time.

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Now last Sunday we saw that Paul gave thanks to God in his prayers for his Christian brothers and sisters -- for their faith, and for their love. He said, “Thank God that there is a people in this world who have the light of God in their souls -- who have the love of the Holy Spirit in their hearts.”

And truly, when the Church is as it should be, it is something very special. It is a place where the Holy Spirit is present -- and you don’t find that anywhere else.

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This morning -- continuing in verse 7 ---- Paul writes the following. He writes to Philemon: “Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.”

The most important part of that verse is in the second half: “You, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.” You have revived them -- you have given them new life.

In fact we find throughout the New Testament that one of the most important things to the early Christians was to encourage each other -- to revive one other -- to build each other up.

For example, we read in the New Testament that Judas and Silas -- two early leaders of the Church -- “said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers” (Acts 15:32). Paul said that if anyone had the gift of prophecy in the Church, he “speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and comfort.” (1 Corinthians 14:3). The writer to the Hebrews said, “Encourage one another daily.” (Hebrews 3:13).

So throughout the New Testament we find this emphasis -- and we find it this morning in this letter to Philemon.

Why were the early Christians such a regular encouragement to each other?

Well there was one great reason for this -- and this is that they had a great and wonderful God -- the God of all power -- the God of grace and mercy through Jesus Christ. The God of all comfort, as the Bible describes Him. (2 Corinthians 1:3). There is so much encouragement in God that if any Christian is feeling discouraged, then they are missing the power and love of a magnificent God who is involved with their lives.

When David iHimH

was in the desert, and his wife had been kidnapped, and his house had been burnt down, and his men were talking of killing him, we read that he “encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” (1 Samuel 30:6). He didn’t simply encourage himself -- he encouraged himself in the Lord His God -- in the knowledge of who God was.

And that is why we, today, can refresh and encourage one another as the people of God. ----- God Himself is our greatest encouragement -- because of who He is to us, through Jesus Christ.

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Let’s move on to verses 8 and 9 in the letter to Philemon.

Paul says to Philemon -- the slave owner -- “Therefore, although in Christ -- I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love ...” and in verse 10: “I appeal to you for my son Onesimus.”

Let’s try to put this in simpler language.

Verse 8 begins with the word “Therefore”. And as one of our preachers recently pointed out -- if you have the word therefore, then the verse that follows is linked to the verse that goes before. So Paul is saying to Philemon, “You have been such a refreshment and encouragement, dear brother -- therefore ...”

And basically Paul is saying, “Philemon, I know your heart. I have seen the evidence of where you are-at as a Christian.” He is saying, “You are a man who wants to be a refreshment to people. You are a man who is an encouragement and a blessing to the Church. And so I don’t need to command you to do anything -- I know where your heart is.”

And then Paul says -- basically, he says this: “You are a man, Philemon, who keeps slaves. Onesimus is one of those slaves. And I am sending Onesimus back to you.” And we’ll come to what Paul urges Philemon to do next Sunday.

The fact is that often people become Christians while they are living in situations that are worldly -- in this passage it is the master-slave relationship -- and their minds and their hearts are not transformed all at once. Sometimes the Holy Spirit changes us little by little. And then comes the breakthrough -- as it does in this letter with Philemon.

Let’s look a little closer at verse 8. Paul says to Philemon, “In Christ I could be bold, and order you to do what you ought to do.”

Now this is what we call apostolic authority. Someone defined it as “the right to exercise power.”

But let’s notice in verse 8 that this is not just authority, full stop. Paul tells us, “In Christ I could be bold ...” It is an authority that is given to Him in Christ. It is not the kind of authority one finds in the world. It is an authority that exists only within the Christian Church. It is an authority that has the stamp of God on it. Paul has been blessed and appointed by God and by the Holy Spirit to fulfil the spiritual calling that he has in the Church.

Back on the Damascus Road, the Lord Jesus Himself appeared to Paul -- when he was still called Saul -- and said to him, “You are now a chosen vessel to Me. You will bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.” (Acts 9:15). And so Paul was called and set apart, and with that came a certain authority in Christ.

It’s very interesting to see what is happening in the Anglican Church at the moment. Just this week I was reading a letter by Bishop Akinola in Nigeria. There’s been a great rift in the Anglican Church, over their position on Scripture, and over their position on human sexuality. And it is interesting to see how the liberal leaders are fighting -- over in the U.S.A. -- and how the Bible-believing leaders are fighting -- in Africa.

The liberal leaders of the Church are taking to schemes and law-suits and manoeuvring -- and all the human techniques you can think of -- while the Bible-believing leaders are saying, “We speak in the confidence of the Holy Spirit. We speak on the authority of Christ. Your law-suits and your schemes mean nothing.”

And this is what it means to have authority in Christ -- it is a different kind of authority to what one finds in the world.

I think that Church leaders -- ministers, and deacons, and group leaders -- need to be careful that they are in fact using the authority that they have in Christ -- and are not using schemes and power-plays and human techniques to lead others. There’s a fine line -- because it is so easy for people’s human nature to take over, where I want the authority -- I want my way.

But there is such a thing in the Bible as authority in Christ. Paul speaks about it here in verse 8 -- and it is an authority that the Bible says should be treated with respect. If leaders are truly called by God, then there is a certain God-given authority that they have. The New Testament tells us, “Hold them in the highest regard in love -- because of their work.” (1 Thessalonians 5:13).

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But I’d like to apply this to more than Church leadership.

Every Christian has a gifting from God -- and a calling from God. You have a gift which was sovereignly chosen by the Holy Spirit, and given to you on the day of your conversion ---- and you have an area to which God has called you -- or where God has put you -- to exercise that gift.

And that means that, while you might not have the special spiritual authority that, say, Paul had in the Church -- you probably do have some special spiritual authority in the home -- or as a boss -- or as a group leader -- or in some other situation. Perhaps the best known examples in the Bible are the authority that God has given to civil administrators, to employers, and to parents.

And that authority should also be in Christ. It should not be used in a human way, with human manoeuvring and scheming and so on.

The human way, with your business, is to cleverly set up your meetings so that you can win, to shut out those who might disagree, to fake the figures and so on. But in Christ, you don’t need the human techniques. You have confidence that this is what God called you to, and that God will be with you and guide you.

The human way, with your children, is to bribe them with sweets, or to promise them a bicycle for Christmas, or to scream loud enough to shut them up. But in Christ you don’t need such human techniques. You use your spiritual authority with quiet confidence and command without all the tricks.

A classic example in the Bible is Isaiah 31:1: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help -- who rely on horses -- who trust in the multitude of their chariots, and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the holy one of Israel.” The leaders of Israel were using all sorts of human techniques to protect their nation, but did not trust in the authority that God had given to them.

So in whatever place God has put you in life, you probably have some God-given authority in that position that should not get confused with human manipulation and control.

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Let’s move on to the end of verse 9.

Paul says, “I, then, as Paul -- an old man, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus -- I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains.”

So Paul, here, is an old man -- he is likely going on for 60 years of age. And we read in verse 10 that he is a prisoner -- and that he also was -- or still-is -- in chains -- and we know a lot about the old Roman empire, so we know that this probably meant that he was chained to a wall.

Onesimus of course is the slave of Philemon, who had run away.

Now in those days it was very serious indeed for a slave to run away. Often the master of that slave, when he or she was recaptured, would keep the slave in chains. And very often, if the master felt the slave was irredeemable, he would crucify him or her. And the standard treatment for a runaway slave was a branding on the forehead with a big letter "F" -- for "fugitive" -- Latin "fugitivus". Encyclopaedia Britannica tells us: "By the original Roman law, the master was clothed with absolute dominion over the slave, extending to the power of life and death."

So we can understand that a slave who ran away was a person who had a lot to fear. Where could they go? What would they say when they got there? What if someone recognised them where they went?

So often a slave would run to the big city -- to Rome -- to lose themselves in the crowd. And this is what Philemon's slave Onesimus did.

But while Onesimus was in Rome, somehow he came into contact with the apostle Paul -- who was at that time in chains in prison. And somehow Paul led Onesimus to the Lord.

Paul describes Onesimus in verse 10 as “my son, Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains”. And this means “my son in the faith” -- my son who was born -- born again -- through me.

We come across a similar passage in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, where Paul says to the Corinthians: “Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers -- for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel” -- the good news. (1 Corinthians 4:15).

Let’s notice the one unusual thing about this situation -- Onesimus came to the Lord through Paul’s witness while Paul was in prison. -- And this Onesimus became one of the most important Christians in the early Church -- the great bishop of Ephesus.

Here in this letter to Philemon, Paul had reached a late stage of life -- he could have thought that his ministry was now over -- because his possibilities were severely limited -- he was in jail -- and yet let’s notice that God used him here in one of the most important ways of his career.

I think this is just a small reminder of an important Biblical principle -- and that is that God is not limited by a dismal situation.

I think these verses show us something important about God.

As Christians, we should not be looking only at what we see in front of us, but we should be asking, “What could come of my situation -- even if it doesn’t change -- what could come of my situation -- if I reckon with the presence and the power of God?” We read in the New Testament that God’s power is perfected in weakness -- when we are weak -- and Paul said, “I will boast gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

The great missionary Hudson Taylor had a tremendous passion to reach the people of China for Jesus Christ. He gave up everything to go to China, and to be a missionary to the Chinese. His whole heart was in China.

But then he fell seriously ill -- he couldn't even get up from his bed -- and he was far away from his beloved China.

But he prayed from his bed that God might send others to China. And in one year, God sent 18 young missionaries to him to learn Chinese at his bedside. The next year, God sent 70 missionaries -- and the third year He sent 100 missionaries to learn Chinese at his bedside -- and Hudson Taylor taught them all Chinese and sent them into China.

The last I heard about China is that there are around 70 million Christians in China.

So while Paul was in chains, Onesimus became his son in the faith -- and Onesimus became one of his most important sons in the faith. God found a way to use Paul mightily even though Paul couldn’t move more than a few feet away from his prison wall.

You might be sick -- you might be poor -- you might have some handicap -- but the Bible shows us that that does not hinder God. It does not put you at a disadvantage in God’s kingdom.

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I’ll close with verse 11. Paul writes to Philemon, “Formerly he -- Onesimus -- was useless to you, but now he has become useful, both to you and to me.”

Before he was saved, Onesimus was useless.

We don’t know the whole situation -- but we do know if we look down to verse 18 of this letter that Onesimus probably caused his owner damage and loss.

But that was Onesimus before he was saved. And Paul says to Philemon, “Now he has become useful.”

And that is the story of so many people -- millions of people -- they were useless -- they were like a racehorse going in circles rather than going for the goal -- they were like an eagle with a broken wing -- and maybe worse than that, they were causing a lot of misery and harm around them.

But something that Christian conversion does -- because it is an act of God -- is that it makes the useless -- useful. People who were stuck in depression, or substance abuse, begin to blossom and reach out to others. People who were causing misery and ruin to their family become a strength and support. People who were, like Onesimus, a useless servant -- become servants who shine. The famous commentator Matthew Henry said, “Religious servants are treasures in a family.”

So we close this morning with a simple reminder of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul said the gospel is the power of God, because it changes people, and it makes their lives useful where before they were useless and broken and without purpose. And that is because God is a living God -- and God’s Holy Spirit is a power in people’s hearts -- and the blood of Jesus genuinely cleanses people and releases them from their past. We have seen so many examples in our own congregation.

May God bless this message to us.

AMEN.