Lost Books of the Bible: Philemon
Today we’re going to begin a new
sermon series. And you’ll notice that a scripture was not read for us today,
and that’s because I want to read it with you. Anybody have any idea how many
books there are in the Bible? There are 66 books in what we call the canonical
Bible, which means there are 66 books which scholars and theologians have
decided are the true, inspired word of God. These are the books that we believe
God inspired men to write so that his truths may be passed on from generation
to generation.
Now some of you may be kind of new to
this whole “church thing,” so let me be very basic with you: God…is a pretty
important part of what we do here. We honor him, we worship him, we revere him.
And when your God, the creator of the universe, speaks to you, you listen,
right? You don’t put God on hold or ignore what he has to say. Well, if we are
to believe that the Bible is the word of God, if we believe that the things
written in this book are the very words of God passed on through men, then
there is no part of the scripture that we should ignore, no part that is
insignificant.
The problem is, we have the very word
of God right here, most of us have a Bible or two sitting on our shelf at home,
and most of them are doing the same thing: collecting dust. We have forgotten
what an awesome privilege it is to be able to possess and read the very word of
God whenever we please. And we have forgotten what a valuable tool the Bible is
to learning how to lead a more holy and righteous life before the Lord.
So what I intend to do with you over
the next four weeks is to help you rediscover the Bible. Lots of you have
probably read the Bible at least a little bit, but even if you have, there’s a
good chance that you have skipped over the passages of scripture that we’re
going to be talking about in this series.
And today I want to start with one of
the shortest and hardest to pronounce books in the New Testament. That is the
book of Philemon. It is right after Titus – like you know where that is – and
before Hebrews. Hebrews is a bigger book and hard to miss. Philemon is tied for
the third shortest book in all of the New Testament with Jude, and it has only
25 verses to the whole book. The only two that are shorter are II and III John.
But what I want to do with you today is give you a little background about and
read with you the entire book of Philemon and tell you why this book that
you’ve never read is the inspired word of God and why it matters to your life.
So let me begin by setting up the
background for you a little bit. Paul is writing this letter from prison,
probably from
Paul also knew that run away slaves
that were caught and returned were often times killed for their
insubordination. And so we have the occasion for Paul to write this letter,
carried by Onesimus to Philemon. A letter that is urging lenience towards
Onesimus, but ever more than that, encourages Philemon to accept Onesimus, who
was once his slave, as his new brother in Christ.
Let’s read the book of Philemon.
Again, it is inbetween Titus and Hebrews in your Bible. You night find it
helpful to have it in front of you. And I’m just going to read through it for
you this morning.
Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our
brother, To Philemon our dear friend and co-worker, to Apphia our sister, to
Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. When I
remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God because I hear of your love
for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. I pray that the
sharing of your faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that
we may do for Christ. I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from
your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my
brother. For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to
do your duty, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love--and I,
Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am
appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my
imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both
to you and to me. I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. I
wanted to keep him with me, so that he might be of service to me in your place
during my imprisonment for the gospel; but I preferred to do nothing without
your consent, in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something
forced. Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so
that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a
slave, a beloved brother--especially to me but how much more to you, both in
the flesh and in the Lord. So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as
you would welcome me. If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything,
charge that to my account. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will
repay it. I say nothing about your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother,
let me have this benefit from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ.
Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even
more than I say. One thing more--prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping
through your prayers to be restored to you. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in
Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke,
my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Now you might have just heard that letter and thought,
“That’s just basically correspondence between two friends. How did that become
a book of the Bible?” I actually believe that the book of Philemon may be one
of the most important, though most overlooked, books in the New Testament. And
let me tell you why I think it is so important: Philemon is important precisely
because it IS so different. We aren’t hearing Paul give a lecture or a sermon
like he is in the other books. Instead, we are just seeing how Paul acts when
no one else is looking. This man who wrote so many of the books of the New
Testament. I’ll guarantee that while he was sitting in prison writing this
letter, he wasn’t thinking, “Man, this is good enough to be scripture!” His
heart and his mind were totally focused on his two good friends, Onesimus and
Philemon, and how he could help them, through God’s love, to repair their
broken relationship.
And what we end up seeing here is what I would call a
masterpiece of Christian diplomacy. Paul is a major suck up. You know, he
greets Philemon with a pretty standard greeting, like you see in most letters
from this day, but then you hear Paul go into this lengthy rant about just how
wonderful and faithful of a man Philemon is. Paul is in Rome, and he says, “I
hear of your love for all the saints and your faith in Jesus.” Basically
saying, it is really well known, Philemon, that you are a strong and loving
Christian. He tells Philemon that he has heard of all of the people that have
come to know Christ through the church that apparently meets in Philemon’s
house. There wasn’t a Methodist church on every corner in
So we see that Philemon is a strong,
upstanding Christian man and he’s probably a pretty wealthy man, if he owns
slaves. This is an important guy in the early church. And then Paul starts to
get a little political, a little crafty. He says, because of this, even though
I’m bold enough in Christ to command you to do you duty, instead I’ll appeal to
you on a basis of love. In other words, I know you’re a big dog, but I’m THE
big dog and I can command you to obey what I say, but since I know you’re such
a great and loving man, I’m sure that I just need to ask you in love to obey
and I won’t have to use my authority over you.
Any of you parents ever do that to
your kids? We do it all the time. It’s like that veiled threat kind of thing.
“Adelyn, we know your such a big girl that you’ll eat all of your dinner by
yourself. We’re not going to have to shove it down your throat, are we? No,
you’re a big girl, you’ll eat it all yourself, won’t you?”
That’s exactly the kind of thing Paul
is pulling here. And he tells him about Onesimus and how Onesimus came to him
and became a friend of Paul’s, and more than that, believer in Christ! And Paul
says, “I WAS going to keep him with me, but the right thing to do was to send
him back to you since technically you still own him, but I’m sure that you’ll
see past that and welcome him home not as a slave, but as a brother. Because,
Philemon, I know how loving and kind and righteous you are. And I’m sure you’ll
be excited to welcome him in with open arms. Welcome him as you would welcome
me.”
Don’t you think that this might really
grind Philemon’s gears? Say you own a business and you have this punk teenager
that works for you and you don’t really care for him, and one day in the middle
of his shift he says, “I quit,” and he leaves, and when he leaves, you notice
$50 missing from the cash register. You’re probably not too sad to see him go.
But then six months later he walks back in the store and he hands you a letter
from me, and it says, “Hey, I was glad to see you in church last Sunday, it
seems like God is really doing some awesome things in your life. I’m so proud
of you and your faith. By the way, I’m sending Jim here back to you. He’s a
Christian now, and I’m sure you’ll be happy to have him back because I’m sure
you were very concerned about his spiritual well-being. It would probably be
beneficial to both of you if you went ahead and made him assistant manager.”
You’d be cursing my name, right?
But what if I continued on and I said,
“Look, let me be real with you. I know this is tough. I know there’s some hard
feelings here. But I really believe this is the right thing to do as a
Christian. And any trouble this causes you or any financial burden, I’m going
to take care of it 100%. I really want you to do this for me.”
Assuming you trust me, you might be a
little more apt to do what I ask. And that’s exactly what Paul does. He says,
look, Philemon, I know this is hard, but trust me on this one, and if I need to
financially reimburse you for anything or if this is any trouble for you in any
way, let me know, and I’ll make sure it is all taken care of.”
So what has Paul’s strategy been here?
First, he let Philemon know that he believes that he is a strong Christian and
a good man. And I think it was more than just flattery, it was exhortation. It
was a true compliment. But Paul also recognizes that with increased spiritual
maturity comes increased responsibility to act like a Christian, with mercy and
compassion and grace. Even when it’s tough. Even when it is inconvenient.
That’s what Paul is reminding Philemon of, and that’s what God is in turn
reminding us of. Both Philemon and Onesimus, because of their love for Christ
and their commitment to live a Christ-like life, are going to have to do hard
and uncomfortable things. Onesimus is going to have to return to the man who
owns him as a slave, from whom he ran away. A man that, should he choose to,
can have him killed for insubordination. And Philemon is going to have to show
mercy and grace to a man who is no longer just a runaway slave, but a fellow
believer.
There’s a couple of notable points in
that. First, as we mentioned, being a Christian means doing what’s right even
when it is uncomfortable and messy. Second, being a Christian mean treating
others with respect, kindness, and compassion regardless of their social status
and regardless of your past. And that especially goes for fellow Christians.
For too long we as Christians have ignored the people who live on the wrong
side of the tracks. Or too long we have secluded others because they dress
weird or listen to the wrong kind of music or have a low-pay, blue-collar job.
The outcasts. That is exactly the opposite of who Jesus hung out with. Each of
the disciples were dirty, rotten scoundrels, ignored by the church, but
embraced by Christ. We have to stop looking down on others as if we’re better
than they are. When it comes to sinners, there are only two categories: those
who are sinners, and those who aren’t, and guess what, there isn’t anybody in
that second category.
Folks, we have to learn to be
forgiving, and we have to learn some compassion. We have to learn to treat
others, those who look and act and talk different from us, as if they truly
have been crafted in the image of God. Have you gone the extra mile yet this
week? Have you gone beyond normal expectations and crossed over into true,
agape love? Have you loved someone who doesn’t deserve it?
Verse 22 in Philemon says this, “One
thing more – prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping through your prayers
to be restored to you.” Paul was coming to visit. Why? Because he wasn’t about
to let Philemon or Onesimus off the hook. He was going to come and see if they
were truly acting in Christian love. That’s called accountability. We have to
have some accountability among ourselves when it comes to loving others the way
that Christ loved. What does accountability look like?
Thursday Holly had a doctor’s
appointment in Bluffton. After her appointment, we stopped at the Arby’s by the
interstate and got some fries, just for a snack. We weren’t even that hungry,
they just sounded good. We pull out of the drive through and go over the little
overpass and as we get to the other side and I’m waiting to turn left, I see
and Holly sees a man holding a sign that says, “I need food.” Holly said, “Oh,
he’s hungry.” I turned left onto the on ramp and started heading back north. I
didn’t make it down the ramp before I could feel her glare burning a hole in my
head, and I knew she was right. We didn’t need those fries. Maybe he did. So
you know what happened next. I got off at the next ramp and headed back south
again. We got off at the Bluffton exit, drove around and found the guy again,
handed him the fries and a few dollars, said God bless you, and left.
Maybe he was hungry, maybe he wasn’t.
Maybe he bought cigarettes and beer with the money after we left. I don’t know.
I don’t have any control over his actions. BUT I have control over my actions.
I can choose to love and be compassionate, or I can choose to avoid eye contact
and act like I don’t see him. Hopefully more often than not, I choose agape
love. But when I don’t, I thank God every day for a loving, Christian wife who
is willing to hold me accountable before God. We have got to hold one another
accountable. You holding one another accountable, me holding you accountable,
you holding me accountable.
Put yourself in Philemon’s shoes, or
Onesimus. Maybe there’s someone you need to go back and beg forgiveness from, even
if you think there’s no way they’ll give it to you. Or maybe you need to offer
mercy and compassion to someone you don’t really feel like being merciful and
compassionate to. I’m asking you to do it anyways. I’m asking you to love with
that agape love for the sake of Christ. Maybe it will work out, or maybe it
will blow up in your face, I don’t know. But you can only control your actions.
Which action will you choose? The easy way out? Or the hard way, they way that
follows agape love by means of compassion, mercy, and grace? My prayer for you
is that you choose love.
Pastor
Dan Metzger
Van
Buren United