Book of Philemon - Vs. 10-16

All righty. Well, sorry, we're a little bit late starting this morning. We got here a little late and then we had some tech issues. So that combination put us back. Quite a bit. All right. Let's see here.

We're all want to start. We tech we we read through verse 14 last week if I layman, but we really only Kind of talked about through verse 11. I guess. Let's go ahead and start in verse 10 and.

And.

We'll do it just a little bit some there may be a little bit of overlap and then it'll flow right into Some of our material for today. So if I layman verse 10 it says. It starts with I beseech thee for my son on isomus whom I have begotten in my bonds.

Which in time past was to be unprofitable but now Profitable to thee and to me whom I have sent again thou. Therefore receive him. That is mine own bowels. Whom I would have retained with me that in thy stead he might have ministered into me in the bonds of the gospel.

But without thy mind what I do nothing that I benefit should not be as it were of necessity. But willingly so last week I'll stop there for just a second last week. We talked about how one of the first pleas that Paul makes to Philemon In the context of Onesimus coming back delivering this letter is to receive him.

So we've already covered at length the character traits of Philemon. He was an awesome guy. There's still a few more things that we'll learn. Shortly about him, but he was a great guy great Christian character.

Just about as good as it gets to the point where he was a great encouragement even to the Apostle Paul but now starting roughly in verse 8, but certainly in verse 10 and following what we just read we are learning about the kind of The way that Paul wants Philemon to take action.

In other words how to put all of those wonderful character traits into practice. That sort of thing and so again last week we covered that Paul wants Philemon to eagerly receive Onesimus back. And he points out to Philemon that Onesimus was begotten of Paul he was pointing out that he is now a repentant regenerated faithful brother in Christ and That he should be received and forgiven immediately by Paul for that very reason alone.

Now Onesimus was ready to be taken back. Philemon needed to be ready to receive as Paul put it his very child. Of course in spiritual terms, but Paul uses that wording intentionally again. He says in verse 10 I have begotten the I'm sorry whom I have begotten in my bonds and we talked a little bit last week of how that must have resonated greatly With Philemon because Philemon also was begotten of Paul spiritually.

Paul witnessed to Philemon and Philemon was Converted and now fast forward however many years that may be and he's done the same to Onesimus. There's like this triangle of relationships here. Obviously Paul and Philemon are close friends now Paul and Onesimus are very close.

But then you have this gap over here that Paul is trying to remedy at this point of between Onesimus and Philemon there there's that that kind of well, so there was the slave master relationship that was broken and trust was.

You know trust was disregarded and Onesimus left. It implies that he even stole and he did all these things to betray the trust of Philemon. So now Paul is trying to restore that and In doing so he uses terminology uses terms.

He uses words phrases all these things that he knows are going to be resonating with Philemon greatly. So when he says I have begotten him Philemon remembers the day that he was quote-unquote begotten by Paul Himself, and so they are brothers.

And it just about every sense in the way that Paul is talking here and then in verse 11 Paul makes it clear that Philemon is not getting back the same person that left him. Onesimus is now a transformed man.

He used to be unprofitable or the another way you could translate that Greek word. It means literally useless. He used to be useless to you. But now he is profitable he is useless not just to me as in Paul but to you Philemon as well.

So that's just a really quick recap of a lot of what we talked about last week in detail. So let's talk a little bit about verse 12 for a second. I'll read it one more time verse 12 whom I have sent again Thou therefore receive him that is mine own bowels.

So there's the plea from Paul to Philemon to receive him. So that's that's action. That is. All of the great characters character traits that Philemon has within himself.

Now.

Being put to work so to speak being put forth and actually doing something. He's gonna He's gonna receive Onesimus back and in this verse we gather here that It what Paul is saying is essentially It's a proof of Onesimus's Worthiness to be received.

So it's one thing to for Paul to again kind of invoke his apostolic authority and just tell Paul I'm sorry, tell Philemon. Look you need to receive him back. I am telling you as a commissioned apostle of Jesus Christ.

You have to do this. He didn't take that approach. He could have not only did he not take that approach though is he's also making it clear that Onesimus the slave is Worthy of being received. It's not just a matter of Philemon doing the right thing.

It's also a matter of Onesimus being worthy to be received back.

He's.

You know again, he's a transformed guy. Now one of the ways that Paul kind of proves this aspect in Philemon's mind is.

That.

Onesimus now now that he's been saved. He is so faithful That his absence when he leaves Paul to go back. He's so faithful that his absence is very heavy on Paul's heart at this point because of how much Paul cared About Onesimus and wanted to stay with him and wanted Onesimus to stay with him.

When he says in verse 12, I am sending him again receive him that is mine own bowels. Paul Is making it very clear the kind of connection that he has with Onesimus at this time. It's like he's sending his own heart back with him again.

We talked about that word bowels because it was used in a previous verse when he was Telling all of us that the bowels of the Saints are refreshed By Philemon and that particular word in the Greek It's it was something that was very meaningful not not only to the Greek mind, but also to the Hebrew mind as well.

And that is referring to the seat of a human's deepest emotions when that word is used. Especially in this kind of context when he says you're receiving mine own bowels Paul is telling him that when you are receiving Onesimus and with it the deepest sense of emotions and affections that I have that's how much I care about this man and Because of that he is giving Philemon a little proof that look you need to receive him.

But he's also worthy to be received. Does that make sense? He's worthy to be received he is a faithful brother at this time and.

So.

You have that kind of packed into verse 12 there. You can see again the great affection that Paul had for Onesimus. Mine own bowels is is how he. It is the terminology that he uses here again. Verse 13 says.

Whom I would have retained with me That in thy stead. And pay attention to that little phrase there. Whom I would have retained with me that in thy stead He might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel.

So in verse 13 now.

Paul once again.

Affirms a great aspect of Philemon's character. Again, we're kind of bouncing back and forth between these three guys. We got Paul Philemon and Onesimus and at any given point we could be talking about one of the three of them and Paul even though he's already spent a great deal of this short letter just Showering praises upon Philemon all of these commendations upon Philemon and his character.

He does so once again in verse 13, but he does it in kind of an interesting way. He again affirms that Philemon's character is just incredible because he's saying that Paul wanted to keep Onesimus.

Because.

Onesimus is has been ministering to Paul in his bonds. You can imagine what a great encouragement that was to Paul to have Someone ministering to him while he was in his bonds. But he makes it clear in verse 13 that what Onesimus is doing the way he is ministering to Paul is Exactly what Philemon would have been doing if he had been the one that was there.

If he could have had the opportunity to Do it he would have been doing it. So in verse 13 when he says. Whom I have retained with me that in thy stead He might have ministered into me in the bonds of the gospel.

He's letting Philemon know. Look just as you would have just if you had been here. I know you we're great friends. Just as you have been ministering to me Onesimus has been doing the same thing. That is how faithful this man is.

He's totally transformed and he is. He is ministering me just as you would be yourself if you were here my great friend.

So.

Once again is if we couldn't have appreciated and respected Philemon's character enough at this point Paul takes one more opportunity just continues to throw these amazing traits back into the letter as Constant reminders of the kind of man that Philemon himself was which I think is very important for us to keep in mind, too I mean because You know going back to the the main topic of forgiveness the main theme of forgiveness that we started with.

It's important to see that In order to have the capacity to do that. You need to be a sanctified Christian. You need to be a Christian that is constantly growing in your relationship with the Lord so that it's easier to do that when the time comes to forgive and So we have all these constant reminders of Philemon and the kind of man he was and I don't think that is to be Overlooked by us at this point 2 ,000 years later in reading this letter I think we could be taking quite a bit from the type of person Philemon was and can imitate that to some degree as well, I mean Paul tells us that we that He that Christ is his example and he acts as our example.

And I think there are plenty of other saints that did the same and and I think we can be that kind of example ourselves if we Put Christ in front of us and Make him our prime example of living. In all regard again, that is obviously a we've talked about this topic before but that's obviously a standard that is Technically out of the reach of any mere human being and yet we are still commanded via imperatives from Peter from Paul To imitate that so we got to do the best that we can it.

Obviously, we're never going to reach the heights that Jesus was able to as a perfect human being. But we are still commanded to imitate it to the best of our ability. And so we had when we set Jesus as our example, then we then become an example ourselves.

Which is a very interesting thought and then others can start imitating us and so Philemon was that kind of man. He was a man worth imitating as we have gathered so many times at this point. Verse 14 says but without thy mind would I do nothing that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity but willingly.

So in verse 14 here Paul is then telling us that without Philemon's consent and this is a really interesting aspect of all of this without Philemon's consent He wouldn't keep Onesimus even though Onesimus means so much to Paul.

So Paul is certainly taking The high ground here in in that regard He means a lot to Paul. He's been ministering to Paul. He could be of great use to Paul's ministry, especially considering that Paul is still in prison at this point Onesimus could have been doing no who knows what kind of work Locally on Paul's behalf, but all of that there Paul still tells Philemon look without your consent.

I wouldn't do that. In other words Paul He wasn't wanting to be presumptuous in this regard and just invite Onesimus into his ministry and ignore all of the unresolved history Between him Onesimus and one of Paul's other closest friends that being Philemon.

So Paul put that above himself. He put The the reality that there was a rift between these two men that needed to be mended that needed to be, you know forgiveness apology forgiveness needed to be in in order and A relationship restored fully those things needed to happen.

Paul knew that and he's putting all of that before his own Desires his own ministry even which is again a really really wonderful thing. But even with that Paul still wanted to make it crystal clear. That he wanted Onesimus with him.

So he's putting he's putting Philemon before himself.

But.

He's still making it crystal clear to Philemon that This guy means a lot to me and I kind of wanted to keep him. That was my desire and In conveying this to Philemon He's telling him in this particular kind of way That what he wants is he wants Philemon to see and to know himself This transformed man that Onesimus now is but in such a way that Philemon receives him back Willingly and not just because Paul told him to receive him back.

Remember Paul could have done that certainly but it wasn't necessary for a whole lot of reasons not only his friendship between himself and Philemon but also because of Onesimus is Worthiness to be received back and Paul wanted Philemon to see all of that himself.

So in verse 14 That thy benefit should not be as if it were of necessity, but willingly he wanted Philemon willingly to receive him and to forgive him and to do all of these great things. He makes that crystal clear in verse 14 there.

You'll have any thoughts or anything so far. You know the way of work is like most of the time you'd be pretty harsh.

Mm-hmm.

Yes, I get what you're saying and I think that Paul is taking the approach that he is for a number of reasons and perhaps some reasons that are Clear to us that would have been understood between them.

But from just from the passages that we have excuse me from the letter itself I think we can gather a couple of things.

Oh.

And also from even the book of Colossians because we learn some some things about Philemon's family and Onesimus in the book of Colossians as well and from so between Colossians of Philemon. I think we can gather that number one.

Paul cared so much about their friendship that. And okay, so he cared a lot about his friendship. He understood that Philemon was a.

Just.

Stand-out guy, you know stand-up guy that was. Yeah, he was exhibiting all of the strongest qualities that a Christian can Exhibit and that was abundantly clear to Paul and he makes that clear at the beginning of the letter when he talks about him being a fellow laborer and and how beloved he is and how much he loves the brethren and all this kind of stuff and so I Think Paul is taking this very careful approach because he's a great friend that he does not want to upset in any way.

He doesn't want to be presumptuous either. He knows that Philemon has rights and I think to some degree he's recognizing that by rights I'm talking about legal under Roman law rights as to what he can do to punish His runaway slave that also stole from him.

And so Paul, I think this is a great example Of us getting to see Paul's human nature and what I mean by that is We know that all the letters we have a Paul were inspired. They it was the Holy Spirit carrying him along as he wrote them.

And so when you read all of the great epistles that he wrote all the great letters. You can feel that you can it feel you know, you just feel the doctrine as you read Paul but in this letter though, I It seems like you just get a lot more of just Paul's heart still inspired and And they're still we're about to see there's still some pretty hefty doctrine in this little letter, too.

But.

It's Paul just like look. I know this is the situation. I know it's tough. I know you're probably bitter about it. You have Onesimus broke the law. He broke your trust. He did all these things and so Paul knew all of that context.

And so he's approaching this as carefully as possible. And of course, I do believe that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That is the case so that we can learn not only How to be a person that can forgive like Philemon, but we can also learn how to be a person to approach a brother like Paul.

Yes, ash.

Like we have a lot of letters from Paul to churches and how he deals with you know. Just various situations whether it's you know, this is how you handle false teachers. Yeah. And not like it's in boldness and shouldn't be handled any other way.

But then in this we get to see him practicing what he preaches to people within the church on an individual basis. I was reading Philippians 2 3 let nothing be done through strike or banglory. But in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves and you can see that he he genuinely thinks.

Oh, I mean in this way. He genuinely respects him. He genuinely loves him and You know a contrast to him maybe like you're getting an entire church. You get to see the brotherly love one-on-one that he could like commands everyone else to have.

You see that in him, which is really awesome and powerful to me. I've never ever noticed that.

Yes, Ashton's big point. There is.

That.

We hear Paul doing a lot of preaching and a lot of exhorting and a lot of Rebuking in some cases in a lot of his letters a lot of his epistles. But in this little letter what we get to see is Paul practicing what he preaches.

We get an example of Paul living out all of the things.

That he tells.

Brothers and sisters to do and how to live their lives and She gave an example of Philippians of him Exhorting them to of how to approach the brethren and then him doing that right here. Yeah, dad. Did you have a thought?

Uh-oh.

Well, it may be the weather. Well, it'll it might actually come back on itself in a second that happens sometimes. I'm still recording. I have a back. I knew this was a chance because of the weather. So I have a backup recording going.

But maybe it'll come back online in a sec. But I'll take a look at it. I'll be done pretty soon here dad and we'll make sure it's all in order before the main services start. Okay, great thoughts there and ash.

I loved a lot of that. Because this is a very practical little letter that we can glean these things from no doubt. Okay, let's take a look at verse 15, let's we cover a couple more verses here in the amount of time we have left.

Verse 15 says for perhaps he therefore departed for a season. This might be my favorite verses the whole letter. So y 'all pay close attention to this for perhaps. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season.

That thou shouldest receive him forever. Again, this might be one of my favorite verses here because Paul is once again. He's done this a couple of times in a couple of different ways, but he's once again pointing to the sovereignty of God but from the viewpoint of how we look at situations as they're happening and Trying to discern why they're happening so I Think I said this last week may have been the week before that but you know as a church body and as individuals that care as much as we do about the sovereignty of God and Put such an emphasis on it, which I have always loved even since I was a little kid with brother Otis.

Doing that very thing and dad doing that very thing for as long as I can remember. We have to be very careful to To not talk about how awesome it is at church or even in our conversations when everything is awesome.

And then when bad things start happening to then. What you know then question? Why could this be happening or or even forget about the fact that it's happening because God's sovereign hand is over that too.

In other words, he is sovereign over the positive just as much as he is the negative and it's hard to understand that sometimes and You know, perhaps you could argue it's easy for me to say. But just just think about this for a second, you know, it's it's easy for me to say right now but even when we're going through tough times one of the reasons why it's so tough and why we may question kind of like why is this happening exactly a Big part of that is because we just don't have all the information yet for why it's happening.

Job is a great example of that.

I mean.

It's the textbook example of just not having a full understanding a full grasp of the scope of why terrible things might be happening in Your life and then later on the understanding comes. It's not always in the in the form of a direct answer sometimes it's in the form as in Job of God simply pointing out how wonderful and great and awesome he is in other words being lifted by the greatness of God is.

Sometimes one way that we can have a little bit more understanding of why certain things are happening is so he can be glorified. In various ways, sometimes it may come in a direct answer. In other words in hindsight, we may look back and be like Oh, that is why the Lord was taking me through that.

So God is sovereign over both sides of the same coin the positive awesome things that happen in our life and the things that we are kind of Analyzing as we look out in the world, but also the things happening in our personal lives.

Even the negative and Paul is is bringing that to our attention here for perhaps He therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest receive him forever.

Again.

Why they're happening. Discerning why things are happening Paul is pointing out to Philemon that it was by God's providence That this all happened. He never tries to argue for our miss. I'm sorry on isomises innocence.

And that's a really important point to make. Paul never tries to argue for Onesimus and just try to convince Philemon. Well, he was. He's innocent. He he didn't know better or.

You know, he just.

You know, whatever it may be. He didn't try to argue for on isomises innocence but instead what he does is he gives Philemon an explanation for why God might have ordained all of these things to begin with and God did have a purpose as he always does and Paul is is wanting Is wanting a Philemon to understand that turn with me really quick to Genesis chapter 50 for just a second.

This is a parallel worth looking at Genesis chapter 50 verse 18. This is a wonderful passage absolutely I'll say it again textbook example of the sovereignty of God and the will of man working in parallel and Just how cohesive they really are verse 18 of chapter 50 last chapter of the whole book of Genesis.

It Joseph is talking and he says in his brethren Also went and fell down before his face and they said behold we be thy servants. All of Joseph's brothers are now bowing before him. We will be thy servants and Joseph said unto them fear not.

For am I in the place of God? Am I in the place of God. And then verse 20? This is so cool. But as for you ye thought evil against me, that's the will of man. That is them doing what they wanted to do and Doing something intentionally Evil to Joseph at the time they intended evil for Joseph.

What ye fought evil against me. God meant it unto good to bring to pass. But God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive in that amazing so all of Joseph's brothers were willingly Intending evil toward Joseph For their own purpose in the whole time God was using the same situation for his purpose.

Which was not only for Joseph's sake but to save many people. Absolutely wonderful. And so that's kind of a parallel to the idea that Paul is now bringing forth in verse 15 when he says for perhaps He therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest receive him forever.

So he's saying maybe this was the reason all of this bad stuff happened to you finally meant it so that you could receive him As a brother forever. That is the purpose that God intended all of these things happen to Philemon.

The betrayal. The theft on Onesimus's part the bitterness that Philemon may have been harboring in his heart. All of that happened so that Philemon could welcome back not a slave but a transformed brother in Christ.

So this whole story was the means By which God wanted Philemon to see Onesimus's conversion. I think this is something that we could talk about all the it's something we can never talk too much about and that is we We talked again about the sovereignty of God a lot and we can see The conclusion to a lot of things that have happened in history.

That passage we just read Genesis is a great example. We know the end of a lot of things even in our future. Thanks to the revelation that God gave us but a very important thing to remember. It's that God ordains the means just as much as he ordains the end.

Does that make sense all of the little things that happen in the long trail that gets to the end in which he ordained. He also ordained all of those means to get there. And so Paul is telling Onesimus.

I'm sorry He's telling Philemon here that God ordained all of those things to happen. Those were the means to an end. In the end was Philemon getting to see the conversion of Onesimus now his brother.

I'll go ahead. I think in in there for today. We're technically a few minutes. I have like five minutes left, but I Want to save the last couple of verses of this section spend a little bit more time on it.

Which we'll do next week and also give us a little bit more of a buffer to figure out the tech issues that are happening. In the in the following couple of verses Paul is basically going to shift a little bit and include another exhortation for Philemon in conjunction with receiving him back.

He also wants him to restore Onesimus to good service. So that'll be kind of what we talked about in the next few verses. Beginning next week. Do y 'all have any other thoughts you'd like to share before we end today?

Right.

Beyond what they deserve. And Joseph still like it's like I'm gonna take care of your children like you're gonna be taken care of and I'm not gonna return evil. For your evil. And I think it's probably because he thought that The sovereignty of God and how you know, it was like without what they did.

Which you know.

He.

Threw some people's evil was blessed by God and he's blessing these people who are not exactly Equivalent.

Well, not only they're not equivalent to Philemon, but if you think about it in the story. They're kind of the Onesimus in the story. They're the ones coming back to be forgiven. They're not even equivalent to him because on this.

They're okay, they're repentant out of fear not necessarily like they got caught and they got themselves in a bad situation. But it's not like they.

Joseph's brothers were a motley crew if there ever was one and to Ashton's point. Even the repentance was it may have been genuine. But it was because they were fearful of all of their wrongdoings and there were a lot of them and they were caught.

And all of these things and yet the the end of the story is kind of similar. Even though the people the characters of the people are all completely different. They certainly had no understanding of forgiveness.

Joseph did but he had to struggle to it was very much a struggle to get there. He wanted to kind of prove a point in the story leading up to the conclusion there. And scare him a little bit and you know put him through some some turmoil themselves.

For a purpose, but I find all that very interesting too. So very different understandings of forgiveness very different character traits among all of them between Paul Onesimus and Philemon. I feel like all three of those guys were probably on a higher plane than even Joseph.

They had all heard the teaching of I mean Paul heard the teaching of Jesus himself and Was passing all that along and yet the end of the story is similar. Forgiveness takes place. Confession takes place.

In other words, they agreed that what they did was wrong and those sorts of things a lot of different dynamics. But again, we have this direct parallel in both stories even with all of the differences aside.

There are similarities, but even with the.

Differences.

Both cases of God Ordained the the bad stuff all of the terrible things that Joseph's brother did in this story.

The.

Betrayal and theft that Onesimus did in this story in both cases all of those evils were ordained by God to get them to the end which was Forgiveness and restoration which happened with Joseph's brothers forgiveness and restoration which will happen with Onesimus Which we'll see more as we go along through the letter.

So those were great thoughts. Alrighty guys. Well, I'll go ahead and dismiss and see if we can figure out this computer stuff. Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for this great day thank you for bringing us all together once again to talk about your word to study your word and to fellowship and Just to enjoy this time together.

We thank you for it so much. We ask you to protect us all as we drive home If the weather is still bad by the time we leave and to be with all of our loved ones who are traveling Not with us this week.

We ask you to bring them all back safely to us as well. And we ask all these things in your name. Amen.