WWUTT 771 Introduction to Philemon?

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The book of Philemon is a short book, but it contains a very powerful story about a slave owner who received his slave back to him not as a slave, but as a brother in the

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Lord when we understand the text. Many of the

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Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt

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.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. Well, all this week we'll be studying

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Paul's letter to Philemon. It's just 25 verses, so we'll cover it all between today, tomorrow, and Wednesday.

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I'm going to go ahead and read the entire letter, and then we'll come back and talk about Paul's reason for writing it and what we hope to glean from our study of this letter.

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We begin,

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And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.

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For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

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Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love's sake

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I prefer to appeal to you. I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus, I appeal to you for my child

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Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now indeed he is useful to you and to me.

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I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, but I prefer to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but out of your own accord.

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For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the

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Lord. So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.

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If he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand,

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I will repay it, to say nothing of your owing me, even your own self.

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Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord, refresh my heart in Christ.

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Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

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At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers

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I will be graciously given to you. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do

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Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the

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Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. So see, that was pretty quick, took us about two and a half minutes to read through an entire book of the

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Bible today. So if you don't think you got anything else out of this day, know this, you go to bed this evening having heard an entire book of the

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Bible read to you. All right, so we begin with Paul introducing himself, of course, a prisoner for Christ Jesus and Timothy, our brother.

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So Paul wrote this letter while he was under house arrest in Rome. As a matter of fact, this letter was written at the same time

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Colossians and Ephesians were written. Paul had given these letters,

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Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon, to Tychicus and Onesimus to deliver them.

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So they were the carriers of these letters. They stopped in Ephesus first, and then they went to Colossae and delivered the letter to the

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Colossians, and along with that letter, this one to Philemon. Philemon was a man who lived in Colossae, and it's very likely that the church there at Colossae met in Philemon's house.

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I've also heard an argument for Philemon being in Laodicea and the church of the

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Laodiceans met in Philemon's house. So I probably lean more in the direction of Colossae, but just to let you know that that argument is out there.

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So Philemon hosted the Colossian church in his home. Onesimus was a slave of Philemon's, and Onesimus had stolen from Philemon and ran away, and he ran to Rome.

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The reason why he went to Rome was probably because he was hoping to get lost in the scrum.

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This was the capital city of the world at that time. So he was a wanted man. He was a slave, and he fled to Rome, hoping he could blend in with the crowd and nobody would know that he was a wanted man and therefore get sent back to Philemon.

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Because he had stolen from Philemon, according to the laws that were enacted in the

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Roman Empire, Philemon had the authority to beat and even kill Onesimus for having stolen from him.

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So Onesimus runs away to Rome, and it just so happens by the providence of God, he finds the apostle

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Paul. Now Paul's not wandering around Rome. He's not preaching the gospel all over the city. He's under house arrest.

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So he is in a particular house, and he can't go anywhere, but people can come to him.

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And Philemon just happens to come into Paul's company. And Paul preaches the gospel to him, leads him to a knowledge of Jesus Christ.

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Onesimus repents of his sin. He becomes a disciple of Jesus. And somewhere in the midst of all of that, and probably before Paul had even preached the gospel to him, he finds out that Onesimus belonged to Philemon.

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And Paul knew Philemon. We don't know how they knew one another. We're not given those details. We just kind of piece all of this together from Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon.

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But the possibility is that Epaphras and Philemon together were in Ephesus.

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And they may have been there because they were doing business there, since it was a port city.

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Colossae was landlocked. But it was not a port city. So to reap the benefits of the wealth of the

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Roman Empire, you kind of had to head to the coast. And so Philemon, as a wealthy man, we know he was wealthy because he's hosting a church in his house.

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He has slaves. Him and Epaphras go to Ephesus probably to do business. And while they were there in Ephesus, they heard the gospel preached.

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Paul preaching the gospel. They're cut to the heart. But they were pagan men themselves, having heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, who rose again from the grave, and that all who believe in him will have eternal life.

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There's a day of judgment coming. God who is going to judge the world through Jesus Christ.

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So only by faith in him, this man whom God has raised from the dead, only by faith in Christ can we also receive a resurrection that is like his.

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They would have heard the gospel Paul preached there at Ephesus. They turned from their sin and then they came back to Colossae and Epaphras would have preached there in Colossae.

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We know that because Paul kind of gives credit for the Colossian church to Epaphras, to the work that he's done for the gospel.

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That's in the book of Colossians. So Epaphras was the evangelist.

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He preached the gospel in Colossae. Those who turned from their sin and their paganism and came to follow

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Christ needed a place to meet. And Philemon said, well, you can use my house. So he opened up his house to be the place where the church met there in Colossae.

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So Paul mentions that here at the start of this letter, he introduces himself. Timothy is with him.

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When Paul wrote the prison letters, which are Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, Timothy was there as kind of his scribe writing as Paul dictated.

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And then Paul goes on to say to Philemon, our beloved fellow worker, and Apphia, our sister.

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Apphia was probably Philemon's wife. And so Paul knew Philemon and his household.

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He had not yet been to Colossae though. He mentions that in his letter to the Colossians, but he says that when he gets out of prison, he hopes to come and visit them.

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Hence why you have the mention at the end of this letter, appealing to Philemon to prepare a room for him.

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So when he comes there to Colossae, he'll be able to stay there in Philemon's home.

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So he knows Apphia, he knows Philemon's wife, Archippus, our fellow soldier. It's a possibility that Archippus was

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Philemon's son. Archippus is mentioned in other letters as well. And the church that is in your house.

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So there's the mention of the church, grace to you and peace from God, our father and the

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Lord Jesus Christ. So as Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon, he has included this letter that Philemon would receive

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Onesimus and that the apostle Paul would be able to vouch for Onesimus and say, this man has changed.

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He is reformed. He has a brand new heart regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God.

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He is now your brother. And I'm appealing to you that you might receive him as a brother.

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And so we'll we'll talk about that as we go on here, because this letter was written and delivered at the same time that the letters to the

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Ephesians and Colossians were delivered. We know it was written sometime around 62 AD.

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This letter also follows a different format than Paul's other letters. It's written to an individual, first of all, instead of to churches, which

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Paul's letters usually were, even when he was writing to Timothy and Titus, first and second

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Timothy and his letter to Titus, even those letters were still intended to be read and followed by the entire church, though he's addressing specifically his pastors.

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Yet there were instructions in there from an apostle for the entire church to follow for Timothy.

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It would have been the Ephesian church. And for Titus, of course, it was the churches on the island of Crete. But Paul has a very specific appeal that he's making to Philemon here.

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And he means to talk with Philemon one on one. This may not even necessarily be meant to be read to the entire church of Colossae.

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It is a blessing to us, of course, by the providence of God that we have this letter preserved that we might be able to read it and study it because it is a master class in rhetoric and in persuasive speaking.

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This is a brilliantly written letter. When I was in college,

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I majored in communications. I majored in music at one point. I was just trying to finish up early so I didn't have to complete all the rest of my music classes.

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So I changed over to communications. Anyway, while I was a communications major, I took a class on rhetoric and it was amazing to me of all the different things that we studied related to rhetoric, many different Greek speakers.

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We never studied anything from the scriptures because Philemon is just brilliant when it comes to understanding rhetoric.

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And it follows a very common structure that many rhetoricians of the day would follow.

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He begins the letter by building a good rapport with Philemon. He offers such goodwill to his audience.

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And we're going to read more about that here in just a moment in these first, you know, ten verses or so. And then he lays out facts and he lays out facts that will convince the mind or persuade the reader.

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And then after laying out those facts for the purpose of persuasion, then he appeals to the emotions.

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So it's kind of like the reader has been conditioned with being presented with certain facts.

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And then Paul is going to use those facts to appeal to the heart of the individual. But the emotional appeal doesn't come first.

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The facts comes first. And then as the heart has been changed or influenced by that presentation, then

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Paul kind of nails it home and makes an appeal to the heart of the person that has been prepared for this particular appeal with the previous things that Paul has said, the glowing goodwill that he pours out at the start of the letter and then the facts and then trying to bring

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Philemon to see things from his perspective or really more particularly from a

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Christ like perspective. So we go on in the next part to the

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Apostle Paul praising Philemon for the things that he's heard about concerning this man.

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Paul says, I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers.

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That's not too uncommon. Paul has mentioned that in many other places as we just finished up studying through first and second

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Timothy and Titus, Paul said that with those men as well. But he says specifically why he remembers

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Philemon in his prayers, why he rejoices to to pray for him.

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And he says in verse five, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the

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Lord Jesus and for all the saints. So this love that you have is not just lip service.

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It's not just something that you claim that you have, but you don't have the actions to back it up. You are conveying in your life that you love

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Jesus and you love his saints. And so Paul praises God to hear about the good work that Philemon is doing there in Colossae verse six.

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And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.

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Now, whenever we talk about sharing your faith, what are we what are we talking about? Usually we're talking about preaching the gospel, right?

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When you share your faith with somebody else, you are sharing the gospel with them. That's certainly in view here, but it's not entirely what

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Paul is referring to. It is everything that comes with believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, not just that we turn from sin and that we worship

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God now through our faith in Christ, but also that we show love and affection toward one another.

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We're growing in the knowledge of God. We're increasing in holiness as we grow in sanctification.

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All of these things that are the outpouring that are the result of our faith in the gospel.

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And Paul is prepping Philemon here in saying this because one of those benefits that he will receive from the gospel effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ, one of those things is going to be the forgiveness that he has an opportunity to show

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Onesimus and the receiving of Onesimus to himself no longer as a slave, but as a brother in the

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Lord. So this is what Paul is setting Philemon up for here in the way that he presents this introduction to this letter.

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Then we go on to verse seven, for I have derived much joy and comfort from your love.

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So again, this is still kind of tilling the ground, tilling up the soil for Philemon here, because as Paul makes his appeal, he's essentially saying to Philemon, here's another opportunity for you to increase my joy for me to have heard that there was a reconciliation between you and Onesimus.

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You have brought such joy to me so far, and I have been comforted from your love.

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And remember that Paul is in prison in Rome. He's under house arrest. So that's not really the best, most comfortable environment in the world.

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Yet Paul is saying, I have been comforted by you. If Philemon were to meet this request that Paul presents in this letter, it would bring all the more joy and comfort to the heart of the apostle

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Paul. I have been comforted from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

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Philemon has a real opportunity here, not just to show forgiveness to Onesimus and not just to increase the joy of the apostle

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Paul, but even to be a witness to the other saints in the church, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

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So it's just beautiful. It's brilliant the way that the apostle Paul is opening up this letter.

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And all of this is genuine. He's not just blowing smoke at Philemon here. He is speaking the truth.

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And I think that the way that we interact and talk with one another, we could benefit greatly from witnessing how the apostle

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Paul would address a matter such as this with Philemon. He's so incredibly gracious at the start of this letter and speaks such kindness and compliments toward Philemon, not to give him a big head, but to give him encouragement that he might extend the grace of the

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Lord Jesus Christ to a brother in the faith. And this is just simply not a way that we interact with one another very often, especially when it comes to social media.

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We seem to be at odds with one another more than we desire to be in unity with each other, that we might come to an agreement with one another and see eye to eye or help each other and encourage one another, even though we might disagree, we can still be encouraging with our words.

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And so I think that what Paul has presented here, the kind approach that he makes to Philemon before he makes his appeal, this is such a demonstration of grace that I think we could all benefit from.

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And ultimately, what we're going to glean from this letter by the time we come to the end of it is a picture of reconciliation of Philemon and Onesimus being reconciled to one another, but also how this is a picture of our reconciliation with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. And so we continue to approach those things as we study this letter and we'll pick up tomorrow where we left off.

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Let's pray. Our wonderful God and Savior, we thank you for setting us free from the bondage of sin and death, which we were under because of our rebellion against the living

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God. And yet you sent your son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins so that through faith in Christ, we might be reconciled to God.

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And we are no longer enslaved to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

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But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, you saved us not by works done by us in righteousness, but according to your own mercy.

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And so, Lord, I pray that because you have extended this grace to us, that we might be gracious to one another.

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If we love your grace, if we appreciate your grace, we worship you because of your grace.

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Shouldn't we, who are so filled with the grace of God, show it to others that we interact with?

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And may we learn how we can answer one another graciously according to what we read in your word, in your scriptures.

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Guide us as we embark on this study this week through the book of Philemon and help us to see your glory all the more, even through this story between a master and his slave.

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pray and ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.