The Apostle Paul's skillful and loving approach in the Epistle to Philemon, focusing on his appeal for Onesimus. Paul begins by appreciating Philemon's faith and love, then transitions to a diplomatic request, presenting himself as an aged pleader rather than an authoritative apostle. He emphasizes Onesimus' transformation from unprofitable to profitable, highlighting the new brotherhood in Christ that transcends their former master-slave relationship and Paul's willingness to take responsibility for Onesimus' debts. The sermon concludes by noting Paul's appendix, where he expresses confidence in Philemon's obedience and anticipates a joyful reunion, ultimately illustrating the transformative power of the Gospel in reconciling broken relationships.
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Very good. All right, let's turn to Philemon, shall we? And then let's see how far we've got with this edition. Now what we've been doing here is just picking out these very important lessons, but very subtly we've also been kind of analyzing the letter as we went along. Now let me just put down here something that we discovered and looked into. Like all of Paul's epistles, he has a definite introduction in the first three verses, where you'll remember he deals with who's writing the letter, who's receiving the letter, and then there's a blessing in verse three, a benediction there.
So we have an introduction in the first three verses. I'm not even going to put the chapter. Now the next part of the epistle, going from verse four, I thank God, that sounds like the epistle of Colossians two, doesn't it? How grateful a man the apostle Paul was, but if you will go down from verse four through verse eight, I'll tell you what I think we have here. We have perhaps the first little section, and it is... a section of appreciation. It's an appreciation, of course, of Philemon.
And two things about Philemon. One is of Philemon's faith, that's right. And what was the other one? Love, love for the purpose. That's right, of Philemon's love. Appreciation. You know, we could stop right there and talk about that because appreciation is a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful thing. And I suppose we, all of us, manifest all too little of it because being human we take so much for granted. But, well said, you never miss the water till the well runs dry and it's a very special and precious thing to have an attitude of appreciation.
God appreciates it and other people appreciate it. And it's something that ministers to the individual himself. If you're an appreciative person, if you wake up in the morning and say, isn't it wonderful, my what a very pleasant situation ours is. Why has God been so gracious to us? I'm sure there are times when you go over things like that and then you compare your life with somebody else and you say, I don't know why the Lord has been so kind to me. why he's been so gracious to me. Well, this is what we're dealing with in these verses four through eight, where it says, I thank my God making mention of the always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith and so on.
Now, this faith, I noticed in reading through this, and if you've been reading through it, you may have discovered it too, that there are three things said about this faith, or that are indicated, and the first is, that his faith was a very obvious faith. Because it says here, hearing of thy love and faith. People talked about the faith of Philemon. In other words, it was a very obvious faith. And then I was reading again, and it occurred to me that that faith, in this very letter by the Apostle Paul, was an acknowledged faith.
It wasn't something that was lost sight of, and here the Apostle Paul makes mention of it and then I read again and as we were saying it was the end of our list I think it was a faith that was communicated it was spread it was it stimulated the faith of others and was communicated to other people it was shared with them that the communication of thy faith verse six may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. Now that love, again, there are three things I noticed in just reading it through associated with this love of Philemon.
One was refreshment. The bowels of the saints are refreshed by your brother. The revised version has hearts there. Instead of bowels, the hearts of the brethren are refreshed by the brother. I don't need to emphasize that. Love is always a refreshing thing. when you meet a person who obviously is a loving person, it has a way of, I can't think of a better word, refreshing the heart and the soul of those who come into contact with it. And then, like the faith, this love was an acknowledged one, and it was a consolation to others. Now, the Apostle Paul is going to appeal to this, because when you come to verse nine, he says, yes, For love's sake I rather beseech thee.
Verse eight says, Wherefore though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such in one as Paul the aged. Now I'm going to make a change here, because I think really our next section starts at eight. And do you know what we have here? We have an approach. Have you heard of people like, who go at things like a bull in a china shop? Yes, lots of people are like that. I'm afraid sometimes I'm like that too. The Apostle Paul was very diplomatic.
Listen again to what he says. Now, he says, though I might be bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee. Here are two rather interesting words. The thought is that he could bring pressure as an apostle, but he chooses rather to use petition as the aged. He says, as Paul the Apostle, I could enjoin you. But as Paul the agent, I beseech you.
Now that's a very diplomatic approach. That's a very wise approach. He says, Philemon, you and I have known each other for a long time, and I know you respect my position as an Apostle. I couldn't take advantage of it by enjoining you, by... in that sense pressuring you to do what I want to do. And I repeat, he hasn't yet told him what it is. I think that Philemon probably had a sneaky suspicion because wasn't his runaway slave right there? Didn't he bring the letter? I'm sure that Philemon knew he had something to do with Onesimus. But so far Paul hasn't mentioned it.
He says, I've got a favor to ask. I'm not going to bring pressure to bear upon you as an apostle, but instead I'm going to petition you. I'm going to plead with you. I'm going to beseech you as Paul the agent. So you don't look upon me as a man speaking to you with authority, but instead you look upon me as an old man pleading with you for a favor. Now that's a very diplomatic approach. And that approach takes up these verses eight. and nine. Let me put a little nine here. What I want you to do is carry away something a little bit portable. And then we'll look at verse ten and see if you can tell me what starts in verse ten.
He says, I be sweetly for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my buns. I be sweetly. You know what that is? That's an appeal, that's right. Oh, you're staying with my outline, dear, that's right. It's an appeal. And again, we have that word, I beseech. It's rather a strong word. It's a, it is a word of pleading. I beseech it, he says, on behalf of whom? My son, Onesimus. And then he emphasizes that by saying, whom I have begotten in my bonds.
Why have I been here, imprisoned in Rome, I've led into Christ? Now, if you read this letter through, you know that he says, I want you to receive him not now as a slave, but as a brother. Why? Because Philemon, too, apparently, had been led to Christ by the Apostle Paul. So in one place, with years between them, Philemon is converted through the ministry of Paul, and then under very strange circumstances, in Rome, while he's in prison, Onesimus is also, let's say, Christ. So here, by the Apostle Paul. So here's a master and a slave, and suddenly their relationship is completely changed, and instead of being master and slave, and can you think of anything, any two things that are more poles apart?
a master and a slave, a man who owns and a man who is owned, locked, stock and barrel. And yet suddenly all of that distance is bridged, and these two men, naturally such poles apart, become brothers, members of the same family. In only the Gospel could accomplish that. Only God could do that. So we begin to see as his appeal, O Nesimus, Does anybody know what the name onesimus means? You're all very intelligent, that's why I'm asking you. Anybody know? No problem.
Now, which one is it? No problem. That's right, profitable. That's what his name means, profitable. The Apostle Paul in the letter, did you notice in the reading he makes a play on that, because he says this man, profitable, was for a time unprofitable, But now he's become profitable both to you and to me. He is a man who didn't live up to his name until he met the Lord, and since then he's become doubly profitable." These names are very interesting. I wonder if anybody knows what Philemon's name means. All right, you can do a little research there and come up with it, and you'll find it just as significant as the name of Onesimus.
It means useful. It also, well, you look it up for yourselves. Actually, I guess there may be one or two. What's the word I'm groping for here? In some of these names there's a sort of little combination of virtues or things involved. That's why in your indices when you look up the meanings of proper names, sometimes there's a slight difference because the word in the Greek has a, rather than have a single thing, has a little bundle of things all wrapped together. They can do that in the Greek. We can't do that in the English, but they do it and they do it very skillfully.
So look it up. Do a little research on that. and see if tomorrow morning you can find out just what things are associated with the name of Philemon, that is the name itself. All right, now then, this approach, as Paul the Apostle, or Paul the Aged, leads to an appeal on the part or on the behalf of Onesimus. Now, what's he going to ask? Let's read this down, shall we? It says, I beseech thee for my Son of Nesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds, which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me, whom I have sent again.
Thou therefore receive him, that is, my own bowels, whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered under me in the bonds of the Gospel. But without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefit should not be, as it were, of necessity, but willingly. I think it's very easy to see what he's saying here. I want you to hang on to this thing. He got saved, he became profitable to you at a distance, and to me immediately, and he was so profitable to me that I would very much like to have hung on to him. I didn't want to let him go, but I didn't want to hold on to him without your permission. I didn't want just to take advantage of my situation So I'm sending him back to you, and he says, Perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shalt receive him forever.
Now Paul is not saying it was okay for him to run away, he says he did run away. But maybe in the providence of God it was just for a season, so that when he came back again, you'd be able to receive him forever. and he'd be much more profitable to you on his return than he was before his departure. I think this is again a little bit of diplomacy and tact. The Apostle Paul is saying, just don't look too blackly upon the fact that he escaped and ran away and stole. Maybe it was something that the goddess very beautifully overruled, and you're going to be better off having lost him for a little while than you would have been if he'd stayed with you the whole time.
Now there must be parallels in your life when you think about that. Things that you would not like and you wouldn't have chosen to go through at all. Things that to you were very trying, very and perplexing and confusing. And yet after they were over and looking back you say there isn't any question about it. If I had never had that experience trying as it was, I would not have been as enriched as I'd become. You know, that's why God allows these things. That's the only reason why God allows these things.
That's the, that emphasizes, underlines, underscores the truth of that very favorite verse of ours. Well, we know that all things do what? They work together for good to them that are called. Aha! Now here's the qualification. For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. So there is a condition. Everything that happens to the believer... isn't necessarily that which God has engineered for their good.
We do things that bring trouble onto our own heads, and if they don't result in our good, we've got nobody to blame but ourselves. But if we allow the will of God to operate in our lives, nothing comes into our lives, but when it leaves, it leaves behind it an enrichment. So that is part of the Apostle Paul's appeal here. Maybe he left for a season though he did it wrongly, though maybe he left for a season, in order that you might receive him forever. All right, now let's go on, where are we? Verse sixteen. Receive him forever, not now as a slave, that's the word there, but above a slave, a brother beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord?
If thou count me, therefore, a partner, receive him as myself, if ye have wronged thee, or owed thee ought, put that on my account, now notice this, I don't know what to call this on Paul's part, he says, I, Paul, have written it with my own hand, I will repay it, albeit I wouldn't for a moment mention the fact that you owe unto thee, even thine own self beside. I wouldn't say anything about that. I wouldn't mention that. But sneakily, of course, he has done, reminding Philemon that while Onesimus has a debt to him, his debt to Paul, and how true that is, somebody leads us to Christ, there is not a person in the world that we owe more to than that one.
So Paul is saying, well, you owe me not money or goods, such as Onesimus stole from you, but your very self also." My, he's really sort of pinning Onesimus very lovingly to the wall, isn't he? He's sort of putting Onesimus in a position where, even if he didn't want to do it, how in the world can he possibly say no? I often wonder, when I read this little letter to, and I read it through from time to time, I often wonder, whether the Apostle Paul, somewhere deep down inside, had a suspicion that maybe what he was doing was asking a little too much of Philemon.
You know, Philemon was an affluent man, and he was a man who was esteemed by the people around him. And I suppose in those days it would certainly have been looked upon as weakness to take a slave back and not to punish him. I don't think that the Apostle Paul underestimated one little bit the big thing that he was asking of Philemon. And I think that this subtle, loving kind of, I was going to say arm-twisting, I'll stay with that just for one to anything better to say, came not because Paul doubted Philemon, but because he was saying, am I really asking too much of him?
Is it too much of me to expect this of him? Too much on my part to expect this of him. Again, that indicates the kind of person the Apostle Paul was. He was aware of the demands made upon others. He was conscious of the price that other people had to pay, and I think that probably this is the reason why he very subtly and quietly and lovingly and most skillfully puts this little bit of pressure on Philemon, not because he doubted him, but because he felt perhaps he himself was asking a little too much of Philemon and he was expecting him to go the extra mile.
So he's helping him to make up his mind. That's really what he's doing here. All right, now. But if that were not sufficient, go a little further and see what he says here. Yay, brother. Let me have joy of the inner Lord. You've refreshed the hearts of others. Refresh my heart. More than anything else at this time, this is what I want. and you have an opportunity of increasing my joy." Now that must have made Philemon's heart leap, because what could he do for an imprisoned Apostle Paul? What could he do for the man who'd led him for Christ, whose circumstances were so restricted and dire, a prisoner and nobody knew how long he'd be there?
How difficult to do anything to help him or to bring him joy. So Paul is saying, you've got a unique opportunity, Philemon, to increase my joy and refresh my heart. Now he says, having confidence in your obedience, I wrote unto you, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say. The diplomat in the Apostle Paul comes out more in this little letter than in anything else. He says, I'm assured. I've got full confidence in your obedience. You're going to do what I say. I know that you are, he said, and I believe you'll do more than I say.
He hasn't finished yet. Go a little further. But with all, prepare me, and lodging, for I trusted through your prayers, I shall be given unto you. I'm coming, Philemon. I'm on my way. get my bed ready because I'm going to be there. I suppose that was the clincher. I suppose that really that was the final touch. Now in Philemon as we do through the letter, I don't think there was any question right from the start as to what Philemon would do. But I sort of imagine Philemon reading this letter. And I think that as he's reading and we're watching him, we can see the corners of his mouth begin to quiver a little and then to turn up and a little smile still across his face.
That's Paul. That's Paul. He knew him well. And so I'd rather think that Pilemon probably caught a little bit of humor in this letter and all that helped. I try to imagine his face as he turns and looks at Onesimus after reading the letter. I think maybe he pauses and looks at him and Onesimus is standing there and he sort of shakes his head and doesn't say a thing, and here poor Onesimus, you know, rooted to the spot because his fate is in the hands of the man with the letter. Maybe he's getting just a little bit of hope from that flicker of a smile that came over by Eamon's face as he read the letter.
But then I believe it's more than likely that Philemon looked at him and beamed at him and threw his arms around him. I think that's the kind of man Philemon was. It didn't matter that Onesimus was a slave. It didn't matter that Onesimus had wronged him and stolen from him. It didn't matter that he had run away. Everything now is behind them. And that new relationship is all that matters. If tradition is true, that a messiness was martyred with the family of three, I think that that might well indicate what kind of a bond from this moment sprang up from the erstwhile, or between the erstwhile runaway slave and his wronged master.
It must have been a beautiful bond. And the Apostle Paul has certainly done his part to establish it. So there's the appeal. Let me give you three things here. I see some of you are writing away. One verse, number one, is he outlines a request for Onesimus. The first thing he does, he says, I want you to recognize the relationship that now exists between you. He says, I want you to receive a recommendation from me. And he says, I want you to reinstate this rebel. That's the outline of his appeal on Onesimus' behalf, or particularly his request.
He says, recognize the relationship, receive my recommendation and reinstate this rebel. That's the outline of his request for Onesimus. But he does something else. In making the request, he also reveals a regard for a messiness. He says he's my own son. He says he is. He's beloved of me. I care for him. He matters to me. He said, well, I might, because he's been ministering to me so much. So I didn't want to let him go.
So he makes a request and he shows a regard. He says, I have a desire. More than that, I have a duty. This man has been very kind to me. This man, in your stead, he has administered to me. And he says, it's my duty to do for him what I can. And he says, I suggest there's a design in it all. He went away, but maybe just for a little while, so that you might receive him forever as a brother and no longer as a slave. But he does something else in his appeal. He not only outlines a request for omissimus and manifests a regard for omissimus, but he also assumes a responsibility for omissimus.
He says, if he owes you anything at all, for you to my account, I call, have written with my own hands, I will repay. He assumes a responsibility for omissimus. I don't know. But it seems to me that maybe there were some kind of an arrangement between Philemon and the Apostle Paul, that due to their closeness and their long-standing friendship, I'm sure that Paul had responsibilities back where Philemon was, and maybe Philemon did his best to handle Paul's offense.
Nobody had to do it. But he says, at least I have an account, and he says, you can, you have my permission to withdraw from it. And if it's not enough, I'll make sure that you'll reimburse. And I believe Paul meant that. But I don't think he ever expected he'd have anything to pay. because when he mentions Philemon's indebtedness, you owe to me, even your own life, he knew this man was certainly not going to hesitate to meet the needs of Onesimus and to forgive and forget the wrongs of Onesimus have done. Now that takes us down to, let me see, verse nineteen, I suppose.
Let's put a... a reference there, and let me make mention of one other thing that begins at verse twenty, and we read it. Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord, refresh my bow and the Lord, having confidence in my obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou would also do more than I say. But, with all prepare me, lodging, when I cluster through your prayers, I shall be given unto you. You have been praying for my release. I believe that God is going to honor your prayers and when I'm released I'm coming to hear you so get my bed ready so he what we have here number four I'm going to suggest is an appendix something that he adds on it has a it has a it bears a relation to what has gone before but he adds it on he says you can refresh my heart and you can add to my joy and he says you can prove to me that my confidence in your obedience is not misplaced.
And he says, I'm coming to see you, and then we'll be able to rejoice together in what God has done for Onesimus, what God has done for you, what God has done for me, we'll have a real good time together. So in that appendix he does two things. He makes mention of Philemon's debt and opportunity. You do owe me, he says. And now you have an opportunity to make me happy and to refresh me. And then he makes mention of his own confidence and hope. I've got confidence in your obedience, he says, and I'm living in hopes that in answer to your prayers, I'm going to be released and be able to come and stay with you.
Now the end of the letter, like the rest of his letters, is a benediction. It comes to a greeting from verse twenty-three or a salutation. There salute the Epiphas, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus. Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow labourers, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, spirit. Amen. Now that's the salutation and benediction that brings this little letter to a close. Now I wanted a day just to give you that little outline and tomorrow I want to pick out one or two other things and leave a last practical lesson with you from this epistle so sometimes during today thinking about these four things and the early and closing verses read it and then tomorrow we'll pick out one or two other salience points there's so much more in these verses You know, it would be really very helpful to start at verse one and pick it apart and then verse two and do the same thing at verse three.
That'd take us a month. I mean, studying it every day, but it's all there. There's a tremendous amount in this little epistle. I'm just going to pick out four things tomorrow just to quit your appetite, to go home and pick out some more duos and trios and quartets there there. But I'm going to pick out a simple quartet tomorrow that stands out to me and that I think might quit your appetite to take the little official and go and look for something else of the same kind.