The Epistle to Philemon, highlighting its unique background as a letter concerning a runaway slave named Onesimus who encountered Paul and became a Christian. The message emphasizes that Onesimus, despite his fugitive status, chose to return to his master Philemon, carrying Paul's personal appeal for forgiveness and reconciliation. The core lesson is that true Christian transformation involves not only faith but also courageous confession and restitution, even when facing difficult consequences. The sermon concludes by challenging listeners to apply this principle of courageous repentance and restoration in their own lives.
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Now let's turn to the Episcopal Defilement, shall we? And I don't intend in the morning to do any preaching. I'll tell you what I did. I did a rather strange sermon. I'll go along the fold of you with a new formal sermon in it. In fact, I'll make a confession to you. It was a little on what I could say. For giving, you know, use this blank check for your convenience. I obviously never sent it in because I used the batteries to scribble down some notes. Now what I've done here is just brought an assortment of scribbled notes.
And we're going to try during the whole morning to put them together in some semblance of order and come up with something of the content of this pre-system to try lean on. At the time of the time, if you're very fortunate, I'd like to ask you, how many of you are acquainted with the Ecclesiastes of Philemon with your own family? You are acquainted with the Ecclesiastes of Philemon. In fact, there's nobody here who wouldn't raise their hand because you did it time and again. I don't know how much time they may have spent with the Ecclesiastes of Philemon, but it's just one chapter.
So I thought that if we spend four mornings on one chapter, we ought to come up with something, not exactly in your spirit necessarily, but we ought to come up with a very good idea of what it's all about. Now, I wonder if there's anybody, and this is not a church meeting, not a church meeting. It's very informal, it will get together, and it's going to lead to a large extent. You're the ones who are going to be speaking for the most part. Now, would somebody tell me what do you consider why you think this is an interesting letter?
The officials of the Society. What do you know about it? And what do you know about those that are involved here? From your point of view, why do you think this should be an interesting letter? little letter. Somebody make me a suggestion. You don't have any idea why it should be interesting. Yes, because you have to do when you see the runaway place. Now that makes it absolutely unique in the Bible. Now I assume that everybody knows the story here how that Paul meets on the left in it discovered he's a runaway slave, leaves him to Christ, and then, because he wants to do the right thing, sends him back to his master, however he does it with a letter.
And this is the letter. Now, that certainly makes it a rather interesting letter when you realize that's the background. Can you imagine that story? Can you imagine that scene? Can you, I try to imagine a mess of it. He's been running away. He's been hiding. Suddenly he's coming into contact with this man, Paul. And he is what he has to say. He's attracted to it. Sounds by it. He responds to it. And then he's in trouble. Right up to his neck. Because here he is, as we said, he's run away from his master. He's now become a Christian. Is he going to keep it to himself?
Is he going to continue to run? Or is he going to make a clean breast of it? I would imagine that Mr. Paul could account for himself. Well, that's a modern thing to do. And I would imagine, and again, I may be looking my imagination in a way with me, but I imagine that there are a daycare women in there and a sort of pluck up his courage and say, I've just got to make it through this thing. He keeps on tormenting me. I'm a Christian, things are very different. And I'm going to tell Paul all about it and give some ideas to what I should do. Now, basically... I think he knew what he should do. When somebody's stolen something and he goes for a little bit of counseling, I've got an idea before they go.
They know they can't hang on to it. And they know they've got to confess it and they've got to restore it. I think Donovan had an idea as to what was going to happen. And he meets this call, I presume, and therefore listens to his story. And Donovan... As he tells his story, he must have been getting more and more convinced about what Paul was going to say. And I'm sure he wasn't surprised when Paul said, well, I'm not going to... You know what it means. Yes, I know what it means. I've got to go back to my master. Yes. Okay, so Paul doesn't get let him go. He takes up the cuddles in his defense, but still writes this letter, and also, I'm not going to give a real letter to his master.
That's right. Now, hadn't we, had he not had that letter, and just on that it was not, there was no, there was no, there was no, there was no, there was no, there was a consequence, if he would have been, probably the justice, because he's not, the believer in his kind of life-saving conscience. You can see now he's on his way and he's approaching the end of his journey. Can you imagine the conflict and feelings in the heart of a mortal life? Can you imagine? What do you think he's asking himself? You know, he's on his way, he's very close now to his destination, he's quenching onto a river and he's thinking about his master and the wrong feeling quite a while.
What do you think is, suppose we can discuss, and here we go. How do you think we can see it? Something else we can see. Yes, he said. I think so. Anybody else got anything to add to that? Yes, he had read the letter. That was really incompetent, though, because here is one of the best illustrations in the word incubation and the kind of thing that's taken upon your own account. That's right. Now, we know I know you really have read the letter, but we still don't know. He wouldn't know what his master's reaction is going to be. Even Paul, in the letter indicates... Well, he puts a little bit of very subtle loving pressure on Feynman because he's very anxious that anything should have the right kind of reception.
How else do you think he might be feeling? I think he still might have a strange sort of reaction. Yeah, that's right. Scared. And, you know, just at the last minute, I kind of do it. It might mean that I'll play with my life. And, you know, I'm sure he probably, in some songs on that journey, wanted to turn pale and run. That's right. That's right. When they finally got into his master's, what did he like to do when he saw him, just for seeing? I don't know who led him in the house, whether they had a maid or what. But however, he's very silly of nothing.
That with his letter is sewn into the presence of Philemon. Philemon doesn't know about the mystery. And that mystery must have been a key. I wish he had a teddy bear with a knife. You must have been going, oh yeah, we'll be able to make restitution. That's right. I think that's probably true, too, because Paul didn't just teach the Word of God without teaching people who then led to Christ that they not only had to return to their sin, but they had to be able to teach them the Word of God to make restitution. And this probably was in the mind of an ethnic and mental situation to what they need to offer, a kind of personal situation.
Any others? Yes. Yes, well now I was all, I was reading after that. Of what is this an illustration? That's right. This is a beautiful letter because it's a very lovely illustration and piece of it. And that's why the Spirit of God has placed it in this animal's picture. Because it shows to us a beautiful gospel picture. All right. Now, yes. I think we have a lot of courage in what you thought of that, and that we're not going to call the courage to come back. Yes. And we're giving a lot of courage for that. That's right. And that in itself should be a challenge to us too, because in our own lives, we're not slaves, we're not runaway slaves, we don't stand to pay for our misdeeds with our lives.
But even in our own lives, when things go wrong, when we do wrong, it takes a lot of courage to come back, confess it. and try to put it right. So much so that very few others do that. Very few others do that. So a messiness that comes to us, not only an example, but a challenge. You know, we talk about this. We talk about white lies. You ever hear that expression? Are there any such thing as white lies? Little things. Is that a valid adjective? Are there any little things?
You know, there's a Chinese comment which says, you never say little when speaking of snake. And when you live in Florida, you know that the most deadly snake that we have is one of the snakes called the carol snake. You never say little when speaking of snake, because snakes are deadly. And why do you never say little when speaking of snakes or of things? Now, the problem is, when we know, when we admit that we're guilty of sin, we then are face to face with the same situation that our mission, if you are, we've got to see itself putting it right. Okay, well, when we know what's behind it, then we've got to have this courage, as our mission has had, to do the right thing.
I sometimes tell young people when I'm at camp at some of these other places. Now, look, it's no good calling you to get it, Mike. and saying, Lord, you know everything that's happened today, you know that I've been free to forgive me when Jenny the Gordon fall asleep and forget it. I remind them that you will say as you go over your life before you go to the dead, Lord, today I made a liar of myself. I deliberately lied to so and so. I did it very... I did it very skillfully and very subtly, but it was a lie. Now, having confessed that, you feel very much ashamed and calling yourself a liar in the presence of God very definitely pulls you up short and makes you heavy weight by doing it the next time.
But that's still not the end of the matter. Because if you lied on Monday and you confessed on Monday night, on Tuesday the person you lied to is still deceived because of the lie that you told. So it's obvious that you've got to go to that person and say what you've said to God the night before. I'm very, very unhappy. I have to tell you that I lied to you yesterday. What I told you was not true and to the best of my ability, I want to put this right. You know, we practice that kind of confession, to God and to those that were wrong, it would have a failure to be assessed upon our lives, and we wouldn't so readily do it the next chapter.
We started on piling in there. But all you can see is how important it is to get the background. I'm hoping we can pick up a tip or two about Bible study during these early mornings. That's why I brought all these scribbled notes to you because... in going over this in the past, things that have occurred to me, I've just jutted them down, dropped them in this file, that's what I do. Now I want to try to put them together with you two of these four days. But the background is always important. When you get a letter, when you get a letter and you don't recognize a handwriting, what's the first thing you did? Yeah, that's what you mean.
You'll find out who wrote it to you. It doesn't make sense if you don't know who wrote it to you. See how wise they were in the New Testament? Instead of putting their names at the end, they put their names at the beginning. Now, wasn't that wise? So that nobody... Well, I know ladies always read stories by reading the end first. That's because they want to know how it turns out right. And if it doesn't, then they don't want to read it. But the fact is that a letter that makes no sense is you don't know who wrote it. of it, so you've got to know at least something with the background before the thing can make sense. So we put this jewel, and that's really what it is, very, very, in a very preserpery fashion, into its settings.
We know now what brought about the letter. Now we saw one of our measurements, and I think about Paul. When you read this letter, you find that Paul very reluctantly gave up our measurements. Do you remember where Paul was when he wrote this letter? That's right. He was in prison. Remember we covered that. This is one of the letters called Christological. It goes along with the one we are studying at night, Chalostia. and Philippians and Ephesians. And those are the four, three with this one that make up the Christological group that were written while Paul was a prisoner in Rome.
Now, onenessiness, as the letter Christ by Paul, and out of gratitude, he's ministering to Paul. And Paul, being a prisoner, needs those to be with him. So Paul is not going to hang on to this. and not do the right thing. So very reluctantly, he did not. You find that in the letter as you go through it. So when you're looking at the background, you have to think of how Paul was affected in, you can say the same thing, how he led this man to Christ, what a spirit must have been, Paul never got over the joy of leading men and women to Christ. He didn't know when he led him to Christ, or he was a runaway slave.
He led this man to Christ, and undoubtedly this man had already moved a mix for himself. He managed to flee, and he had set up some kind of normal life. He leaps tall, and he's led to Christ. Paul is happy about that. Can you imagine how he passed not this night? When this man is now ministering to him, helping him, doing something that will contain him to him, doing his imprisonment, representing many, many people who are long way from Rome and cannot help him. And so an estimate is helping instead. And then suddenly Paul makes to the discovery of this man. He's a fugitive, he's a runaway slave, and his ministry to Paul is going to have to immediately come to an end.
Then you have to think about how Paul felt when he sat down looking to write this letter. Things about... how Philemon felt when he received it. The first view of Onesimus must have been a shock because nobody went out and took him by the cloth of the neck and dragged him back again and said, well, here he is, it's more than likely they've given up the first thing. And because time had gone by, time enough for Onesimus to re-establish himself, time enough for Onesimus to get saved and begin a worthwhile ministry to call It's more than likely they've given him up. And then suddenly he appears at the house.
And I think that must have aroused a kind of conflict in the heart of Philemon. Suddenly he was afraid, who ran away from him. And it's possible so when he did, because Paul speaks about the story. The story seems to have... taken anything of yours, then I'll say it with my own hand. This is what we read in the letter. And I think that because by Lehman was the kind of man he was, that seeing this man were immediately created a number for him. If he doesn't make this man an example to the rest of the slaves, he will let him get away with it, then he's going to encourage the rest of the slaves, the scribe.
I think that probably was an initial reaction. I've got to deal with this man. But why has he come back? And when he handed over letter, it is from Paul. Oh, he's met Paul. It might well have been, I don't know. I sometimes sit back and I try to picture this whole story. You know, Mr. and Mr. Master, I've been saved or led me to Christ. Is this the way the meeting was sort of softened? I don't know. But when Philemon opened the letter and his arm was so graciously and beautifully and very lovingly twisted, I think he did a little smiling and the whole thing was so important.
All right, let's go to the letter now, after all that, shall we? And notice again here, it's like the one that we are studying at night, Paul. a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and the son of the our brother, unto our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and to our beloved Apia, and to our prophetess, our fellow soldier, and of his church, in dry house. Now that is a greeting, just like the Colossian greeting that we looked at on Sunday. Now, supposing we start by analyzing this. How many people are mentioned to you?
How many can you find? Any suggestions? You find six are isolated. Is Paul, by Jesus, Timothy, by Leman, by Leman, That's right. Very good. All right. Now, do you know what the relationship was here? Now, this is something you have to get, of course, by going outside of the epistle. Well, what we have here is a father and a mother and a son. Philemon with a father, happy with the mother, and archivist with the son. Now, they're a very lovely family, and they're all commended because of their involvement in the work of God.
All right. Now you've got Paul, who was the order. You've got Timothy, who was the associate with the order. And then you've got Jesus Christ, the first hero. And he is the arranger of the circumstances. Is there anything striking in the first sentence here that would make you sit back and think? It sounds very proselytly. Paul and a prisoner of Jesus Christ and Timothy our brethren to fight him. Oh, no further than that. Is there anything striking in that part of the first century? A prisoner of Jesus Christ.
Now he was a prisoner of the Romans, wasn't he? Wasn't he a prisoner in a sense of the Jews because they had engineered his imprisonment? Not really. Not really. What he's saying is that Jesus Christ is the arranger of my presence simply. I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ. The Romans couldn't have done it. If the Lord hadn't allowed them, the Jews couldn't have accomplished it. If the Lord hadn't allowed it. So whatever reason, I'm not yet sure. But I know who he is. And it wasn't a Roman. And it wasn't a Jew. It was the Lord Jesus Christ. So you have an author here.
I look at my scribble notes here somewhere. You have an author, you have an associate, and you have an array of different circumstances. Now, then let's speak to your heart. A prisoner of Jesus Christ. Do you ever feel very confined as far as your circumstances are you thinking? I look at my sister here in a wheelchair. You know, every morning my wife and I pray for certain people in the park. And we always pray for the folks who say most of their time is real here. Oh, you know, to walk so freely, I don't think we realize sometimes a little patient like that could become very obsessive, very depressed.
I'm sure our sister has her time when it's an awful struggle to accept those circumstances. Our sister Florence Mother. She for years has gone around in her wheelchair and there are others. I think of the folks from the family who are in the nursing home. Now you go on Wednesday and you see them spoke and you come away and you bring the prayer to her and you say, I'm so glad. I'm so glad that I go there and I come away. What about those after failure? Some of these things can be absolutely humanly speaking, unbearable.
As I can tell, if I say to my wife, I hope the Lord takes me home rather than allow me to languish in a nursing home. And I do. I hope that. I haven't found myself able to pray that because I don't know what the will of God is. But it must be very, very hard to take. But what a different conception when you can think of this way A preacher of Christ. I don't understand why, but I know that not only does the Lord know, but the Lord is in control, and all of my circumstances, he arranges.
Now one thing is certain, if our sister was not confined to her wheelchair, and was able to get around fully as you and I asked, something that God intends for her would be missing in her life. God always plans the very death for us. Comparing our life with somebody else's loss, it may not seem that way. But you know, people who have these problems and who really love the Lord and accept these things from the hand of the Lord... They get to know God in a way that some others never get to know him.
And God is the compensation. That's the compensation. Paul, when he was in Britain, had such experiences with God that I know. If you ever talked with Paul in the glory of our new experiences, he would say what countless thousands of Christians have said in science earth in some ways. I had rather walk through the dark with God than walk alone in the light. But here, my dear face, new fearful face, fresh courage face, the proud ye so much dread are doing mercy and will break in blessing under it. We think they've got a break in a scary mood of horror that the wind says they'll break in blessing.
And this morning we were having our meetings together. My wife and I always have the beginning of our day while we are in bed, if you please, with a reading of the calendar, the reading of the four things in the day, the two prayer lists. And then we have missing command between and interest, and we read any letters from any of the workers whose names are on the prayer list. It's real helpful. as they did start with here, I asked them, couldn't you arrange the letter according to the days like they were in Michigan? We have to go through and put the days on them and sort them all out so we know which one is we.
But we were reading today about the cliffs in Japan. They're on the prayer list today. There was a letter from them in Michigan where their little boy had taken a fall and put a hole the size of an egg in his skull. And that this had happened a little while ago. He was coming along and they enumerated things that could have happened and never did. So they were rejoicing. But they said his white blood proposals are very, the count is very low and we are trying, please pray with us that this will improve.
How can you imagine those parents without little boys and how they must pray it? Why, Lord? Why? We read another letter today, a home worker, the wife of a worker, saying, My husband's activities are going increasingly restricted because of multiple sclerosis. but he still takes care of the Bible school, this subject and this subject, and he's still as active as he can be in doing this and doing that. Now these people have to ask themselves why, but if they can say, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ, that's what I'm talking about with him.
Now you and I don't say two things, but we do think other things can happen. And only God knows what it is that sometimes ministers sit back and the tears coming to our eyes and maybe run down our teeth because something is happening that is so hard to take. I don't know whether I could say this to you, but I'm going to share it with you. I sat in the audience listening to Bob Stormberg seemingly say beautifully. That man's heart was gracious. That man's heart was gracious. It's not her. And he only has one shot. It's turned her back upon God. She's turned to humanity. She lives out.
She's definitely saved. She's left home. She's gone to live with two women, one who seems to have a very strange influence over her. And she has just simply turned her back on the phone, suddenly, and without any warning. He was standing there and he was singing, and I knew the state of his heart, and I sat there with a cheer on my feet because I knew the price he was paying. Now, I share that with you. I don't know whether I hope I haven't broken the confidence, but now her name is Brenda. Now, God in praise of her. We are praying that the first thing God will do is remove that woman from her somehow, that's having that offer influence over her.
and that he'll bring it to repentance and bring it back to the family. We never know what's happening to people we live in. We never know what heartbreak they're going through. Sometimes they put on such a brave front, he's putting promise that it's happening and it's happening among this group here in the room. Somebody is facing the situation that he seems to be overwhelming and heartbreak. Do you remember the seven texts of the old lady were, the favorite texts? And he claimed the past. Remember that? And they said, that's not a text. That's only a part of several texts. He said, he claimed the past this. He claimed the past that.
He claimed the other. Of course, he said, you don't say it like I say. How do you say it the Lord? I think. And he said, he said, he said. The scripture says, when thou passeth through the waters. And that means both into and out of when they're passing through the water and through the fire. You're not going to drown. You're not going to be burned. When you come out the other side, you say, I never experienced the nearness of the Lord in that fashion before. It is so beautiful. Brother Blubacher, how long have you been in your peace?
Twenty-nine years. Did you think of it later now? Brother Brubak and then I thought he said, I'm sure of that. That's what God is going to do. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, we ask that this morning we might go away with a deeper concern for the household of God. Especially those who file the deed. About which we know nothing but we do know they exist. We ask for every individual soul tribe that they might be able to serve us for, and as we know that Jesus might, and as a privilege, and as a gift, a place to be, in spite of what is for them.
So, Lord, we ask that in these mornings, though we may not get very far from the spiritual, grand Lord, that we might learn things from it, that we are going to give a new blessing to our family.