The Transformative Power of Forgiveness: Lessons from Philemon
The Wednesday Evening Service at Middletown Baptist Church on February 12, 2025, features an enlightening discourse delivered by Pastor Josh Massaro, focusing on the epistle of Philemon. This study marks the commencement of a new examination following the conclusion of a previous study on the book of Jude. Philemon is often overlooked due to its brevity, comprising merely one chapter with 25 verses. Nevertheless, Pastor Massaro elucidates that the epistle contains profound themes pertinent to the Christian faith, including grace, mercy, and the concept of restoration. The letter addresses the sensitive issue of slavery, specifically focusing on the narrative of Onesimus, a runaway slave who encounters Paul while he is imprisoned in Rome. Pastor Massaro emphasizes the biblical perspective on equality before God, asserting that all individuals, regardless of their social or economic status, are equally valuable in the eyes of the Lord. He encourages listeners to appreciate the significance of every scripture, regardless of its length, and to understand that the brevity of Philemon does not diminish its message's weight.
Takeaways:
- In this episode, we delve into the profound themes presented in the book of Philemon, examining the intersection of law, grace, forgiveness, and the transformative power of the Gospel.
- The Apostle Paul's unique authorship of Philemon is particularly significant as it addresses a personal relationship, illustrating the importance of individual restoration within the Christian community.
- The narrative surrounding Onesimus, a runaway slave, serves not only as a historical account but also as a poignant reminder of the redemptive reconciliation available through Christ to all individuals.
- Paul's request to Philemon to forgive and restore Onesimus emphasizes the core Christian principle that all believers, regardless of status, are equal before God and deserving of grace and mercy.
- The episode highlights that Philemon's personal relationship with Paul and his reputation as a loving servant of God sets the stage for a compelling appeal to act in love and forgiveness towards Onesimus.
- Furthermore, the examination of slavery in the biblical context illustrates the complexities of servitude and the necessity of understanding historical frameworks in interpreting scripture correctly.
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00:00 - None
00:23 - Introduction to a New Book Study
10:51 - Understanding Philemon: Context and Sensitivity
13:44 - The Role of House Churches in Early Christianity
24:42 - The Transition to Boldness in Love
32:50 - The Appeal to Onesimus
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Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
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My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.
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I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.
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Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.
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All right, well, we're going to start a new study here this evening, a new book study.
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If you're here with us for the first time, you're at a good time.
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And if you're meeting back with us, we just finished a study in the book of Jude and now we're gonna start in the book of Philemon.
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And so another book that you don't often hear preached on if you don't know where Philemon is, it's tucked in between Titus and Hebrews.
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So if you know where Hebrews is, go to Hebrews and go back a chapter.
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And that is just one chapter.
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Philemon is one chapter, 25 verses.
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And the reason why Philemon is not talked about as frequently is because one, it's so short.
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And most of the time the short books of the Bible get overlooked because a lot of times people think that smaller books have a smaller message.
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And that's why you hear minor and major prophets.
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But the minor prophets aren't the minor prophets because they're not important, they're just minor because they're smaller.
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And so that would be the thing with Philemon.
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Another reason why Philemon isn't always talked about is because it deals with a sensitive topic.
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Specifically, it deals with an individual who is a runaway slave.
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I'm a bond servant and we're going to talk a little bit about that.
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And a lot of people have a hard time connecting the dots between the idea of what's Paul talking about in regards to the Gospel.
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But I think this is an amazing book of the Bible that, that talks about the law and grace, forgiveness, mercy and the opportunity to see people on the same level.
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The Bible teaches that when we become born again believers, there's no one that's more important than somebody else.
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No one holds a higher status in the eyes of God.
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We know that the Bible says there's, you know, no more Jew or gentile bond or free.
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And the beauty of the Gospel is that the gospel is for all.
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And when someone comes to Christ in redemption, it doesn't matter if they are multi billionaires or they have no money to their name.
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The Bible says that they stand before God the same way.
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And that's the beauty of the gospel.
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And so that's mentioned here in Philemon.
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Another picture in the book of Philemon is the picture of restoration, the idea of a runaway slave and then his master receiving him back and restoring that relationship.
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And I believe it's a beautiful picture of the relationship that God has with us in the restoration process of once we were enemies of God, now we are a part of his family.
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And so there's a lot of beautiful pictures here.
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Who writes the book of Philemon?
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Well, we know ultimately God writes the book of Philemon, but the, the human author is Paul, and Paul is in prison.
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Okay, So I want to paint the picture for you.
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A lot of tonight we'll be painting the picture and getting the, the plane off of the Runway.
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And then for the rest of the study, we'll, we'll dive in deeper.
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But Paul is in prison at this point.
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He's a prisoner in Rome.
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And he has a guy come to him named Onesimus.
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Onesimus is a runaway slave.
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And we find out that at some point in time, Onesimus gets saved.
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And so Paul leads him to Christ.
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Paul is discipling him.
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And Paul realizes that Onesimus is a runaway slave from a guy named Philemon, which Paul knows Philemon, there was a connection there.
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And they have a past.
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And we actually see that Paul was personal friends with Philemon.
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And we know that because of the way that Paul addresses Philemon in this passage.
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One of the unique elements of this book is that Paul writes to an individual.
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Think about, most of Paul's epistles are written to churches, groups of people, right?
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So Ephesians would be written to the church at Ephesus, and, and so, and so on and so forth.
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Now, there are a few exceptions to that.
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We know first and second Timothy was written to Timothy as a pastor, but pastoring a church.
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So there was specific details for Timothy to learn and to grow in, but also for him to bring to the church.
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So there was that.
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There's also Titus, which was a passage of Scripture to another pastor there, but again, it was for the church as well.
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This is unique in the fact that it's written to an individual for an individual situation, for restoration of individuals, and not for the sake of the whole church, even though the church can benefit from what we can learn here.
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And so this was written approximately around 60 AD and the letter to Philemon is, is Paul's shortest letter.
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It deals with a sensitive topic.
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And if you don't understand the context of this topic, it'll be Very hard to kind of get past it.
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And that is the idea of slavery.
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Obviously we know that term slavery in the context of what we live in today and what we have come from in our country.
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But the type of slavery that would have been happening at this time and at this place in the book of Philemon is different than the slavery that we experience in our country, and that even is still happening today.
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Most of the time we link slavery to picking an individual from a certain group of people and their race or where they're from, and then stealing them, capturing them and putting them into servitude to them.
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And so that is not the type of slavery that is talked about here in this passage.
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And so there's a lot of people that will.
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And this is a sensitive topic.
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And as a pastor, sometimes it's easy to skirt around, but we've got to address it.
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Some people will think that the Bible doesn't condemn slavery, therefore the Bible is for slavery.
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And we need to be very cautious on that realm because we can get ourselves into some slippery situations if we agree to that premise.
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And so though the Bible does not out and out say that this type of slavery is wrong, we know that because Paul addresses Philemon not to say, hey, stop being a slave owner, but what does he say?
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He says to restore him back as a brother.
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Now, now there is some latitude in how that looks.
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But what I will say is that just because the Bible doesn't address that specifically, it never condones it either.
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And it specifically does not condone the type of slavery that we have mentioned already.
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And I want to show you a few passages of scripture that actually talk about that, just so that we don't have a misunderstanding of, of what this is all talking about here.
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So what I would have you go to is Exodus chapter 21, verse 16.
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I want to build a framework of understanding before we go any further, because a lot of times people will read the book of Philemon and because of their understanding of, of slavery and servitude and the whole dynamic of, of, of race and, and pressures against other countries, they would say, well, you know what, I can't even get anything out of Philemon because how could he accept him back in that same regard?
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Well, let's look at What Exodus chapter 21, verse 16 says, because we need to be very clear about what God says about taking someone against their will and putting them into servitude.
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The Bible says in Exodus 21, verse 16, and he that stealeth a man.
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And so that's what we're talking about taking someone that does not belong to them and putting them into service.
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He that steals a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
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And so we see that God's heart in that matter is that they should not do that.
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That is wrong.
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That is, that is a sin.
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Um, so we move on.
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You say, well, that's the Old Testament, Pastor.
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We live by the new.
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Well, if you go to first Timothy, chapter one, verse eight through ten, we see God speaking against certain actions here, even in the New Testament.
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And so first Timothy, chapter one, verses eight through ten, tell us more about this idea of stealing someone and putting them into servitude.
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And so if you look at verse 18, it says, this charge, I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou be, that thou by them.
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Midas war, a good warfare holding faith, and a good conscience which having some, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwrecked.
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And so what we're conce.
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What we see here in this case is that I'm in the wrong verses.
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Well, I'm jumped ahead.
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So verse eight.
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Sorry about that.
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I had 18 written down, but I, I know now it's verse eight.
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Sorry.
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But we know that the law is good if any man use it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers.
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So he's listing all these things that the law fights against.
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For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men stealers.
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That phrase men stealers would be taking people and putting them into servitude, putting them into slavery for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.
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So we very clearly see that that type of slavery, taking someone against their will, selling them into servitude, would be, as the Bible says, against sound doctrine.
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So, so if anyone ever says the Bible condone slavery in the, in the context that we understand, it's.
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It's wrong, it's not the case.
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So what type of slavery are we talking about?
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We're talking about a type of slavery where someone basically is a bond servant, if you ever heard that term bond servant, which basically means this individual owed a debt, this individual did not have the funds to pay this debt.
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And so the agreement would be that they would come under the servitude of the master and they would work for them for a certain amount of time or maybe for their whole life.
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And they would do that so that they could repay a debt that they could not pay.
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And so it was someone signing up for something.
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And, and then on the other side of things, a lot of times what would happen is that some individuals, history tells us they would actually choose that path because it was a path of security.
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It was, it was essentially having an income without having an income.
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It was a way that they could have security.
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And if they trusted the person that was running the, the, the works there, they would, they would feel as if they had some security.
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Now probably there were individuals who abused that.
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And that's, that's human nature.
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But what we have to understand is that that's, that's what we're talking about when we're talking about Philemon and Onesimus.
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So, so the, the Bible gives instructions on how masters should treat their servants.
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We know that in the Old Testament and the New.
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And so what God does in, in the Old Testament and the New is he speaks to the heart of the matter.
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We know that if an individual has a heart for God and a heart for his Word, they're not going to abuse others.
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And Colossians chapter four talks about that relationship.
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And so, so at this case in time, I wanted to just kind of explain that because we know that all people are created in the image of God.
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Um, we, we know that the Bible speaks very clearly on loving each other and everyone stands before the same in the eyes of God.
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And so just for historical context, that's what we're talking about here.
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So Philemon didn't steal Onesimus from his homeland, put him into slavery.
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Onesimus had signed up for this as a bond servant.
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So context is, is key when we're talking about these types of sensitive things.
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So going back, let's start in verse number one, Paul a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
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Which is so interesting that Paul mentions that, because we know that Paul is literally a prisoner at this point, but we know that also he likens that to the spiritual side of things that he is, he is a bond servant to God.
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And so Paul paints a very interesting picture here.
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He's talking to Philemon about his servant and Paul identifies himself as a servant of Jesus Christ.
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And so he's setting the stage to explain what he's about to ask Philemon to do.
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And so I think that's important to note as well.
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And Paul, Paul paints an awesome picture here of his being a slave to Jesus Christ.
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So prisoner of Jesus Christ.
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And he doesn't say a prisoner of Rome.
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He could have said that.
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But he realizes that he is not under the power of Rome.
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He's under the power of God, no matter where he is.
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And I found that to be interesting as I was reading this, getting started here.
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And Timothy, our brother.
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So, so Paul is speaking on behalf of himself and Timothy unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer.
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And so just by way of verse one, we can tell that Paul and Philemon were not only acquaintances, but they were beloved.
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They were dearly beloved, they were close friends, and they were fellow laborers, meaning they worked together at some capacity within the church.
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And so Paul recognizes him as a close friend living in Colossi, by the way, Colossians.
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So he would have been at the church of Colossi.
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A lot of, a lot of people would argue that he came from a different place.
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Some would actually argue, I think it was Thessalonica, but most likely we can tell through connecting this all together that he is from Colossae.
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So anyway, Paul's friendship with Philemon showed to be significant here.
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It was, it was an important thing.
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So he goes on to say verse two, and to our beloved Afia, which most people believe that was Philemon's wife, which she plays a role in this as well, which we'll talk about a little bit if we have time to get there.
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And then Archippus, which would be, they believe, his son.
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So this address to the family members shows that they had a personal relationship.
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He knew them on a personal level.
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And to the church in thy house, which is interesting because we see that Philemon was running a house church here.
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He was, he was overseeing to some degree the.
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The church within his.
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Within his own house.
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And that's really how churches were back then.
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If you look back at history, you look back at records, it wasn't until a couple centuries later that you started to see people having common properties for specifically a church.
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Leading up to this time, for many, many years, churches were based in the homes.
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And then they went out and then they would have these cell groups that they would have.
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And so it's interesting to see how that all works.
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And so this means that the church in Colossi was meeting in the house of Philemon for at least some point in time.
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And so the earliest Christians, they didn't buy property like we have here.
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They didn't have nice cathedrals that, that came Much later.
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And, and so that.
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I think that's a beautiful thing.
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And I think one of the things that we can learn from that is I don't think there.
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There are some pastors out there today that actually teach that we should move to that model.
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Actually, Alicia and I met someone not too long ago, and that's the model that they took.
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They're like, you know, no longer are we going to have church in a building.
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We're just going to do it from our house.
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And.
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And it wasn't like an excuse.
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They were really meeting with other people.
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He was a pastor and they were meeting the homes.
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Uh, there was.
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There was a story.
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I won't say who it is, because some people might like him or not like him, but there was a pastor who had a mega church, and he realized that that was not biblical in his mind.
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And so he splintered that and said, okay, we're going to start a bunch of house churches.
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And it's an interesting thing to think about.
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I don't think that we have to do that.
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I don't think that that's necessary.
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But what I do think is that the spirit of that should be in regards to how we should meet and worship.
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So what we can see is that they were saved.
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People meeting in homes, they were worshiping together, they were having the bond of unity.
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They were supplied with some type of oversight, some type of accountability.
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Um, there was teaching present within the home, and there was the heart of fellowship and family within the home.
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And so therefore, I think those are elements that we should see within our church.
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And so it doesn't matter where you meet.
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It doesn't matter if you're meeting in the cathedral or you're meeting in a home, or you're meeting in.
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In anywhere.
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It.
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It doesn't matter as.
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As long as those elements are there, I think it's important to.
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To say that that's church.
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Okay, Verse three.
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This is Paul's common greeting, that he would give grace to you in peace.
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Grace and peace.
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Obviously, Paul preached grace and peace in all that he did from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And so he gives this introduction, and we know that that's how Paul starts most of his introductions, is through grace and peace.
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Now let's get to verse number four.
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Paul is about to ask Philemon to do a very difficult thing.
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He's basically asking Philemon to forgive Onesimus.
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Why?
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Because Onesimus runs away.
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Now, that might sound bad, but for Onesimus, essentially was a death penalty on his head.
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If Onesimus did get caught and go back.
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Philemon had the opportunity and really, you know, he had the freedom to do with whatever he wanted to do with Philemon, at least in Roman law and in tradition, um, he could have kept them and made life a lot harder for him.
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He could have had him back and executed his judgment upon him by taking his life.
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And so Paul, he doesn't know how Philemon's gonna respond to what he's about to ask him to do.
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And so I think this is a really interesting thing that Paul does right before he asks him to do something very difficult and challenges him on this.
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He basically gives thanks for Philemon.
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And, and I think that, I'm not saying that Paul is, we used to say in the south, buttering them up.
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I don't think Paul is lying to Philemon, but I think he's coming with something positive.
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He's not, he's not just running in and attacking Philemon, Assuming that Philemon is going to have issue with this.
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He's going to come in and he's going to give Philemon thanks and give God thanks for their relationship.
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So let's look at verse four.
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He says, I thank my God, making mention of the always in my prayers.
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And so what is Paul saying?
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He says, I thank God for you and our relationship and I want to let you know I pray for you often.
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And so, you know, I, I, I've heard some people say, well, I don't need to tell that person I'm praying for them because I'm praying for them.
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Well, and God knows I'm praying for them.
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But the Bible here very clearly teaches us Paul's example of telling people that we're praying for them.
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And so I think we should tell people that we're praying for them.
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Now don't tell people that you're praying for them if you're not praying for them.
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Okay?
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Some of us maybe have been guilty of that.
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I probably at some point in my life have been guilty of that, of saying, oh, I'll pray for you brother.
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And I walk away and I don't pray for them.
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And so one of the, one of the tools that I have used recently is hey, just pray for them right there.
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Either pray with them or pray a silent prayer when, when you're, when you're thinking of them immediately.
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And actually that's a, that's a really interesting thing too.
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I think about a lot if someone comes to your mind throughout the day, pray for them.
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I, or, or take another step, pray for them and then reach out to them.
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I think that's been one of the things that, that I have seen recently is, is God has moved someone on my mind and my heart.
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It's been a blessing for me to say, you know what, I'm going to go ahead and call them.
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And they, and they were telling me, well, you know what?
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I just was, I was having a bad day.
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And when you called me, that really encouraged me and I had no idea they're having a bad day.
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But, but that, that's the Holy Spirit.
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That's the beauty of that.
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So Paul says, hey, I think about you and I pray for you.
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Verse 5, Hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus.
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So, so Paul recognizes Philemon's public testimony of his love for Christ.
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And so Paul makes mention of him to God.
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And, and Paul mentions that a lot.
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He, he talks about that in the book of Romans, Ephesians, 1st Thessalonians.
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And, and he says, the reason why I know that you love God is because of your evident, your testimony.
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You're pointing people to Christ.
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And that's what he says there.
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He says, hearing of your love and faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints.
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So, so the testimony is this.
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He loves God and he loves God's people.
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Okay, the saints, right.
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Sometimes it depends on your, your church background.
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When you hear that word saints, what you think of if you came from a Catholic background, saints are elevated individuals that are above us in our spirituality.
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But biblically speaking, when you hear the word saint, it's just talking about another believer.
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Okay, So I know that we, we could maybe be overthinking this, but I think that in verse five, we see the law of God.
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Okay, not the law as the Mosaic law, but the new commandment that he gives unto us.
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The first and greatest commandment is what to love God with everything and to what?
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Love our neighbor as ourselves.
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On those two things hang all the law and the prophets.
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And so our testimony shouldn't be, well, you know, I mean, it could be.
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We could strive to do this.
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Well, look at them like, they follow everything according to the law.
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They follow everything according to the Word.
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Or you could love God with everything and love others and everything else will fall into place.
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You will do the things that you should do if you love God and love others.
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And so we're going to see that kind of coming to pass here with Philemon.
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But, but, but no doubt, I think that that is the testimony that we all should be striving for in our life so that what someone would think about us, they would think that I'm an individual who loves Christ, I'm an individual who loves others, who shares the love of God towards all saints.
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So this is, I believe this is the foundation for effective, effective evangelism.
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Right?
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We're talking about going, we're talking about being salt and light.
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We're talking about loving, growing, connecting, serving.
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You know, you could say any slogan, but, but God has, has done wonderful things in our life.
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He.
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He.
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He's.
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He's.
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He's blessed us.
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And that's what verse six talks about.
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It says that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you, in Christ Jesus.
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Meaning, Meaning this, that, that as you, as you share your faith with others, as you share the truth of others, you're acknowledging what God has done in your life.
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And I think that's, that's the best route of evangelism, just telling people what God has done for you.
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And so now it was a matter now for Philemon to understand that, hey, as God has shared love and forgiveness to me and mercy to me, so, so you see Paul setting him up to say, hey, you know what?
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Look what God's done for you.
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Look how you shared the love of God with other people.
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And so the reason why you can do what I'm about to ask you to do is because of what Christ has done for you.
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So we have to communicate what God has done for us as we share our faith.
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And so some people would argue that Paul is talking about sharing material things, but I think in this case he's specifically talking about sharing his faith.
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And the reason why I think that is, if you go to verse number six, it says that the community of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you, in Christ Jesus.
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There's the idea there of, of acknowledging or sharing.
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That word is the word that we also use for fellowship or koinonia.
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And you ever heard of us having our fifth Sunday coin a Sunday?
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It's fellowshipping.
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And it's not just fellowshipping as, hey, how you doing?
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How's the weather?
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Did your team win?
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Did this happen?
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But fellowshipping for the purpose of edification, fellowshipping for the purpose of, of sharing our, our hearts with other people, of building them up, of encouraging each other.
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So there is that idea of, of the spiritual there in verse six.
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So it's not just about him sharing his goods or his services, but ultimately for the simple fact of him sharing the love of Christ to those around him.
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And then we'll look at verse number seven.
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It says, for we have great joy and consolation, that's comfort in thy love because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.
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It's one of the rare times in which he recognizes someone as brother, which, that's why we do that within the church.
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That's why we acknowledge each other as brothers, not just friends.
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You know, we, we have that tight knit community in faith.
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But he says we have, talking about Paul and Timothy and the others that are around them, they have great joy and comfort in the love of Philemon because the bowels or the affections of the saints, the Christians are refreshed by thee.
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So he says Philemon is someone who's an encourager.
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We see that he's an encourager.
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We see that he's someone who loves.
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Paul remembers how Philemon had met the needs of other Christians both materially and physically and then spiritually and refreshed their hearts.
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And so when, when we love God and when we serve others, we, we refresh the ones that were initially and immediately impacting.
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But the Bible says that that's like a ripple effect.
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The more that we share Christ, the more that we love others, the more that that encourages other Christians that might be watching our lives and maybe encouraging them to do that to other people.
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And so it's kind of like the, the chain effect, the, the ripple effect when it comes to our love.
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And so I thought about that and I, and I thought about Philemon's testimony and I'm like, wow, this guy, this guy's an honorable individual.
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And so going back to our original conversation, a lot of people will say, well how could Philemon be honorable?
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Because of where he stands with Onesimus and, and no doubt maybe some other servants and slaves within his abode.
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There again, that's why I wanted to give you the context at the beginning that this is not just this evil guy, that Paul is overlooking his public sin.
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But no, Paul is explaining that God is, is, is evident in the life of Paul, of Philemon.
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So all of that to say what he's about to do now because verse number eight is where Paul kind of puts the rubber to the road.
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He, it's where he's going to take his leap of speaking the truth in love.
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Now he just flipped it and did love first and then he's going to do the truth.
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And I think that's actually something good because sometimes if we do the truth and we don't bring the love in yet.
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And we go, we were going to love them at the end.
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Well, that's sometimes it's like too little too late, right?
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And so sometimes what we can do, and I've done this before, before I can even come in and explain my heart on the matter.
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I come in saying the truth about an issue, and it is true.
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Right.
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But again, I think that what we have to do is demonstrate our love maybe even prior to the confrontation, prior to the appeal to, to change or the appeal to restore.
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And, and I think that one of the things that we can see in the New Testament that Paul speaks on quite frequently is the idea of restoration of a fallen brother or sister.
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You can see here in Philemon other passages of scripture that you could see that at would be Galatians chapter 6.
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I do want you to see that here because I think that this is, this is important.
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It's not exactly linked to Onesimus and Philemon because the situation with Onesimus and Philemon would be that Onesimus was not saved when he ran.
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So, so it was a, it was a broken relationship prior to Onesimus salvation.
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And so a lot of times what we do is we, we recognize the condition of the person and the moment of their, their sin.
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So what that means is this.
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You deal with an individual differently.
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I believe biblically speaking, you deal with an individual differently who had a life of sin prior to salvation, then have, have gotten right with the Lord and they're striving to do different things.
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There's a different way that we deal with that.
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And in, in the, in the contrast of someone who is a professing Christian, who is in a body of believers and then is in rebellion.
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Right?
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Because that's a different dynamic.
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The dynamic is, is that person was, was an enemy of God.
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So they, they act like an enemy of God.
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And we shouldn't be surprised by that.
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But now there's that transition in their life, there's that new creation in their life.
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There's that transformation that we talk about in Romans chapter 12.
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Now we expect them to live like a Christian.
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Now we mentor them that way.
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So we treat unsaved people like unsafe people, right?
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Expecting them to be in rebellion to God.
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Then we treat Christians as we should treat Christians.
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It's not expecting them to be perfect, but expecting them to love God and to seek after him and seek after restoration.
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So we go to Galatians chapter 6.
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Galatians chapter 6 speaks of how to deal with a brother who has fallen.
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Brother, meaning someone who is saved.
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So it says, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.
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So we restore them in meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
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Meaning as we can reject another brother who has fallen or sister who has fallen, we then could get to a place in our life where we're the ones that are sinning.
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And so there's that idea of, of love and restoration, bearing one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
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And so there's that idea of a brother.
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So what do we do with someone who rebelled in their sin prior to salvation?
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They get saved?
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Well, we do what Philemon talks about here, what, what Paul's talking about here.
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Re receive them back, especially cause Onesimus is repentant here.
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We know that because of Paul's appeal.
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So verse eight and, and we'll just kind of touch on verse eight here as, as we move forward.
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So Paul speaks to Philemon regarding Onesimus.
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This is actually the first time we see him mentioned verse 8.
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Wherefore though I might be much bold in Christ.
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So, so now he's like, okay, wherefore.
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Anytime you see the word wherefore or therefore he's referring back to the prior statements.
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So Paul says, hey, love you, I'm thankful for you.
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You're a great guy.
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You have a great testimony.
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Wherefore now though I might be much bold in Christ.
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So, so he says, I, I, I, I need to be bold to you right now to enjoin you.
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Now enjoin is a word that we, we don't really use quite frequently, but it basically means I'm commanding you, I'm challenging you.
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And so he says, wherefore, whatever our relate, remember our relationship, remember you know, what we've gone through.
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Now I want to be bold to command you or challenge you that which is convenient in, in the case of, of convenience or, or fitting meaning, right, proper.
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That's, that's what he's saying here.
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Yet for love's sake, because I love you, I rather beseech you.
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So he says, I could command you.
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Because remember, Paul is not us.
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And the concept of Paul is unique in his standing before God because he was an apostle.
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An apostle is someone different than a pastor.
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Okay?
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And I'll be very clear about that.
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We believe that there was 12 apostles.
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Some argue 13 because of Paul coming in later and the replacement of Judas.
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But that's an argument for another day.
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But we believe that Paul was an apostle and the Fact that Paul held a different authoritative model in the early church.
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And so an apostle had to see Jesus and his ministry visibly and be called by God directly.
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And so therefore Paul had the authority within the early church to command people to do things because he was the mouthpiece of God.
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And so what Paul is saying here is this, as an apostle, I have every right to command you to do what I'm about to ask you to do.
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But he says, and I think this is important too, because within the church no one is more important than others.
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But different people hold different responsibilities and different authorities.
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That's the same within the household.
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I believe God ordains certain positions within the house with different authoritative levels.
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Not one more important than the other, just different.
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And so I think that this is a model for all of us who hold some sort of authority over someone else because all of us at some degree hold an authority over someone else depending on what your, your, your situation is.
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Okay, so we could command.
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Like I could com, I could constantly be commanding my children and my wife and the different people that are within the church and all that.
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I could constantly be commanding because of my position.
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But that's not a position of meekness.
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It's not a position of humility.
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So what does Paul say?
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He says, I could Command you, verse 9.
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Yet for love's sake, I'd rather beseech thee.
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Beseech means like to beg to, to appeal to, to, to be, to, to do it in a way that basically says, hey, can you consider this?
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So for love's sake, I'd rather beseech thee, being such a one as Paul the aged.
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So Paul refers to himself as.
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He's like, hey, I'm, for lack of a better phrase.
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He's like, I'm, I'm old, I'm beaten up.
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I'm, I'm, I'm aged.
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Okay, I don't, I, I don't really, I don't really want to come to you forcing you to do things anymore.
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I'm just coming to you in humility.
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Um, so Paul the aged and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
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So Paul says, I, I'm in jail, I'm old, so I'm just gonna appeal to you.
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Um, he talks about his circumstances.
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Um, but he's essentially asking a favor of Philemon.
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Um, he appealed to Philemon, sympathies as he describes him.
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But, but Paul is making an appeal based in the love, right?
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And I think that's important to see.
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And that's probably where we will kind of work our way to the landing here tonight.
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But when we are making an appeal to truth, when we're making an appeal to restoration, when we're making an appeal to maybe even a biblical confrontation, when it comes to an issue, I think we should take Paul's example of verses 8 and 9 and say, look, you know what?
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With all of this happening, I think what I would say is that I just want to appeal to you in love.
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I've proven myself to you.
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I'm just going to ask you to consider this thing to do, to do this opportunity here would be.
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Would be unfair for me just to force you into doing this.
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And so we end with verse 10.
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I beseech the.
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For my son Onesimus.
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And that sounds like the beginning of Philemon.
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That's where a lot of people pick up Philemon.
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But we'll end with the initial start of his appeal to Philemon.
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And.
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And he says something interesting there.
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I beseech thee for my son Onesimus.
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Now you're like, wait, what?
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Paul has a son?
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Not his biological son.
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We know that, that Paul did not have children.
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At least it doesn't mention that.
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He says he wasn't married.
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There's a lot of argument about was Paul ever married?
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Was he had a deceased wife, never mentions that.
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So the Bible doesn't speak to it.
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I would just say that Paul was never married.
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At least he wasn't married at this point.
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We know that.
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So Paul didn't have any children, but we know that he referenced.
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Well, let me give you an example.
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He references Timothy the same exact way.
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And we know Timothy wasn't his son because Timothy had parents.
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Right?
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You know, he had Eunice and Lois grandparents there.
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And so in that case, Paul is referencing Onesimus in a different way as his son.
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And it's essentially a son in the faith he.
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He led.
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So, so we know that through context, he leads Onesimus to Christ.
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He's ministering to him.
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He's.
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He has that mentor, mentee, relationship, discipler, discipleship relationship.
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And I think that's important to see because we don't know how much Onesimus had grown at this point.
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We don't know where he was at.
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We do know later on that he was helping Paul to some degree.
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Um, so.
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So at this point in time, Paul is teaching Onesimus what it means to be a Christian, what it means to serve.
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And so he refers to him that way.
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And I think that that relationship is a relationship that all of us just tried to have, not just Paul, not just pastors, but I think Every Christian should find an individual who we could look to and say, that's my son or that's my daughter in the faith.
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I'm not in a prideful manner, like, look at all my converts, but to a place where there can be some type of relationship where I can guide you and share my experiences with you.
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And just as much as there's that, I think that we, some of us, should be Timothy's to.
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To a Paul, right?
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So I learned from that person.
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And so that's, that's an awesome reference there.
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As he says, he could have said my friend Onesimus.
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He could have said my acquaintance, my partner, but he says my son.
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And, and I think that's.
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That's really neat that he does that there and appeals to that element of Onesimus's relationship with him.
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So we'll come back.
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We'll come back, Lord willing, next week and we'll talk more about this appeal that he makes.
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Because this appeal is important, because it's important for Onesimus, right?
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It's important for the restoration between Philemon and Onesimus.
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It's important for Paul to have a good viewpoint of who Philemon is.
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Right, Because Paul's in the middle.
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Right?
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Because Paul's close to.
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Have you ever.
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Have you ever been the middleman?
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Have you ever been the person in the middle?
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It's tough, right, because everyone wants you to take sides.
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Usually that's what happens.
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Like, well, whose side are you on?
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It's like, well, I love this person and I love this person.
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I want them to be able to come back into conjunction together.
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And, you know, a lot of times we can get ourselves in trouble for being the middleman.
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Now Paul's a better man than me, and Paul had the apostolic authority.
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But, you know, for, for the most part, we know that when that letter is sent back to Philemon, Onesimus is there.
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So there's that personal confrontation, what, what sometimes ends up happening.
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And I don't want to get too far in a rabbit trail here, but you have like two individuals here, and this person needs restoration with this person, but they want to find restoration through somebody else.
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And no doubt there can be a mediator.
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But the best route, as Matthew 18 says, is, is to restore each other together in that personal way, if need be, bring in others into the situation.
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But.
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But it's not necessary initially.
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And so that, that's, that's a whole other story for another day.
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But Paul is going to encourage Philemon to obey, not him, but the Lord in how to treat someone on an equal plane and how to restore someone.
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And then I think that in here, this is the beautiful picture of how God treats us in that restorative process, because God does restore us.
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That's, that's what that word redemption means, to be bought back.
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So, so God created us in his image.
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We were, we were initially His.
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His children, so to speak.
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But sin separated us from Him.
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So redeem means to be bought back.
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So essentially what Jesus did is he came and paid the price for the wages of sin is death.
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The gift of God is eternal life.
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So, so Jesus pays the price.
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We are then, in faith, bought back and redeemed to Jesus Christ.
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And so there is that restoration process.
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The way Second Corinthians talks about it, it's the ministry of reconciliation.
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There's the message of reconciliation and then the ministry of reconciliation.
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So we're all reconciled.
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So we're all onesimus.
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We're all the runaway slave that has fallen and, and, and, and rejected the authority of our master.
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But yet God receives us back.
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And that's a beautiful, beautiful picture.
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Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.
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I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
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You would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.
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You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro, Middletown BaptistChurch.com if you've enjoyed this podcast.
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Please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.
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Thank you so much.
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God bless.
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Have a wonderful day.
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