Please turn in your Bibles now to the book of Philemon. There's no particular chapter to turn to because there's only one. Philemon is the shortest of Paul's letters. It's found right before the book of Hebrews, so if you have gotten to Hebrews, just turn back and so. usually a one page letter in your Bible. I wanted to look at Philemon before we move too far away from the book of Colossians because of the integral tie between the two and. Therefore, not needing to do much background during a sermon for the book of Philemon. Let's give our attention again this morning to the reading of God's word again. I'm going to read the entire book. We're going to just look at a few verses this morning, though, in the sermon. But let me read the whole thing so we have it before us and we know to some degree what's what the book is about. Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus and Timothy, our brother. To Philemon, our beloved fellow worker, and Afia, our sister, and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and the church in your house. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints. And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required. Yet for love's sake, I prefer to appeal to you. I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus, I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. Formerly, he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me. I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart I have been glad to keep him with me in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel. But I prefer to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion, but of your own free will. For this, perhaps, is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave. as a brother, especially to me. But how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord? So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it. To say nothing of your owing me, even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say. At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Please bow with me briefly in prayer. Our Father, we pray that as we look into your word this morning and as you use your word to probe into our hearts and our lives this morning. That you would accomplish a great work within us. That you would correct us in our error and in our waywardness. that you might bring us back on to the right path that you desire us to walk before you. Lord, use your word mightily this morning. And glorify yourself through it. And then on through our lives as it takes root and produces fruit within us to your glory. We pray these things now in Jesus name. Amen. One of the first questions that comes up when you read the book of Philemon, and in fact, if it came up in your mind, you're not alone. It's a question that's been coming up among Christians at least as far as I can go back. I've gone back sixteen hundred years and from the time of John Chrysostom. who wrote a commentary on the book of Philemon about 1600 years ago. One of the main questions that comes up and one of the questions that he deals with as he begins his commentary on the book of Philemon is why is this book in the Bible? What is its purpose and how does it contribute to the faith once for all delivered to the Saints. I mean, how can a personal letter written almost 2000 years ago dealing with a matter like slavery, which thankfully is not a significant part of the world we live in any longer? How can that be relevant to the modern Christian? So before we try to answer that question, We need to have a basic understanding of what the book is about and therefore, really just in a word, at the very least, what we need to see is that the basic point of this book is that it is an appeal by the Apostle Paul to a man named Philemon, asking him to forgive and receive back a runaway slave named Onesimus. At the very least, that's the basic thrust, basic point of the book. It's an appeal by the Apostle Paul to a man named Philemon, asking him to forgive and receive back a runaway slave named Onesimus. In fact, not only does Paul ask Philemon to forgive and receive Onesimus back, but as we'll see as we go on in this book, Paul seems to hint here of something a little further, it seems to hint that he wants Onesimus to be allowed to rejoin him and actually work alongside him. And therefore, even though there are more than these three mentioned in the book, the book of Philemon, its contents clearly revolve around Paul and Philemon and Onesimus. So, these are the three that are the main people that this little letter is about. But again, we come back to that question of why is this particularly private and arguably very idiosyncratic letter in our Bibles? I mean, it's unlike any other of the letters of Paul. It's clearly the shortest. It's clearly the most personal that we have of any that he wrote. And so In answer to that question, over the next couple of sermons, we're going to try to answer that question, but we're not going to answer it in kind of a straightforward way of saying it in a very technical sense and say, this is why it's in the Bible. I don't want to confront that question head on, but rather I want us to see how vitally important its message is to each one of us, and therefore the answer to the question will be self-evident. When we see how vitally important the message of this little book is to each one of us, the question will be answered at that point. In fact, as we begin to look at this letter together, I want us to take a posture as we As we come to it, and I want us to be asking the question in our own minds and in our own hearts, the question needs to be asked, what does God desire to teach me through this little letter? We need to come in with the assumption he put it in the Bible for a reason. What does he desire to teach me through it and what is he calling me to do in light of it? Those are the questions really that we should be asking. It's just a bit of a turn on. Why is it in our Bibles? I want it to be more of a personal investigation of what is he saying to me through this book? And for the most part, we really are going to let the answers to those questions emerge over the course of the next few sermons. But nonetheless, I do want to mention one thing as we begin concerning why this little letter is in our Bibles. The letter to Philemon from Paul is a clear and a beautiful picture of the mutual love, respect and humility that is to characterize the Christian church. This is going to pull on your own knowledge of the New Testament, but Throughout the New Testament, we have many exhortations and we are confronted many times in the letters of the New Testament to consider others higher than ourselves. In fact, many of those exhortations, if not most of them, come from the Apostle Paul himself. He's the one who writes more often than not. You need to think of others more highly than yourselves. And here in Philemon, basically, we see Paul exemplifying his own exhortation. He does what he calls the church to do. As one commentator has noted. And remember, I mentioned the three main characters, if you will, of the book. One commentator has noted that each of the three key characters in this book must sacrifice their own self-interest in the interest of fellow believers. Thereby, living out Paul's own exhortation in the book of Philippians in humility, value others above yourselves. not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of others. Why does he say that? Well, you see, in this little letter, we will see Paul forgoing his own apostolic authority. Paul himself in this letter forgoes his own apostolic authority to allow Philemon to the Consider the request and make a decision about Onesimus upon his own free will. Paul says, I have the right to command it of you. I'm not going to do that. I want it to come from your heart if it comes. So Paul foregoes his own apostolic authority. Philemon is going to have to forego his own legal right as a master to punish Onesimus, to deal harshly with him. and instead to actually be gracious to him and forgive him. And so Onesimus is being and Philemon is being asked to forego his own authority and his rights, his legal rights in this situation. And Onesimus is going to be asked here and is being asked to forego his newly found freedom. He's long gone. Why would he ever risk going back He is free right now, and yet he is risking his newly found freedom to go back and he's going to have to face his obligations and his wrongdoing. And therefore, this little letter, as you can see, it's far more applicable to to each of our lives because it deals with these interpersonal relationships and it deals with that main issue of Giving up your own self-interest in interest of others. If there's a whole lot more here than merely information about this immediate situation that Paul and Philemon and Onesimus are involved in. I want us, though, this morning to look at the greeting, and I want you to notice here that as Paul begins the letter, notice here in verse one, he immediately references the fact that he is a prisoner of Christ Jesus. The only time Paul ever begins a letter this way. Again, I won't be quoting him throughout the sermon, but as John Chrysostom said some sixteen hundred years ago, he makes this great statement, he says, if a chain, if a chain or imprisonment for Christ's sake is not a shame, but it's a boast, much more is slavery not to be considered a reproach. In other words, what he's getting at is that Paul identifies himself here at the beginning of the letter as a prisoner as he begins to plead the case of a slave. So, Paul self-identifies himself as a prisoner before he pleads the cause of the slave. Those are two despised conditions in the ancient world. Two big things you did not want to be was a slave or a prisoner. And here, Paul identifies himself as one of those very undesirable conditions and situations so that he might plead the cause of the other undesirable situation. His point, at least to some degree, as he begins the letter this way, is that if Philemon really loves and respects him. Philemon, if you really do love and respect me, me who, yes, I'm a I'm an apostle, but I'm a prisoner. If you love and respect me, one being a prisoner, then then you should also be ready to love and forgive Onesimus, who is a repentant slave. But now he's your brother in Christ. And as we'll see, In the very way that Paul begins this letter with virtually the opening words of the letter, he's going to continue to unfold this letter to Philemon and almost everything that is said, almost every single word is purposeful. Every word is calculated. Everything he brings up here is designed to move Philemon to grant what he's asking him to do with Onesimus. The first thing I want us to consider under the greeting here is God's people, God's people. I noted a moment ago that although this is a personal letter between virtually just three people, Philemon, Paul and Onesimus, Paul mentions quite a few others in this letter. In fact, he mentions at least eight other people. The first one that he mentions alongside of himself and And Philemon and Onesimus is Timothy, and Paul includes Timothy in the opening greeting here with him, most likely to communicate to Philemon that he, Paul, Paul, I'm not writing this alone. In fact, I'm not alone in this request concerning Onesimus. You see, Timothy is a well-known, he's a well-respected, he's a beloved brother in Christ, and mentioning him is going to definitely go far with Philemon, and most likely right away it's going to get Philemon to be thinking, OK, this is serious, I need to seriously consider this. This is coming from both Paul and Timothy. But not only does Paul mention Timothy, if you continue on there, not only is Timothy mentioned as a co-writer, Paul also greets Apphia, our sister, and Archippus, our fellow soldier. Most likely, and in fact most scholars and commentators over the last two thousand years, they've assumed that Apphia is the wife of Philemon, that this woman Apphia here, who's who is addressed as well, that she's the wife of Philemon. Now, I have to tell you straight up, there's absolutely no way to prove this. It's a guess. We don't know if Aphia is actually the wife of Philemon. And so there's no way to prove it. But let me say it on the other side. There's also no reason to doubt it either. There's no significant reason to doubt that she's the wife of Afia. The fact that she's mentioned right here at the beginning seems to indicate that she has some kind of vital relationship, some kind of vital connection with Philemon. Maybe she's his sister. Maybe she's his mom. But most likely she's his wife. According to custom and how letters would be addressed, most likely she's his wife. But again, we can't be sure. Archippus being mentioned here as well as those of you who were with us at the end of the book of Colossians. You'll remember this man, Archippus, was mentioned there. Paul has a special message for him. He tells the Colossians to tell Archippus, say this to Archippus, fulfill the ministry that the Lord has given you. This is this is Archippus. So he was mentioned at the end of Colossians and he's given his mention here has given rise to all kinds of of theories and and speculations about him. People have asked, is this the pastor? Is Archippus actually the pastor of the church in Colossae? Is it in his house? Is it is the church meeting in his house or is it meeting in Philemon's? Is he actually the son? Maybe he's the son of Appiah and Philemon. Again, we're not sure, but given how Paul has has carefully crafted this letter, there's really no doubt that there is a reason for mentioning him here, and most likely it has something to do with the Onesimus situation. Well, finally, beyond the mention of of Timothy and Aphia and Archippus here, notice Paul also greets and also addresses the church in your house. And I'm going to end with these dragging you with all these names and stuff here in a minute. But the mention of the church here also raises its own set of really unanswerable questions that come up in our in our minds. In other words, whose house, the way it's written, it could be Philemon's, it could be Archippus's house. Did they live together? In some capacity, in other words, are they father and son? Is the church of Colossi? Does it meet in the house here that is being mentioned? Or is Paul possibly speaking spiritually here? In other words, he looks at the whole household and he says, Look, you're a believing household. I'm going to address you as the church in your house. In other words, all the believers in your home, which would have included other fellow servants who would have been affected by Onesimus is running away, and therefore they're involved in this as well. Paul could be referencing them. Now, while we can't answer those questions with any definiteness, we can understand. We can understand this, that if Paul is going to ask Philemon to allow back into his home, a servant that has done him wrong and has disrupted the whole household by running away, then the whole household will be affected by the outcome of the matter. It's not just going to be a decision that Philemon makes and says, yes, I'll have Onesimus come back in. Everybody else is going to be affected by that who lives in that household. And the households at that time were much bigger than our households. There were a lot of people involved. And so everybody's going to be affected by this issue of how Philemon responds. And therefore, to some degree, Paul includes everyone who has been affected by Onesimus's wrongdoing in this letter and in this issue. And therefore, we can see that while this letter While this letter is primarily from Paul to Philemon about Onesimus, we need to see that there are a whole host of others that are involved in this as well to some degree. They're part of the situation. And that then just even at the beginning, looking at the greeting together, that underscores the fact that when there is an issue, When there becomes an issue between two people in the church. It it never merely affects those two people along. Interpersonal relationships, and when they break down, they never merely just affect those two people as if they're isolated and completely insulated from everybody else. But it infects the entire congregation. Why? Because as Paul has taught elsewhere, it's because we are a body. If one member suffers, then we all suffer. If one member rejoices, then we all rejoice. You can't touch any part of this body without in that act touching the whole thing. And so Paul seems to be pulling in various members of the body here in Colossae. Philemon's wife, possibly his son or his pastor or both, and the rest of the church that's meeting in their home, if that's the situation. And as Paul does this, he not only shows the importance of the solidarity of the family, Not only does he show the importance of the unity of the church, but he subtly gathers an influential crowd around Philemon that will be able now to counsel him and to encourage him and to urge him to do the right thing. You see, Paul has chosen to address this matter to some degree in a bit of a public way. He's talking to Philemon. But he's brought around Philemon, other believers that are going to have something to say about the situation. Let's move to the final thing under the greeting that I want us to consider this morning, and that is God's peace. This is a customary way for Paul to begin one of his letters. And we need to hear it. When Paul writes here, grace to you and peace from God, our father in the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to hear this as a meaningful salutation. In other words, although this is a customary way, we need to take it way to greet people, we need to take it seriously. This is not a mere formality, but these are the very words of the Holy Spirit and therefore it needs to be heard as a true blessing. In other words, its contents have truth to them, and it's worthy of consideration right here at the beginning of the letter. This is what is called, when Paul begins his letters with this kind of salutation, it's considered to be, and it's called an apostolic salutation. And therefore, You'll often find in a Christian church as the as the mess as the service begins, the minister will declare to the congregation and greet them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and declare to them grace, mercy and peace to you. from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we do that? Why did the apostles do that? The reason why is, is because this goes back to and it echoes the very first words of Jesus Christ when he rose from the dead. The very first words of the risen Christ to his church were peace to you. And so as Christ begins his interaction with the church, As after he rose from the dead. With those words, he begins peace to you. We see that pattern unfold throughout the epistles and then indeed get picked up and and practice throughout the Christian church. And therefore, when you hear the. When you're in in a church service and you hear that apostolic salutation. Really, you need to appreciate it. When you come in, you need to anticipate it. And you need to hear it as something very significant that's being said. You realize when you hear that apostolic salutation at the beginning of the worship service, you're reminded right away as you as you gather with the people of God, the first thing you're reminded about is that you have peace with God. By his grace. You're reminded right off the bat that you need grace. You're reminded right away that you know what we stand here today by grace and we have received something as believers. We have received something that we are utterly undeserving. And that is. A vitally important point. To the request that Paul is laying before Philemon here concerning Onesimus. Onesimus is in need of grace from Philemon. He is in need of being forgiven and shown mercy and grace, and here is Paul begins, he begins by reminding us all that we stand by grace before God. We have all received forgiveness and mercy that we did not reserve. And therefore, we didn't we didn't deserve. And therefore, the only proper response of those who have received grace is to extend it to others as well is to give that grace to others who are in need. And when we finally come to to that place of offering grace and forgiveness, when When grace has been extended and received in a broken relationship, the fruit which flows from it is that peace. That it is aimed at producing. We have we have peace with God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we and that forgiveness that comes in his name. And you see, Paul is seeking peace between Philemon and Onesimus on the basis of that very same grace. And upon the fruit and the action of a mutual forgiveness that is to flow between believers. You see right now, as this letter, not right now, two thousand years ago, when that letter was coming into that household there in Colossi, when it was being delivered to Philemon, most likely there was not peace in that household. Onesimus had done wrong and he would have certainly have upset the order of the house. And really, there are only two paths that Philemon can go down, which are which are sitting before him. One is going to lead to more and more disorder and hurt and chaos. If he chooses to go down this one way, that's just going to ruin things even further. But the other one, there's another path that Philemon has that Paul is going to set for him that will lead to order and restoration and peace. One of the paths, one of the ways is the way of the world. It's the way of law. It says this is my right. This is what the law says you're going to pay. The other way is the way of love and the gospel forgive one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. And therefore, Paul begins this little letter by marshaling around Philemon. And dare we say that Paul draws on these other believers to put pressure on him. To be there, to encourage him and to counsel him. To do the right thing in this situation, so he draws in marshals around Philemon, these other believers, and then he reminds him. He immediately reminds him, he reminds all of them. In fact, he reminds all of us. He reminds all of us right at the beginning that we all, in fact, stand by grace and have peace with God on the basis of an unmerited act of God's free mercy in Christ. So Paul levels everybody. Immediately at the beginning of this letter. We all stand on the same basis as we stand before God, we all come through the same grace and mercy and merit of Jesus Christ. You see, that, too. Will put a gospel pressure. On Philemon to consider carefully his request to Paul. His request or Paul's request of of Philemon to forgive and restore Onesimus. We have we have instructions in our Bibles on how to go about fixing and reconciling broken relationships. Because relationships are easily broken. In other words, The Bible is written from the assumption. It's written that it is a given that we are going to need help in the course of our lives and in the course of our relationships, and therefore, even the the inclusion of something like this little letter of Philemon is showing us the ever applicable relevancy of the Bible, because the Bible speaks to our most common needs. Most of the time, people want to talk about science or something out there when they talk about the Bible or want to, particularly from a critical point of view, they want to attack it. But the Bible wants to talk about what's going on right in here, about the real matters of life. about relationships, the frailty of them and how they might be restored. You see, this little letter is an account. We might even say if we read it right and we look at it, we could even say it's a blueprint of how broken relationships within the church. How there to be mended, how there to be reconciled. And as we can Continue to consider the message of Philemon over the next couple of sermons. It's only going to be a couple more. We're going to be greatly helped, I hope, and instructed and encouraged to seek peace and forgiveness and reconciliation with one another when it's needed. But as we conclude this morning, I want to underscore two things that Paul has brought up already just in the greeting. Again, to underscore it so that we see how vital the things the two things he said are to reconciliation, how we are to to be acting in the posture in which we're to approach an issue of an estranged relationship with one another. The first thing that Paul has underscored here, the first thing that we need to take home with us is God uses others in our lives to encourage us to do the right thing. We are part of a body. Christians are not to be isolated from one another. We're not to be acting like we're islands from one another. And one of the great principles that you see in this very private letter that Paul brings in all these others is that God uses others in our lives to encourage us to do the right thing. You see, this is this is arguably a private matter that's going on and being talked about here in Philemon. It's primarily between two, at the most, three people. But Paul extends the matter beyond the three because he knows that God often uses more people in our lives to help us do that right thing. The common sense way of talking about this and speaking about that is just that simple fact that there's, frankly, there's strength in numbers. If you couple that with that great and that important biblical principle that in a multitude of counselors, there's much wisdom. We can see that if you want to call it that, the peer pressure, the pressure of the group. Can be a real blessing from God. To push a person beyond their comfort zone. An obstinate person. is is much more likely to yield to a multitude than to an individual. By ourselves. When we are by ourselves and most of the time when a matter is stewing between just two people, things like pride or lack of perspective. It'll cloud our perception of things. We often need others to look into the matter and we need their help to think and work through matters. And frankly, this is not so much a fault. I'm not I'm not trying to say this is a fault that we have. But it's a reality that we live with. It's a reality that's rooted in the fact that we are not to be islands cut off from one another, that we have been designed to live in a body, as a body. And part of the blessing of the body is that God uses the collective, the group, to help the individual. He takes the solitary and puts them in a family. He uses the plurality to benefit the singular. And therefore, this morning, as you're hearing this, let me confront you with something. Maybe it's time. Maybe it's time in your life, your circumstance, maybe it's time that you come in. And get counsel. Maybe the issue that you're dealing with is now of such a condition that it would be good to sit down before the elders, the session of the church and say, I need help or with another group of believers. Maybe it's time to submit yourself and your situation to a larger group so that you can get help with the issue that you're struggling with or with the broken relationship. And let me encourage you, as hard as it might be to do that kind of thing, as humbling as it might be to take that path, I want to encourage you that is not a sign of defeat. If you were to say, OK, we need to we need to go and we need to talk to someone beyond ourselves. That's not a sign that you failed. Rather, it is it is most probably the first step toward victory. It's the first step that you'll take towards reconciliation and peace. And that's because God uses others in our lives to encourage us to do the right thing. It's the way he set things up. But there's a second thing that's underscored here that I want to hit right as we end here this morning, and that second thing is, is that God uses the gospel, God uses the gospel in our lives to enable us to do the right thing. First principle is God uses others in our lives to encourage us to do the right thing, but God uses the gospel in our lives to actually enable us to do the right thing. You see, although we can see something of that common sense principle here of strength and numbers that I mentioned just above, We need to make sure that we don't stop there. Any group can use strength in numbers principle. We need to make sure we don't stop there, but we see that from start to finish, Paul will appeal to the gospel as the foundation of reconciliation between Philemon and Onesimus. That's the core issue. That's the foundation upon which everything has to take place. That's going to be the entire content of Paul's appeal, is that you need to put this situation and place it in light of the gospel, Philemon. You need to look at the situation between you and Onesimus in light of the way that God has dealt with you in Christ. And that needs to be the source from which reconciliation and peace will ultimately come. You see, The reason why we have to push past that just simple peer pressure principle is that sometimes the group is wrong. But God is never wrong, and the truth of his gospel is objective and glorious and life changing, and it has to be the thing that forms and dictates all of our actions and all of our decisions. One writer commenting. On Paul's salutation that we've looked at here this morning, that grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. One writer said that for Philemon and his household to actually forgive. And and bring on this back in. Listen to what he said, he says that will require more than merely human qualities. They will need grace. and peace from God, our father in the Lord Jesus Christ. This conventional greeting never becomes merely a pious phrase or a throwaway remark. Paul wants his reader. Sorry, Paul wants his letters. He wants his letters to be means of grace. That's why he writes them. He's not just saying hi. He's saying there's an effect that I want this letter to have in your life. I want God to use it as a means of grace in your life. The writer goes on and he intends these letters to result in peace, the rich harmony of human beings with God and with one another. And this can come about only if God himself gives these Christ shaped gifts to his people. And therefore, we are reminded again, even in the first opening verses of Philemon, of that foundational truth that God uses the gospel in our lives to enable us to do the right thing. Even in a matter like interpersonal relationships, the privacy of that issue. That is not an area that we are somehow to try to function in on our own, but that the gospel probes all the way into those areas and is to affect them and inform our actions in them. We are saved by the gospel and we are to live by the gospel each day of our lives and in every area of our lives. And that is what Paul is pleading for here in this letter to Philemon. Let's pray together. Our Father, we pray. That you will keep us from approaching. This part of your word. In a way that. Shows that our heart is merely looking to gain more information. and understanding in technical things. But God, we pray that you'll use this part of your word that your spirit would take up in. And use effectively your word. Here. To probe the depths of our hearts. To pierce it again and remind us of the grace by which we stand in your presence, by which we have the The the actual benefit to even be praying to you now. Father, we pray that as we go through this letter. That we will be reminded again of your grace and the peace that we have with you through Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that our lives will be shaped by. The truth of the gospel. And that our relationships with one another would bear the marks. Of those who are reconciled in our brothers and sisters in Christ. Father, we pray. For that peace to prosper in the midst of this congregation, in the midst of all those who claim your name. May that beautiful peace characterize our relationships. May we turn and give glory and honor to you for the harmony and the beauty that we have. May it be to the praise of your glorious grace. For we pray all of this in the name of Christ. Amen.