If you have a Bible, please open to the Book of Philemon. If you don't know, Philemon is the last book in the Pauline Epistles. So the way the New Testament is organized is you start with the four gospel narratives, and then you have the Book of Acts, which is a kind of history of the early church. Then you have the Apolline Epistles, which are all the letters from Paul. Then what we call the General Epistles, which are all the letters from everyone else. And then the Book of Revelation, which is a type of book called an Apocalypse. So the Apolline Epistles are right in the middle. If you're Romans, Colossians area, you're a little early. If you hit Hebrews or James, you're a little too far in the other direction. And just An insight for you, the Pauline epistles are not in chronological order. So if you were to read from the beginning of Romans to the end of Philemon, you're not going from the beginning of Paul's ministry to the end. Rather, they are ordered largest to smallest. So Romans is the longest of Paul's books and Philemon is the shortest. So we're going to read the whole thing and pray and jump right into the sermon. Hear now the word of God. Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our beloved fellow worker, and Apphia, 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 for 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 would have been glad to keep him with me in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel. but I prefer to do nothing without your consent, in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion, but of your own accord. For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bondservant, but more than a bondservant as a beloved brother, especially to me. But how much more to you both in 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. Amen. Thus ends the reading of God's holy, inerrant word. May its truth be ever written on our hearts. Let us pray. O Lord God, we thank you that you have spoken to us so perfectly in your word. We pray, O Lord, may we see Christ in this text and find ourselves in him. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be ever pleasing and acceptable in your sight. O Lord, I rock in our reading. Amen. So believe it or not, we just read a whole book of the Bible. This little book may not seem like much, and I believe it is one of the most undervalued and underappreciated books for the modern day. Yet it has so much significance for how we can live our lives today. But it can also be a little difficult to understand. I'm not going to put that past us. I mean, it's short, so there's not a lot of details for us to go off of. And it's written to a particular person in a particular situation 2,000 years ago. So we have to carefully examine the text to figure out what Paul is talking about and what is happening in order to consider how that might speak to us today. One of the first things you notice in this text is there's kind of three people in this whole narrative. The Apostle Paul is writing to Philemon regarding Onesimus. So Paul is the apostle, we know that. Philemon and Onesimus are people we don't really know. Onesimus shows up in Colossians, and many of the other names mentioned are in Colossians, so this was likely written with Colossians. But we don't really know much of Philemon or Onesimus. You see, from the text, we can tell that Philemon is a Christian and a church leader. We see this in verse five. And according to verse two, he owns property, the church meets in his house. So the thing to note there is almost every Roman landowner had slaves, bond servants. And that's likely what Onesimus was. Verse 16 makes this kind of clear to us. And it seems like, according to verse 18, that Onesimus has some sort of debt towards Philemon. Now, in part, this could be as a bond servant, he had a contract, and it seems for some time that Onesimus hasn't been with Philemon, so he might owe him for breaking the contract. But I think a more likely situation, and what is considered the majority view, both amongst scholars and amongst church history, with such minds as Calvin and Lombard holding to it, is that Onesimus was a slave to Philemon who stole something and ran away. So that seems to be the case. Onesimus is a slave, took something, ran away. And in Roman culture, a runaway slave deserved the death penalty. But something really interesting is in the Hebrew law, the Jewish codes that we have in the Bible. The exact opposite is true. Deuteronomy 23.15 says, quote, you shall not give up to his master a slave who has escaped from his master to you. You see, in the biblical mindset, there is assumed that if a slave runs away, that they're likely not being treated well. And so, you don't want to send them back. But Paul doesn't follow any of these codes. In Roman culture, he should send him back immediately to face his punishment. In Jewish culture, you shouldn't send him back at all. These are the legal precedents of the day. But Paul does something different. He keeps Onesimus with him till he is almost certain of his faith. And he waits till Philemon is very strong in his faith. And then he sends Onesimus back to Philemon with this letter. You see, Paul is the one writing this letter according to verse one. And it seems that for some time he has known Philemon, Likely, he discipled Philemon, helped grow him in his faith and mature him as a Christian. He maybe even helped lead Philemon to faith in the first place. And at some point after Onesimus stole and Philemon came to faith, it seems that Onesimus also came to Paul and that Paul discipled Onesimus, according to verse 10. And now Paul is asking Philemon to accept Onesimus back, not as a bondservant, but as a brother. And so what exactly is all this trying to say? Well, in a nutshell, Onesimus is a bond servant, a slave to Philemon. And at some point, Onesimus stole from Philemon and ran away. And somewhere down the line, Philemon met Paul and came to faith. Then at some point, Onesimus met Paul and came to faith. So now both Onesimus and Philemon, who he wronged, are Christians. And now, Paul is calling them to live out their faith through reconciliation. He is sending Onesimus back to Philemon with this letter, where, in essence, he is asking Philemon to give Onesimus his freedom, to accept him back not just as a bondservant, but as a brother. And one of the weird things about this short little letter is it's actually the only book in the New Testament that doesn't mention Jesus' death or resurrection. In other words, there's no clear statement of the gospel here. Nothing that says Jesus died for the sin of people and rose again, conquering the powers of sin and death. And that should stick out to us, but it shouldn't really concern us. Because in this letter, Paul is letting us into a shepherding moment. What I mean is Paul is functioning as a pastor or a shepherd in this situation. The term pastor comes from the word shepherd because the job of a pastor is to shepherd the flock of God, primarily by feeding the flock a steady diet of God's word, but also by guiding the flock. If you think to the shepherd in Psalm 23, he has the rod and the staff. And if you think how ancient shepherds worked, if they were guiding a flock from one field to another, they had this long staff with a shepherd's hook that they would keep it out to guide the sheep, and if a sheep started to stray, they could hook it around the neck and bring it back in. But some sheep just got a little bitey, or they started getting mean to the other sheep. So he also had a rod to kind of give them a little bop and get them back in line. And that's kind of what happens with the life of a pastor. But a pastor doesn't use a rod and a staff, he uses the truth of scripture. That seems to be what this letter is doing. This letter to Philemon is a prime example of an act of shepherding. So Paul is reminding Philemon of his position as a Christian and calling him to live that out by giving freedom to Onesimus, showing us that in unity with Christ, there is reconciliation for even our greatest conflicts. So we're going to quickly walk through this shepherding experience with Philemon, and then look at the implications that this kind of reconciliation has for us today. Paul starts by highlighting Philemon's faith in verses four through seven, reminding him that he's a Christian. This is how come Paul doesn't really need to say the gospel very clearly, because he already knows Philemon believes it. You see, Paul spent months, maybe even years discipling him. And in verse four, it says that he heard of his love and faith toward Jesus and towards the saints, being the church. So Paul knows that Philemon is a committed Christian, So he doesn't need to lay the groundwork. You see, if I, as a pastor, meet with someone for counseling, one of the first things I'm going to do is bring up the gospel. Because everything else I'm going to say is going to be built off the truth that Jesus forgives their sins. But if I've already been shepherding someone for many years and we've had many times meeting together for counseling and just Christian discipleship, I don't have to start there because we have years of that already. And so if someone has a big crisis moment and I already have years of discipling them under my belt, I can just jump into the crisis and address that. And that's basically what Paul does here. In verses four through seven, highlights and says that he regularly prays for Philemon and rejoices because of his love towards Christ and his love towards the church, which combined show his faith, shows that he's a Christian. And because Paul knows Philemon's faith, he is able to walk with him through this particular issue in verses eight through 22. And I want us to see the unique thing Paul does and consider how pastors can do this today. First, in verses 8 through 10, Paul appeals to Philemon. You see, Paul knows that as a pastor who has many years of relationship and discipleship with Philemon, that he can just command him to free Onesimus and do the right thing. but he doesn't quite do that. The text says, reading in verse eight, 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. You see, for love's sake, Paul isn't simply gonna command him, say, you must do this and expect it to be done. Rather, he's going to appeal. He's gonna try to convince him that this is the right thing to do. And ultimately, he's saying, if you don't do this, you're showing that you're not following Christ in this way. You're rejecting something that Christ requires of you. And specifically, according to verse 10, he is appealing for Onesimus. He is appealing for Philemon to free Onesimus so that Onesimus can come back to Paul and work for the kingdom of God forevermore. And we see why Paul appeals rather than commands in verse 18. He says, quote, I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness would not be by compulsion, but of your own accord. You see, Paul believes Philemon will do the right thing. In fact, according to verse 13, he believes he could just have Onesimus stay with him and Philemon would say, yeah, that's okay. But he wasn't going to take away the benefit Philemon would get by doing the right thing himself. And according to verses 15 and 16, Philemon or Paul is sending Onesimus back in order that Philemon might receive him not as a bondservant, but as a brother. Now, this is absolutely amazing because you can't enslave your brother. It's both ethically wrong, but also illegal in that culture. If it's your brother, your job is to actually take care of them, provide for them. And as the head of household, you're supposed to guide them and kind of be their caretaker. But Paul is asking Philemon to release Onesimus. And in some way, this should actually really stand out because he deserved the death penalty. Which means Paul is also assuming forgiveness. Philemon cannot release Onesimus if he doesn't forgive him. But Paul doesn't just leave it as a debt to be forgiven and just forget about it. In verses 17 through 20, Paul says he will cover the debt himself. If you look in verse 18, it says, 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 pay it. To say nothing of your owing me, even your own self. This last part is really important, because you see the reason why Paul is able to appeal to Philemon to forgive this debt, to release Onesimus, is because Philemon already owes everything. You see, as a Christian, Philemon would understand that Christ has forgiven all his debts, has made him completely right with God, and that Paul, in some capacity, being the person who brought him to faith or discipled him, had some hand in bringing that to life within him. So Philemon already knows that he owes everything, even his own self. This should actually remind us of the parable of the unforgiving servant that Jesus says in Matthew 18. You see, you might remember the story. There's a slave who owes lots and lots of money to a great king. And he goes to the king. and says, forgive me, I don't have the money, and the king forgives him. But then he goes out and sees another slave in the street who owes him just a few bucks, and he beats up the slave, and people go and tell the king what happened, and the king draws that servant back in and says, didn't I forgive you everything? Shouldn't you have forgiven him the little he owes you? Paul is saying, don't be like that kind of slave. Paul is saying, if you do have a problem, It's okay. And don't worry about the money, I'll take care of it. Paul is placing himself and his relation as collateral for the freedom of Onesimus, making himself like Christ, a substitute. And then in verse 21, Paul makes clear that he is confident not just in Philemon's obedience, but that he will do even more. This shows that the pastoral mindset and the character of shepherding, You see, Paul doesn't let out every single thing Philemon should do. He doesn't say absolutely everything in this crisis moment. He just gives the basic things for Philemon to move in the right direction and follow in the ways of Christ. But Paul expects a whole lot more. You see, this is the process for pastoral counsel for kind of any major conflict. I mean, today we're not really dealing with slaves who steal something and run away. But we still have all sorts of conflicts. So let's think about this through another pastoral mindset. Let's imagine we have a young couple who comes and they start to join the church and they become members. They believe in Jesus. They get very involved. I'm meeting with them regularly to disciple and work with them. They come to almost everything we do. And imagine five, 10 years down the line, the man runs off with his secretary. Well, part of my job as a pastor would be to go find the man and try to call him back, to call him to return to the ways of Christ. And as his pastor, with years of commitment and relationship and love and Christian concern, I have every right to just command him to return. But according to this process, my job is to appeal to him, to remind him of the gospel and to remind him of his covenantal commitments to his wife. Because ultimately, I want him to make the choice to do the right thing. I want the goodness to be credited to him, not to me. And assuming he does decide to return home, I might have to help pay some debts. Maybe they stowed away in a hotel and they have to pay that off. Maybe I have to help him get sober. I don't know. But on the way home, I will likely talk him through some of the stuff that he should expect in coming home. But I'm not going to tell him everything. I'm going to tell him that he needs to return home and love his wife, like Christ loved the church, giving himself up for her. I'm going to talk him through the fact that he's going to have to ask for forgiveness and work towards reconciliation. But I may not get into the details, like, you should never talk to that woman again, though he absolutely shouldn't. Like there are things that as a pastor, I would expect, but I'm not going to say. You see, Paul is walking Philemon through a very difficult and a very tight situation. And it becomes an example for how pastors should walk with Christians through intense conflict. But there's an important last step in verse 22 before we move on. It says, Paul writes, 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. You see, Paul, after this conflict is done, after the crisis situation, is saying, I'm gonna come to you if I get the chance, so prepare it. A pastor is often there in the hardest and most difficult times in a person's life. But a good pastor is still there three months later, a year later, five years later. This isn't to say that a pastor isn't necessarily not called away to another church, or that there aren't other reasons for relationships to change. I mean, often a pastor will meet with someone who lost their wife every month for years, but if they get remarried, they'll stop meeting in that way. because the life situation has changed, the context is different. But a good pastor will continue to check in and work with people long after their crisis situations. But ultimately, what Paul is doing in this passage is shepherding Philemon through great conflict about a runaway slave who stole from him. In essence, he's saying to Philemon, you're a Christian, he's a Christian. The same Christ that saves you is the same Christ that saves him. The same Christ you're united to is the same Christ he's united to. And if both of you are united to the same Christ, well, then you're united to one another. For there is no Jew or Greek, slave or free. There is no male or female, but all are one. And Christ says, Galatians 3.28. Therefore, if they both are Christians, Onesimus is equal to Philemon. And Philemon should not hold his rebellion against him because God doesn't hold Philemon's rebellion against him. And this shows us something really important about reconciliation. That reconciliation is clearly an implication of the gospel. Part of the reason why Paul doesn't have to talk about the cross in this passage is because he's calling Philemon to live it. At the cross, Christ reconciled us to the Father, and therefore reconciled us to one another. So in unity with Christ, there is reconciliation for even the greatest conflicts. And this has lasting significance for so many things today. Foremost, and most obviously, it means slavery is not consistent with the gospel. The Bible actually never supports slavery. It does condone it. There's laws about how you should treat slaves and what should happen, but God never is saying that's a good thing. He's not saying that's part of this design. And it's not just slavery that we have this kind of idea where there's an allotment, a protection for, but it's not saying it's good. In fact, Jesus talks about this with divorce. When the Pharisees come to him and say, when can a woman get divorced? He says, what did Moses say? Well, Moses said a woman can divorce when there's sexual immorality. He says, yes, but he only said this for your hardness of heart. But from the beginning, it was not so. You see, divorce is not part of God's design, but there is some allotment for it in the Bible. No one's saying it's a good thing. It's not what should be. But there is provisions under certain circumstances. Same thing with slavery. Slavery is not part of God's design. It's not a good thing. but there is provisions because of our brokenness and our hardness of heart. You see, the Book of Philemon shows us that true freedom from slavery comes from the Gospel. But it's not just slavery. People truly believing the Gospel reconciles all the greatest conflict. You see, with this, we actually have a solution for peace in the Middle East. We can stop racism in America. We can end the roar in Russia and Ukraine. And it's not just these big international conflicts and systemic issues. It's when you fight with your spouse, when your estranged child won't talk to you anymore, or your sister keeps creating problems for the whole family. It's when your neighbor and you can't get along, or your business partner tries to steal from you, or the property line of your family farm is being challenged. No matter how big or how small the conflict, the solution is always Jesus. If every person involved in a conflict, no matter how big or how small, no matter if it's two people or 200,000, if every person on both sides came to saving faith in Jesus, they would naturally be united together. And we would just have to call them to live out their faith and live out their lives following Christ. You see, both sides come to a saving faith in Jesus, they must actually acknowledge themselves sinners. So they must acknowledge that they have some wrong in this themselves. But it's not just acknowledging that you're wrong, it's rejoicing that you've already been forgiven. And if you know you've been forgiven, how can you not forgive them? The truth of the gospel brings more than just forgiveness, though. Because we are forgiven by being united to Christ. And so if both sides are united to Christ, they're united to each other. And there can be lasting reconciliation for the greatest conflicts. This is why Paul can so easily ask Philemon to accept Onesimus, not just as a bondservant, but as a brother. Because in Christ, he already is one. This is why Paul doesn't need to give the gospel. He's calling Philemon to live in light of it. He is already assuming it. This means Jesus brings equality where there is hierarchy. This means in Jesus, slaves are set free. It means in Jesus, there can be peace in the Middle East. In Jesus, we can reconcile broken marriages and fix estranged families. In Jesus, there is an answer to all the world's conflicts. As Christians, we don't need to turn to political solutions, or economic regulations, or humanitarian projects, or education initiatives. If the Bible is right, and in Jesus there is reconciliation, we need to send out missionaries. We need to plant churches, and we need to spread the gospel. This means if we really want to heal the brokenness of our own lives, if we want to fix your broken marriage, if you want to reconcile with your children, if you want peace with your neighbor, or to reconnect with someone you have wronged, you need to pray for their conversion and pray for your own. You need to work for the gospel to go forward so that both sides might come to a saving faith in Jesus and be reconciled to one another. You see, let me close with this story. I've heard of the conflict in Palestine and Israel. We all know this idea, Jewish-Israelis, Arab-Palestinian, constantly at odds. But if you go to churches throughout the Gaza Strip, the land that they're fighting over, they're full of both, hand in hand. They sing together, they pray together, and they eat together. And ultimately, they love one another. Their commitment to the gospel and their commitment to Christ brings reconciliation and their greatest problems. And it defines their commitment to one another, more so than their commitment to their culture, to their history, to their families or their traditions. The way to true reconciliation is for everyone to come to Jesus. Because it is only when both sides come to the saving faith in Jesus that there can be true reconciliation for the world's greatest conflicts. Amen. Let us pray. Dear Lord God, thank you, O Lord, that you have given us new life and forgiveness, and you have called us to forgive others. You have given a way for conflicts to be reconciled, for there to be peace, for there to be hope, and you have set apart a new way of living, different from anyone in the world around us. We pray, help us to live in the ways of Christ and to follow after him more fully all our days. We thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name.