Jericho where you by yourself conquered those people for your glory to fulfill your promises so we just asked father that as we look into this text you would teach us and the the way that you would teach us and lead us and guide us would be Christ like love and that we would seek and we would appeal to one another, that we would desire to build up one another to be more like your son Jesus, and to do this from the heart, do this from a transformed heart because of the gospel. We thank you and love you for everything you've given us in your son's name, amen. Well, as you know, we live in a very interesting time. We live at a time where we can publish. So for example, right now we're broadcasting on Facebook Live. I remember when I was in Bible college, if you would have told me that I would have been able to broadcast around the world For almost free, I would have laughed at you and said, there's no way that I would ever be in a situation with the technology to do such a thing. Well, now we have it, right? So there's a lot of great things that technology brings. There are some bad things that happens with technology. As you know, there's a ever-growing cyber bullying. This is different than the type of bullying I was used to as a kid. This stuff is, can be pretty vicious, right? Can be pretty mean. Not only is there cyber bullying, but there also seems to be this sense of, you do something wrong, we're gonna cancel you. You're done. That's it, everything's done. It's really pitiful how the world acts this way, and this shouldn't be how Christians react, especially when there's disagreement, especially when there's, we need to come together. What we're gonna see is a superior way of acting. We're gonna see that we need to come to one another out of love, we need to appeal to one another, and we have this incredible example of Paul in the book of Philemon. Philemon, verse eight, and by God's grace, we'll go to verse 14. We're gonna see Paul as he appeals to Philemon on the basis of three things. So in verses eight through nine, we're going to see that Paul as he appeals to Philemon, the basis from which he approaches Philemon is with love. We're gonna talk about this more. We have to understand everything we do as believers must have Christ-like love. even approaching people, the way that we come to people, the way that we appeal to people. We're gonna see how Paul does this. Second, in verses 10 through 12, we're gonna see that we need to appeal to one another, thus advocating for loved ones. Paul is gonna act as an advocate, and we're gonna talk about this, how he advocates for Onesimus, right, this new believer. Then lastly, Verses 13 through 14, we want to see that an appeal that we have towards one another should anticipate a loving response, right? When we come to people and talk to people in these awkward situations, we need to come with love, we need to come with the hoping the best of the person as I talk to you, I'm hoping the best, I'm believing the best, I'm believing that God can change your heart based off of what is right, right? It's not coming to God or coming to another person by saying, do what I want you to do as I tell you to do it now. That is not how Christians respond in these situations. So let's look at this and let's first look at Paul as he's appealing to Philemon and just notice in verses eight and nine what is said. He says, according 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. So remember, Paul is writing to this dear family, primarily Philemon. Here's Philemon. He is a worker in the church. His son is most likely the pastor. Paul, last week we saw how Paul was so very thankful for the life of Philemon. As he prayed for Philemon, he says, I've heard about your love and I'm so thankful for what the Lord's doing. I'm so thankful for you. I'm so thankful that I can see God's work in your life and I can see that That you're really wanting to encourage believers. That's your ministry. You are about the encouragement of believers. And Paul says in verse 7, I derive much joy from hearing that you are being obedient to Christ and out of love. Out of love, you are comforting and refreshing the souls of the believers. And so in verse 9, or verse 8, excuse me, when he says, accordingly, it's borrowing that idea. So it's assuming that, as Paul's saying, the greatest joy I can have is that you are refreshing the soul of the believers, therefore I'm gonna ask you something in light of what I've heard about you, in light of knowing your heart and your ministry. So based off of your desire to see believers grow and believers be refreshed, your desire for the gospel, your desire for Christ-like love and unity, according to that, right? So verse eight kind of borrows that and takes from those verses above and brings it in. And he says, accordingly, though I am bold enough. Now this word for bold means to, it literally is all speech. That's the Greek word here, all speech. It means to say anything, to say everything. Has the idea, as Paul says here, is boldness. It has the idea of I could say whatever I want, I feel like I have the freedom amongst you, Philemon, I have the freedom to say what I want. I can say what I want, how I want to say it. There's no reservations, right? That's the idea, so it's all speech. And so it's translated bold, which I think is a good translation. So I'm bold enough, but notice what he says, in Christ. Now what does that mean, to be bold in Christ? Now one, no doubt, Paul's thinking of his apostolic authority that was given to him by Jesus. Remember Paul on the road to Damascus, as he was going to kill Christians, what happened? The Lord beamed him with a light, right? And he said, who are you, Lord? And what did Jesus say? Why are you persecuting me? And remember, later on, he was told that he would be a chosen instrument to go throughout the world and preach the gospel. Though we're sinners and we've offended a holy God, God in his great love sent Jesus Christ to come and die on the cross for our sins, be buried and rose again on the third day. And anyone who places their faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ has eternal life, right? That's what Paul is, right? So he's an apostle and this is his message. So with that apostolic authority, the Apostle Paul is the authority. If anyone had the authority to walk into any church and say anything they wanted based off of any authority, it was the apostles. They are the spokesmen. He could easily just write, Philemon, do. And he's right. In Christ, he has that authority. By the way, there are no apostles today. They died out with those men way back when. There are no apostolic authority today. The apostolic authority that we see comes from the scriptures, right? That's the words of the apostles. Now, there's another aspect here. Even though I'm bold enough in Christ, yes, there is the implied authority that he has, but there's something else. There's something else. Because notice, it's bold enough in Christ. So though he does have this authority as an apostle, he also knows Christ. He also knows what Christ demands. He knows love. He knows the will of Christ. So he's also bold enough in Christ. knowing God's will and the principles of love, to even, and from that standpoint, he could easily say, based off of God's will and what is right absolutely, you are obligated to do this. He says, I feel bold enough that I can say this. And notice the next part. He says, though bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required. Now Greg this morning in Colossians, in Sunday school, talked about this word required. We saw this in Colossians chapter 3 where Paul says to all the wives, wives be submissive to your husbands as is fitting to the Lord. That's the same word here. That word fitting and required is the same word. It has this idea of an expectation. There's an expectation of something that's supposed to be accomplished. So Paul is saying, I am bold enough in knowing what Christ says, based off of my authority, to command you what is right according to God's will, according to God's Word. I could come in hard, I could come in heavy. But notice how he appeals, and this is the appeal that you and I as believers need to have. Remember, our appeal needs to be an approach of love. So easy for us to get some sort of Bible verse down or principle down or some authority and say, well, do you know who I am, who's talking to you now? Based off of who I am, listen to me now. Or, do you know what God's word says? Do now. That's not Paul's approach here to Philemon, because notice what he says. Verse nine, yet for love's sake, love for God, love for Philemon, love for the church, love for Onesimus, yet for love's sake, I could do the other, yet out of love, I would prefer to appeal to you. You see that? I could come in heavy and hot and strong and command you and tell you what to do, and you be obedient. But I'm not gonna do that. I wanna appeal to you on the basis of love, the shared love that we have in Christ. I wanna encourage you, Philemon, to do the right thing. See, as believers, you and I, we're not necessarily concerned with actions. I don't care about actions, I want you to do good. And doing good sometimes isn't necessarily, you don't appeal the same way you do if you just want actions. If we could all just do actions, the tone would be different. Do this, do that, you do this. But appealing to someone's heart is appealing to this transformation. It's saying, I want you to want to do this, right? And I want you to want you to do this because you see that this needs to be done. I want you to do this on a voluntary basis. I think the American church has got this one wrong quite a bit, actually. You know how many churches and ministries I've seen where it was basically, do you have a pulse? Well, guess what? We have an opening and you're doing this ministry. Well, I'm not qualified, I don't feel. Doesn't matter. You feed the machine with your blood, son, right? Doesn't matter. Do, do this, do that, fill this. Apostle Paul here's going, I could, I could, I could in Christ, I could tell you, but I want you to do this from your heart, out of love, for the right motivations. And just think of this, if Philemon, and there's evidence to say that Philemon will do this, if Philemon responds to Onesimus correctly, how wonderful is that? How beautiful is that? Here we have, Someone who is transformed by the power of the gospel, yielding to the power of the Spirit, acting out of love because they feel that they need to act out of love. And so the actions that follow are not just, well I have to do this, it's I want to be pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ in all the things that I say and do. That's Paul's desire, he wants the right response. He's not necessarily concerned with the action, he's concerned with the heart. Now, Paul then says, he kinda uses these parentheses here, it's kind of interesting. In the Greek, it's a little choppy, but we understand it well enough. He says, I, Paul, an old man, and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus. I'll be honest, on Wednesday I admitted to the prayer group, pray for me, I have to translate this phrase old man. And they laughed, thinking old man is an easy word in the Greek. And it normally is, but there is a massive debate on whether this word should be translated old man. Some of your translations may use the word ambassador. Now, I don't want to Hellenize you this morning and go into things that really don't matter. But let me just say this. It would seem strange for Paul to say, I'm not going to appeal to you on the basis of authority, so I as an ambassador am appealing to you. That would seem strange. It would seem counterintuitive to the debate. Rather, I think the phrase here is old man. It's the same word that's used. Titus chapter two, when Paul says to Titus, I want you to command older men. So this word, old man, so anyone over the age of 50, sorry, you're an old man. We don't know exactly how old Paul is, but that's the word, that's the frame. If you're 50, you're an old man. So why would Paul now use the word old man? I think Paul's using this to say, look, I'm coming to you as a believer, not one that's new to the faith, not one that hasn't lived. I've lived, you know me, you know my reputation. I've been around, okay, but I'm just a brother. I'm appealing to you not as the apostle Paul, but as, you know, the old friend, as the old one, the old friend. And notice what else he says. Also, and now a prisoner for Christ Jesus. There's this important thing that Paul does. He doesn't emphasize his authority, he emphasizes his humanity, he emphasizes that he is now in prison as an old man, for the sake of Jesus Christ. So that Philemon looks at this one and goes, yeah, he's not trying to command me or he's not trying to throw around his accolades. Here is my brother in the Lord Jesus Christ who's been arrested for the service of sharing the gospel and as a servant of Jesus Christ. Here's an old servant of Jesus Christ. That's what Paul's doing. He's coming not from the sense of authority but from the sense of love. That's how we should talk to one another. I shouldn't come and talk to you on the basis of, look, I'm the pastor, therefore do what pastor says. None of the leadership of the church should do that. You shouldn't do that to others. Start pulling rank on people, saying, you know what rank I am, you know who I am, you know the stuff I've done, now do this. The approach that we should have as believers is, I'm a fellow brother, sister in the Lord Jesus Christ. And out of love for you and what is right and to honor and glorify Jesus Christ, will you consider doing this to honor Jesus? That's the spirit. That's the spirit that Paul has here. Now notice, there's more. Notice the next thing in verses 10 through 12. Paul is now advocating for someone. So he's appealing for someone. He's appealing for Onesimus. This is beautiful, this phraseology that Paul uses here. So notice in verse 10, he says, I appeal to you. By the way, the word appeal is used twice. So it's used in verse nine, and then it's used in verse 10. Why does he say the word appeal twice? Same word, same tense? Because Paul wants Philemon to know this is not a command. I am not commanding you. I'm encouraging you to do what is right. I'm coming to you as a brother. I want you to do what's right. So this is all an appeal, right? Please, brother, please consider this. And he says, I appeal to you for my child, Anisimus. Now this phrase, child, means a strong bond, has the idea of mentorship, of discipleship. Notice the next phrase, it says, whose father I became in prison. He says, I fathered him in prison. This doesn't mean that Paul is actually Onesimus' biological father. That would seem strange. This refers to a spiritual connection and most likely what this refers to is that somehow Onesimus came to Paul in Rome while Paul was in prison. We don't know. And Paul shared the gospel with Onesimus. Onesimus, based upon the work of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, received the gospel and is now a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the apostle Paul worked with him for some time And there seems to be this close bond that he has with this one, because he led him to the Lord, right? There's this deep, deep relationship. The Apostle Paul doesn't throw around the phrase, my child, willy nilly. He's not trying to just butter up Philemon by using these flowery language. No, this demonstrates a serious connection. Paul uses the same phrase for Titus, he uses it for Timothy, he uses it for the church in Thessalonica, right? These dear churches and brothers and sisters that he's had the opportunity to teach and lead to the Lord and help in their life with Christ, he calls him child. He says, I fathered him in my imprisonment. There's this close bond. By the way, it's interesting, the word anisimus, it means useful. That's what the word means, useful one. It's also interesting too that this was a common slave name, right? So a lot of slaves had this name. That's just interesting. You get a slave, what should we call him? Anisimus, useful guy, the useful one. You know, the guy that does stuff. But what's interesting is that meaning of that name and then what Paul says next. I think Paul is kind of doing an interesting play on words here and kind of using an imagery, because notice what he says. He says in verse 11, with the context of I've led him to the Lord, formerly he was useless to you. So here's one called useful, who was at one time useless to you. What does that mean? Means he probably wasn't a very good slave, right? Means he probably wasn't a very good servant. Means he probably was stealing. Means he probably was doing whatever he did. Obviously he's a runaway slave. That demonstrates how useless he was for Philemon. But notice what Paul says. We don't wanna focus on that right right now. But notice what he says. He says, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me. So now he's living up to his namesake, right? Now he's useful. What makes Onesimus useful? What makes him useful to Paul? What makes him useful now to Philemon? He just learned how to be obedient? Is that really what we're led to believe, that this is just simply just some domestic affair? No, no, no, no, no, no. Philemon's now a brother in the Lord Jesus Christ to these saints, and as a brother, He now is faithful. As a brother, he's now someone that can encourage and do ministry. So he is now useful, right? He's now one who is useful for these things. He's useful for edifying the church. By the way, just notice how Paul's advocating for him, right? You know this guy, Onesimus? That one that was useless? He's now useful. I led him to the Lord. I couldn't help but think of the Apostle Paul. Remember, he was on the road to Damascus, got hit by the light, remember? And he said, Jesus said, who's now persecuting, who persecutes me and why are you persecuting me, Paul? And Paul then comes to know the Lord. Imagine you're in a church service and the Apostle Paul walks in and you go, what's he doing here? Don't want the great persecutor in my church. And then he says, don't worry, I'm a believer. I think a lot of us would be rather concerned, wouldn't we? Like, this is a new ploy. What did it take in the life of Paul to kind of get his standing within the church? It took somebody advocating for him. It took Barnabas, right? Barnabas was the one that kind of went and advocated and said, no, he's serious, he's a believer. Same thing would have happened, right? Imagine you're Philemon, you're doing whatever Philemon does on a normal day, and all of a sudden you hear Tychicus is coming, and you won't guess who's coming with him, and you come to the door and you see Tychicus, the great brother, and then out behind Tychicus comes who? Onesimus, the runaway slave. And you could almost imagine the scene where Tychicus says, no, before you say anything, read this. We got some things we gotta talk about, right? There's this advocate, there's these advocates for Onesimus. Here's this runaway slave, now he's coming back. He was useless, now he's useful. It's demonstrating, look, I'm serious about the character of this one. Notice what else he says in verse 11, or verse 12, excuse me. He says, I am sending him back to you. I'm sending my very heart The Apostle Paul loved Onesimus. He really loved this man. There was a deep bond. But he says, I'm sending him back. We're kind of reading between the lines here, but it's likely that the Apostle Paul could easily, as the apostle, say to Philemon, write him a letter going, hey, I led Onesimus to the Lord, I'm keeping him. He's mine now. He works for me, and as the apostle, I'm telling you to give him to me. That's not what he's doing here, though, right? He's appealing on behalf of Onesimus. The Apostle Paul had a, you could just hear the struggle, right? I'm sending you my very heart. Literally, it's a piece of my kidney. I'm sending you a piece of my kidney, right? I'm giving you a piece of my intestines here, buddy. That's how deep, right? He's like a part of me. But I'm sending him back. There's this great struggle. What would precipitate Paul sending Onesimus back? One, we could say, well, it's probably Roman law. If anyone was found having a runaway slave working for them, guess what? You got hit with theft charges. So there's probably weighing in on Paul's mind. But that's not the complete picture, right? That's not, I don't think that's the determining factor of why the Apostle Paul does what the Apostle Paul does. We'll see what the determining factor is. What I want to look at is this idea of advocating for people. I'm sure that we've all met those people who at one time were pretty useless. And the Lord got a hold of their heart. And we know that when they try to get back into situations, how sometimes we Christians, rightly so, think back to some of the things that they did before and go, well, I can't fully trust this person because of some of the stuff that they've done in the past. How important an advocate is for somebody who's been walking with this person, says, I can vouch for their good character. I can vouch for the things, I can vouch for the changed life, Doesn't mean that you let Onesimus be the treasurer of the church in Colossae, but it does mean that you look at him saying, here's one who has repented. Here's one who's been changed by the power of the gospel. Friends, as believers, we must be about grace. We have been saved by God's grace. We at one time were terrible, rotten sinners with no hope in this world, and God saved us. And as we deal with people, yeah, at one time they did things that we used to do. Okay, that just makes us common. What should be the driving factor? Christ-like love, forgiveness, and grace. Right? Let's just go to 1 Corinthians 13. We're gonna go back here quite a bit in this book, but it's important to look at this, 1 Corinthians 13. Here's this church, remember, in Corinth, this church that's really arrogant, this church that... They love themselves way too much, and because they love themselves way too much, they forget about Jesus. They don't properly love Jesus. They don't properly love each other. And so, as Paul's talking about their worship service, he says the most important thing that needs to be there is this Christ-like love. And here he now describes this Christ-like love in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4. And notice he says, love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Just think of that. Think about Jesus in each of those, right? Is Jesus patient? Of course he is. He puts up with us. I live with us. Yeah, it's hard to be patient with us. Jesus is patient. He is very patient. You want to know one of the other ways I know he's patient? He puts up with me. I live with me 24-7. Sometimes I'm impatient with me. Jesus is patient. He's kind, right? It's possible for somebody to be patient, but say things in a passive aggressive way with a little bit of a bite. It's kindness, right? It doesn't insist on its own way. But notice in verse seven. It says, it bears all things, it believes all things, and it hopes all things. So in that section, where it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, it doesn't mean that love is gullible. But what it does mean is that love believes the best in a person, gives a person a benefit of the doubt. It means I believe that God can work on this person's heart. Right? And it also means if things get a little awkward and a little messy, I'm not jumping out of the foxhole just because things are awkward and difficult. It means I'm still here. I'm still around. Right? Now, each situation looks a little bit different on what this I'm still around looks like. But that's the heart of love. And that's what Paul has for Onesimus. That's what he's calling for Philemon. Now let's go back and let's look at Paul's Christ-like love as we look at this last one. So first we see in the first two verses that when we appeal to one another to do what's right, it's on the basis of love. Next, verses 10 through 12, when we appeal to one another, we advocate for those whom we love, right? Those whom Christ loves. We advocate for one another and say, I can vouch for this person and this person has repented. Now notice that it anticipates a loving response. Notice, notice verse 13. Paul says, I would have been glad to keep him with me. Yeah, yeah. He was a great help to me. I love this man. I've worked with this man. We've formed a really deep friendship. I would have loved to have him stay here. And notice it says, I would love to have him stay with me in order that he might serve me. It's an interesting word, serve here. It has the idea of minister. The question is, what kind of ministry could Onesimus offer the apostle Paul? Lots of things. We could see the Apostle Paul and the way that he's acting in a Roman prison. There's probably lots of errands that Onesimus could have done. There's a lot of things that Onesimus could have done on behalf of the Apostle Paul. In a sense, it's he could have helped in the ministry, right? He could have helped in the gospel ministry. And I felt a strong desire, and as an apostle, I could have claimed him. He's mine. I could have called you and said, the apostle, Onesimus is one who's called into the ministry. Your claim over him is done. But I'm not, out of love. Out of love. And I'm hoping you're gonna do the right thing, Philemon. could have served me, and then notice, he could have served me on your behalf. The idea is he would have served by your good graces, and we would have always talked fondly of you, Philemon. He would have served me and the gospel and the church vicariously through you. And notice that he once again says, during my imprisonment for the gospel, I don't think the Apostle Paul is saying, remember, I'm in prison. Remember, I'm in prison. Remember, I think it's realize that I'm about the gospel. I'm about the gospel message. That's why I'm in prison. All I care about is the gospel and people growing in Christ. But notice what he says in verse 14. He says, but I prefer to do nothing without your consent. I can't. Technically, legally, morally, in Christ, I could command you, but I want you to want it. I want you to do the right thing, Philemon. I want you to do the right thing with Onesimus. And then notice, here's the important part. In order that your goodness, you see that? In order that your goodness, this implies that the Apostle Paul assumes that Philemon is going to do the right thing. That's automatically the implication, right? That your goodness, and notice that that's what he wants. He wants that goodness, that righteousness, that right, That right action, that proper response of a believer who's yielding to the power of the Spirit. That's what good is here. He's not wanting an action, he wants goodness. That's really important to remember. We're not about actions, we're about goodness. Goodness is far better than actions. We could all get each other to do lots of actions that look good. Don't want it. I want goodness, right, from a heart. to do what's right. So in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion, literally by force, I'm not gonna push you to do it, but of your own accord. Some phrases put free will, I think voluntarily is probably the best thing. You do this voluntarily. So notice that he's assuming Philemon's gonna do the right thing. He says, look, I want you to want this, man. Once again, how many times have you done something inside of the church or in any part of life, and the reason you did it wasn't because you wanted to do it, but it was because somebody forced your hand to do it? How enjoyable was that experience? Wasn't very fun, was it? How many of you go, well, I'll sign up to do that again. Man, I enjoy being forced to do something I don't want to do. Please, again, sir, another one. Be careful how we talk to one another. You do realize that it's possible for any one of us to manipulate, force, pull rank on, and say, do this, because I think you should do it. Not, I want you to want to do what is good. Now, you might say, well, what happens if I say, I want you to do what's good, and they don't do what's good? The thing doesn't get done, doesn't matter. The important thing is, is that people are living for Jesus. And the important thing is, is that believers are doing what is right because they are convinced in their own mind that it is right. I went to Bible school with plenty of kids, but they were sent there by mama, not by Jesus. Mama wanted their darling baby boy to be pastor. That was a disaster. It was bad. It was bad. It was bad. It ended in disaster. They didn't want to be there. They made the whole experience bad. Then when they got into ministry, it was bad and they ended up flaming out. You see the Apostle Paul? You see the wisdom here? You see the love? You see how he talks and advises? I love you and I wanna encourage you to do what's right and I want you to want to do what's right so that you can honor and glorify Jesus Christ. In fact, I'm even expecting you to do what's right. That should be our desire for one another. That should be how we talk to one another. That's how we should deal with one another. We should appeal to one another instead of commanding. Our greatest joy should be when each of us are honoring and glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ from a pure heart and a clean conscience. So, may the Lord give us both the will and the ability to do all that we heard today. Let's go ahead and let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this example of the Apostle Paul, who follows the example of Jesus, who wants a good, changed heart that's transformed from the inside out. Father, we ask that we would love one another, that we would love one another as Christ has loved us, and that we would look at one another not as ends to a means, but rather as brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ and that we're seeking to honor and glorify you and that our greatest joy would be when they follow you and they do the things that are right. We just thank you for this opportunity. We thank you for all the things that you've blessed us with today. We thank you in your son's name, amen. So now I'm gonna compel the musicians.