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Philemon, one of Paul's "prison epistles. " It is the story of Onesimus, a runaway slave of Philemon, a wealthy Christian in Colossae. Despite the odds, Onesimus encountered Paul in Rome and became a Christian. Paul writes to Philemon, pleading for him to forgive Onesimus and welcome him back, not as a slave but as a brother in Christ. It highlights the redemptive power of Christ to transform lives, even in unlikely circumstances.
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Philemon, one of Paul's "prison epistles. " It is the story of Onesimus, a runaway slave of Philemon, a wealthy Christian in Colossae. Despite the odds, Onesimus encountered Paul in Rome and became a Christian. Paul writes to Philemon, pleading for him to forgive Onesimus and welcome him back, not as a slave but as a brother in Christ. It highlights the redemptive power of Christ to transform lives, even in unlikely circumstances.
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Good morning. How are you all today? Good. Well, I'm happy to have my bride with me. It's good to have Barbara with us today. We thank you for all your prayers and thoughts. We appreciate it. We're grateful for all of you who remembered us. Both she and I have had a little bit of anxiety the last three or four weeks, but God is good and God is healing, and we are grateful for his healing. Okay, you are looking at the last of what we call the prison epistles. Now, you know Paul was in prison twice. He was in house arrest in 62 through 64, and later on, after a probably missionary journey to Spain that we don't know about other than from the last chapter of the book of Romans, where he talks to the Roman people about thinking about a missionary endeavor to the nation of Spain. He does leave Rome after his house arrest and goes off for a couple of years, from about 64 to 66, and then comes back and is arrested by the Caesar, Nero, and this time he is not in house arrest. This time, for the 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus books, he will be in the dungeon. So he will be in the dungeon in Rome for the last three books. So Philemon is the last of what we call the prison epistles, written from house arrest and from the city of Rome. Philemon is an interesting letter. It is totally different from all of the other letters that the Apostle Paul wrote to the churches. This letter was not written to a church like to Colossae or to Rome, nor was it written to a person like Timothy or Titus. It was written to one of his ministers, one of his sons in the ministry, but it was written to a person. In a church that evidently, one time or other, this particular person by the name of Philemon was associated with the Apostle Paul in an evangelistic endeavor. And the evangelistic endeavor was the redemption of himself. Now Philemon lives in the city of Colossae, and we just finished the study of the book to Colossae, to the Colossians, and this particular city, as you all well know, was located about a hundred miles from Ephesus. And what this book is going to do is, it's going to move away from the doctrinal activities of all of Paul's other books, and it's going to move into a situation where you and I are going to be able to look into a first century church and see how a first century church was operating, see how a first century church was founded, and see what a first century church was doing in the light of the gospel of the Lord Christ, and see how they were ministering and how out of this first century church and all of the transforming activities of the Holy Spirit in it, out of this transforming ministry in this church, several ministers came. In fact, three of Paul's favorite helpers came out of the church at Colossae. And you remember Epaphitis, and you remember Tychicus, and you also remember Ecclesia. And each of these men came out of the church at Colossae, and they became ministers and preachers of the gospel as well. Now, it just so happened that this was going on in about AD 62-64, which is the same time that Paul was in house arrest in the city of Rome. And actually, the theme of this book is an interesting verse, verse 11 in the book of Philemon. And the Apostle Paul says in verse 11, And now, he is useful to me and to you. And basically, that is the theme of the book of Philemon. Because going along, we're going to be introduced to a person who was a slave, who was a bond slave, who was under the master, Philemon, in the city of Colossae, and this particular slave's name was Onesimus. And it's kind of interesting, what happened was that Philemon was a very wealthy Christian man in the city of Colossae. Now, you remember in our discussions of the book of Colossians, that Colossae at one time was the capital of an area in Asia Minor. But after the Roman Empire took over, the Roman Empire was the world's greatest road builders. They built more linear miles than any other nation except the United States of America, who in 1990 exceeded the linear miles of roads of the Roman Empire. And it took us until 1990 to do that. From the first century to 1990, to exceed the number of linear miles that the Roman Empire built. They were great road builders. And in the process of doing this, they redirected the road that had come through Colossae, which at one time was the capital of that area of Asia Minor, and they moved it up about 8 to 10 miles to a city called Laodicea. And Laodicea then became the capital of this Roman province, and as you would know, the little city of Colossae was off the beaten path. And when you get a city off the beaten path, and you're not on the main road, guess what happens to the city? It begins to decline. And so this city of Colossae was in decline when the Apostle Paul was writing this letter because Laodicea, which later on, by the way, you know from the study of the book of Romans, became one of the seven churches of the Apocalypse. Laodicea became the capital, became the major city between the eastern beginning of the road to Rome and the eastern beginning of the road going to Ephesus, and right in the middle of the two, about 100, 116 kilometers from Ephesus, was this little city of Colossae. That's where Philemon lived, and he lived in this city of Colossae, and it just so happened that he had this slave by the name of Onesimus. We don't know what happened. We don't know what kind of slave Onesimus was, and as Brother Jimmy pointed out a couple of weeks ago in his lesson discussing slavery, it was not anything like slavery that we know of in the United States. It's nothing like the slavery that we knew of. These were people who had probably been captured out of other nations, and they were brought into the Roman Empire, and in order to regain whatever they had lost, they began to sell them into indentured slavery, and the indentured slavery was actually not a very bad situation to be in if you had a helpful master. On the other hand, if you didn't have a helpful master, it could be a real bad problem, but a lot of these slaves were very knowledgeable people. They were very intellectual people. Many of them had great business sense. Many of them had been leaders in the nations from which they came, and now they found themselves sold to somebody, and they are an indentured slave, a bond slave to these particular people, and it just so happened that this man Onesimus was one of those, and he had been sold to Philemon, and Philemon had taken him into the house, and Onesimus was serving as his slave, but Onesimus evidently was not happy with the situation, so he escaped, and he left Philemon. He left the city of Colossae, and this is kind of interesting to begin to understand what kind of intellect he had and what kind of mindset he had. Here's a man who is way over in the middle of Asia Minor. He's a slave. He doesn't have papers. He can't prove anything about himself, and yet he escapes from his master in Colossae and somehow probably took money with him in order that he might be able to pay his way across to where he wanted to go. In fact, later on in the book, the Apostle Paul will hint that probably when Onesimus left, he took either money or property, and some of the slaves could have been attached to some of the property, and he may have sold the property to get the money to make his trip out of the area so that he could get into a city where he would be less likely detected. And now watch what's going on. He is in the continent of Asia Minor, and Rome is in the continent of Europe, and there's a vast difference of mileage between Colossae and Rome, and yet here is this man, intelligent enough, wherewithal enough, with money enough, able to, without papers, and that's the interesting part, because slaves never had any papers. They didn't have any social security numbers. They didn't have any driver's license. They had no way to identify themselves, and yet here he was, and he made his way all the way from Colossae, which meant that he had to take a couple of ships in order to get to where he got, but he was intelligent enough. He could talk well enough that he could pay his way to get to where he wanted to go, and he ended up in the city of Rome. Now, when Paul got to the city of Rome in about 62 A.D., the city of Rome had about 2.75 million people in the city. Some people said that it had probably 300 million people in the city, and others talked about as many as 400 million in 64. It was the largest city known in the world, and it was there that Onesimus made his way, knowing that if he could get in all of this crowd, he could probably stay undetected, and being undetected, they would not capture him again, and either one begin to persecute him or send him back to his master. So now you have Onesimus in the city of Rome with over 300 million people. Now, my grandson, Ryan, is working on a master's degree at LSU in analytics, so I called him as I was preparing this lesson to see some things. I wanted to know some parameters. I said, Ryan, if you had a man that went to a city like the city of Rome, and he said, well, Papas, I've got all the information on all these cities, so you don't have to tell me what the population is. I know what it is. I said, here's what I want to know. If a man went to the city of Rome in 64 A.D., and the population of Rome was about 300 million, what would be the possibility of that one man meeting another person that he would be very much involved with in the rest of his life? What would be the possibilities? What would be the chance of that man meeting another man? In a city of 300 million people, what would be the percentage? He did a bunch of stuff. He said, I'll call you back. So in a few minutes he called me back. He said, Papas, it would be one to three quadrillion actions. Three quadrillion. A quadrillion has 12 zeros. A thousand has three. A million has six. A trillion has nine. A quadrillion has 12. Okay? So a quadrillion, he said it would have been one in three quadrillion possibilities that they would have met that particular person. I said, okay, let me take you one step further. What would the possibility of this man meeting this man in Rome, and this man in Rome had a good friend who lived in Asia, and this man that lived in Asia, although not knowing about it to themselves, they will find out, but at this point not knowing about it, do not know that both of them know the man who made his way, Onesimus, to Rome. What would be the possibility of Onesimus in Rome getting in touch with a man in Rome who had a dear friend who lived in Asia Minor who likewise knew and had Onesimus? What would be the possibility of those two guys knowing the same slave, knowing each other, and being able to get in contact? He said, you're not ready for this one. I said, what? He said, because you see, in the world at that particular time, the population of the world was somewhere around 300 million people. 300 million people. 300 millions. And he said, if you put all that population on the 2.3 million in Rome, and you put all the 300 million on top of that, he said the possibility of him knowing this man and the other man in Asia knowing that man at the same time, the possibility of that is 1 in 10 septillion. That's 24 zeros. Now, the reason I shared that with you, I want you to see God's sovereignty. How could God pick up Onesimus, in a strange way, get him introduced to the Apostle Paul, whose very dear friend was a guy who lived in Colossae, in Asia Minor, whose name was Silemon, from whom this man, Onesimus, that he just met, and now bringing him into faith, and into Christ, and into the Lord, just now getting Onesimus as a believer and a brother, what are the chances that these two men would meet the same sleight in the city of Rome, separate apart in two different continents? 1 in 3 septillion chances that they would meet. Look at the sovereignty of God. God intended for them to meet, God intended for Paul to get to know Onesimus, and by the way, Paul really appreciated and loved Onesimus. For after he was saved, he began to work with the Apostle Paul, and the letter will show it, he began to work with the Apostle Paul, and Paul found out his background, and Paul found out that he had been with Silemon. Would that not be a shock? To know that he had been with a man all the way over in Asia Minor, and now he's with me, and we two know each other, and we are dear brothers in the Lord, and now he and I, Onesimus and I, are dear brothers in the Lord. And he had become a great appreciator of the Gospel, a redeemed believer, evidently serving Paul and helping Paul, since Paul was so incapacitated, in house arrest, he couldn't get out, couldn't go anywhere, and so Onesimus evidently began to do a lot for the Apostle Paul, to such an extent that the Apostle Paul really wanted to keep him. But as he began to understand the story of Silemon's relationship to Onesimus, he began to realize that he could not keep another man's slave, that was not the way it was done. Number two, this man was a felon, he was a criminal, evidently in order to get from Colossae to Rome, he had to get some money somehow, so either he had to steal some money or he had to steal some property, so evidently he was a criminal, and evidently he was under indictment because they were searching for Onesimus, they would have liked to have found him and brought him back to Silemon, and now all of a sudden Paul has this gentleman who has all of that garbage behind him, Paul loves him because the man has become a dynamic Christian in the kingdom of God and Paul knows it and Paul wants to keep him, but Paul's heart knows he can't, he knows he can't keep Onesimus, and so that's what the letter is about. The letter is about Paul writing to his friend, Silemon, who had been the owner of this indentured slave, bond slave, Onesimus, from whom he escaped, and now under the providence and sovereignty of God, he brought them together in an ungodly set of circumstances. Who could have ever believed it? One to three septillion possibilities that they would have met, those two guys with Onesimus. And so the letter begins, typically, Pauline. Verse 1 it says, Paul, a prisoner of the Lord, and by the way the word prisoner here means, I am in bonds, I am not in jail. Okay? And there are different words for prisoner, and this one identifies that he is in house arrest, he is not in a jail, he is not in a dungeon, and later on he will be in Caesar's area, but he is not in jail here. He says, I am a prisoner, I'm a prisoner in bonds, I do have chains on, I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy, my son is with me, and this letter is going to go to Philemon, my beloved friend and fellow laborer. And then he says this to them, It's also going to go to your probably sweet wife, Appia, and Archippus, who may have been Philemon's son, if not a son, a very prominent member of the church in Colossae. And so he says, and who is also my fellow soldier, so evidently this man, if he were Philemon's son, or if he was a very prominent man, he too was a very strong Christian, and he says, and to all of the children who are in your house. Now, the interesting thing is, can I use a spiritual supposition for just a moment? Could it be that when Paul was pastor of the church in Ephesus, and doing preaching all around, and other people hearing about this church in Ephesus, that was growing to such an extent that he was putting the idolatrous figure makers out of business, he was putting the silversmiths out of business, and when you start putting the silversmiths out of business of making idols, you are really having a great growth, and evidently, maybe Philemon heard about this, something going on in Ephesus, this kind of a thing they're calling a church, and this man is getting hundreds of thousands of people saved, maybe Philemon went over there, maybe he heard Paul preach in Ephesus, or maybe Paul was on one of his missionary skirts out from the city of Ephesus, and maybe during one of those missionary travels, Philemon heard Paul, we don't know when Philemon heard Paul preach, but we do know that when he did hear him preach, he was gloriously saved, he went back to the city of Colossae, he started a house church, he started a church in his house, and that's what the Apostle Paul is making reference to, he's making reference to all of these people, Philemon, perhaps his wife, perhaps his son, and or another great businessman, and he finally says, and to all of the people who are attending church in your house, and so Philemon had first established church of Colossae, and he had that church in his house, and then he says his basic introductory greeting, grace and peace, grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, grace Charisse, from which we get the beautiful name for our lady, Clarisse, and peace, Irene, from which we get the beautiful words and name of a lady, Irene, Irene means peace, there's another word that attaches itself to Irene, have you ever heard of, when it talks about being at peace with each other, serene, what happens when a person is serene, it comes out of this word Elrene, and it comes out of the woman's name, Irene, and so these two words were names that were later on put into names, Charisse, Clarisse, and Irene, Irene, peace, grace and peace, and then the Apostle Paul says, I want to thank you, that I have the privilege, of praying for you, at all times, and I also, have the privilege of these three, who have come out of your church, and he begins to talk about Aristarchus, and he starts talking about Achippas, and he starts talking about Tixas, he says, I am grateful that these who have come out of your church, have told me about your love, and your faith, that you have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints, and I'm so grateful that your faith is still in the process of being shared, and I know that every good thing which is in you, is in Christ Jesus, for we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed, by you, my brother, now, this, a greeting, the Apostle Paul, is telling Philemon, what a great job, he's been doing, now, there's an interesting possibility, that happens here, there was a president, whose name, was Teddy Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt had a definitive statement, that he talked about, a lot, and in Teddy Roosevelt's administration, many times he would say this phrase, which was one of his favorite phrases, speak softly, but carry a big stick, speak softly, but always, have in the background, a big stick, and that was Teddy Roosevelt's philosophy, and as he led the charge up San Juan Hill, that was his philosophy, and as he led for the actual capture, of what we now call that little island out in the Caribbean, he led him, into that San Juan Hill, in Puerto Rico, and so Teddy Roosevelt had this, speak softly, carry a big stick, now, beginning with verse 8, Paul, can do one of two things, with Philemon, he can speak softly, gently, with, specific knowledge, and help Philemon understand, but if, he needs to, he can also use, a verbal, big stick, and so, from this point on, we're going to see, what Paul is getting ready to tell Philemon, and the fact that he's going to introduce, that he knows, Onesimus, and that Philemon's, Onesimus, was his runaway slave, and that Onesimus has been with him, in Rome, and he's going to tell Philemon, that Onesimus, has been gloriously saved, he is no longer, a bond slave, of you Philemon, he is now a bond slave, of Jesus Christ, and he is no longer, an outcast, and he is no longer useless to you, he is now very useful, to you and to me, and he's going to say that in verse 11, and so beginning in verse 8, Paul begins to tell Philemon, the purpose of this letter, he says, therefore, though I might be very bold, okay, what does that tell you, he has in the back, a big stick, okay, now Paul's letting Philemon know, if I need to apply the stick, I can, I'd rather not, I'd rather you do it, because of your own relationship, to the Lord Christ, but, I want you to know Philemon, I might be bold in Christ, to command you, what is fitting, you see that word, Philemon, I have a big stick, I can command you to do it, because I am your father in the ministry, I am your father in the kingdom, I am your father in the Lord, I am the one who brought you to Christ, I am the one who introduced you to our Savior, I am the one who helped you get into the kingdom of God, you owe me Philemon, and I want you to know, I can command you, however, I would rather not be bold, and he says in verse 9, because of love's sake, I don't want to use the stick, I don't want to use the stick, because of love's sake, but I would rather, appeal to you, now, I love reading the words of the Apostle Paul, he is so sneaky, now, he just got through telling Philemon, I'm going to appeal to you, but I want to read this next verse, and I want you to see how this next verse sounds, I, I rather appeal to you, I as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, appeal to you for my son Onesimus, I have begotten, while in my chains, he's saying, Philemon, I'm going to appeal, to your, beloved, redemptive, higher, nature, I'm going to use, soft words, I'm going to use an appeal, I could use a stick, I could command you, but I want to appeal, to your higher nature, I want you to know, what's happened, and so he says, now this man, that I'm talking about, was once useless, to you, but now in verse 11 he says, once he was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable, to you, and to me, now what did I tell you Onesimus had been doing with Rome, what did I tell you he'd been doing with Paul in Rome, he'd been serving Paul, he'd been helping Paul, he'd been ministering with Paul, he'd go out where Paul could not go out, he did things for the Apostle Paul, he was a great helper of the Apostle Paul, he said I want you to know, when this man came to me he was useless, like he was when he came to you, but I want you to know, in the midst of his uselessness, the eternal God of all creation, through Jesus Christ came into his life, and he has redeemed him, by the power of his redemptive cross in his blood, and he is now a beloved brother, no longer a bond slave to you, but like you and me, he is a bond slave to Jesus Christ, he was once useless, but now he is very useful to you and to me, and so the Apostle Paul goes on to say, I'm sending him back to you, now he doesn't have to explain to Philemon what I explained to you, he doesn't have to remind Philemon that this is a criminal, that he's on the run, that he should be caught and put in jail, that he ought to be beaten halfway to death, he doesn't have to say that to Philemon, Philemon knows all that, he knows what happens when a slave comes back, he says I'm sending him back to you, therefore, now watch what Paul does, receive him, that is receiving as you would receive my own heart, that's a tough word folks, I'm sending him back, you therefore receive him, that is my own heart, when you get him back, it's like you're getting me Philemon, because in the next verse he says, whom I wish to keep with me, so Philemon I could have kept him here long, but I know, and you know, it was wrong, because of his background, and his criminality, and his activities, it's wrong for me to keep him, although he has become a believer in Christ, it's still wrong for me to keep him, I could have kept him, and wish to have kept him, that on your behalf, he might minister to me, and my chains, and to the gospel, I want you to know Philemon, I could have kept him, but I'm not going to command you, but I'm going to appeal, and so he says in verse 14, but without your consent, I wanted to do nothing, he said, unless I had heard from you, that I could keep him, and he could stay with me, you know I would have done nothing, that would have been against the law, and you know Philemon, I'm not going against the law, I would have done nothing, without your consent, that your good deed, might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary, what is the apostle Paul, moving into the heart of Philemon, he's saying, I can use the big stick, I can command you, however Philemon, knowing our relationship, with the Lord Jesus Christ, I would much more, better appeal, so I'm going to appeal, to your higher Christian nature, and I'm going to appeal to you, for without your consent, I would have done nothing, that your good deed, might not be, by power, pushing, and strength, but that your good deed, would be out of your great heart, I wanted it to be, from you, I wanted you, to evaluate, this situation, and as a Christian brother, and likewise, a bond slave to Jesus Christ, I want you, not to do something out of compulsion, but I want you to do it, out of a heart of love, folks that's a tough letter, and you can imagine how Philemon, must be feeling about this time, because here's one of his dearest friends, the Apostle Paul, whom he has had in his home, whom he has probably, supported his ministry, with thousands and millions of dollars, he was one of Paul's greatest supporters, he supported Paul's ministry, more than anyone else, and yet here Paul is saying to him, now I don't want you to do this, because I got a big stick, I want you to do it, out of a heart, of volunteer, and so he goes on to say, it could be Philemon, now watch this verse, this verse is why I went back, and picked up the, one to three septillion, this verse is why I went back, and picked up the one, to four quadrillion, watch what Paul says, for perhaps, he departed, for a while, for this purpose, isn't that interesting, Paul is telling Philemon, Philemon, would you look, at the sovereignty, of God, would you look how God, has worked in this man's life, and how he's worked, in your life, would you look at how God, took this prisoner, a felon, allowed him to get all the way, from Asia Minor to Rome, without being arrested again, and allowed to get into, a congregation, a population of people, where he could hide forever, and by sheer chance, he ran into me, and I had an opportunity, to share the gospel, and because I had an opportunity, to share the gospel, he was saved, and now a bond slave, of Jesus Christ, no longer an indentured servant, to you, see that's what, Paul's telling Philemon right here, he says because you see, this might have been, the purpose, why God let him escape, why God, well it's not why, we know what the purpose was don't we, it was the exact purpose, God let Onesimus get to Rome, God Onesimus meet Paul, Paul knew Philemon, and their relationship was such, they both loved this man Onesimus, and he realized they were all bond slaves, in Jesus Christ, so now I don't know, and the book doesn't say, we don't know if Paul, was asking Philemon, for total emancipation, of Onesimus, we don't know that, we do know, that Paul is asking Onesimus, to receive this man, asking Philemon, to receive this man Onesimus, back again, not as an indentured slave, but as a bond slave of Jesus Christ, and a brother in the Lord, for which he will go on to say, he is no longer a slave in verse 16, but more than a slave, he is my beloved brother, that's like putting your fist together, and punching it right in the nose, he's my beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh, because you bought him, and in the Lord, because he saved him, how much more benefit is he now, whereas at 11 he was useless, and now to both of us, he is useful, and so he says, if then you count me as a brother, receive him, as you would me, watch out, the stick is coming out, and although it will be a fluffy stick, it won't be a hard rock, when he uses it, Paul's getting ready, to use his stick, so he says, then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me, and if he has wronged you, which he knows he did, and if he owes you anything, which he knows he does, if he's wronged you, and he owes you anything, I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand, that makes it authentic, that makes it accurate, that makes it a promise in writing, it's like writing a check, Paul said, does it, if he's wronged you, if he owes you anything, I, Paul, will give it back to you, and I'm going to make that promise in writing, now ladies and gentlemen, when you put something in writing, you better watch out, because it will come back and bite you, and the Apostle Paul knows that, and the Apostle Paul wants Philemon to understand, if there's anything, that is necessarily lacking, financially, monetarily, land wise, any way you need it, Philemon, I, with my own hand, am writing this, which means this is authentic, I, with my own hand, am writing this, I will repay you, not to mention to you that you owe me, there comes the soft stick, isn't he sneaky, he really is, he's saying, not, I want you to know, Philemon, it's not that you owe me, but even you owe your own self, to do right, besides, and so Paul takes his fluffy stick, and he kind of pops him with a little bit, he says, I want you to know, I'll pay it back, I'm writing that in my hand, I'm giving it to you in writing, you don't have to worry whether or not it's genuine, you don't have to worry whether or not it's authentic, I'm doing it in writing, since I'm doing it in writing, I want you to know, that I owe me, even your own self, do you know who brought you to Christ, Philemon, you even owe me yourself, and so Philemon says, you owe me yourself, and your own self, besides, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord, refresh my heart in the Lord, do what I'm asking you to do, soft words, big stick, and so the Apostle Paul puts a cap on it in verse 21, having confidence in your obedience, oh, does that ever hurt, you know, here's a person telling you now, I want you to do all this, and I want you to know, I understand how obedient you are, and he's just reminding us how obedient we should be, you know how obedient you are, I write to you, he says that writing twice, what is Paul trying to tell Philemon, I am so concerned about this Philemon, I'm doing it in authenticity twice, I'm writing it with my own hand, which makes it authentic, genuine, this is the way it's going to be done, if I owe you money, it's in paper, you've got it in your hand, that paper will pay you off, that's what Paul is saying to him, I'm doing it authentically, and I'm doing it in writing, it's not just in voice, you've got it on paper, and Philemon, when you get it on paper, you know that it's coming, so he says to him, having confidence in your obedience, I write to you knowing, that you will do even more than I say, Paul says, several months ago, our son, had a young man that worked for him, who was a handyman day laborer, his name is Larry, I wish you could meet Larry, he's a hoot, Larry was an alcoholic, Larry was a drunk, Larry was a carouser, Larry was a bum, Larry was a piece of dirty flesh, Larry was a sinful punch of junk, but one way, somehow, in the sovereignty of God, God brought Larry, to a little church, Larry was dirty, physically, he's ugly, physically, he's stunk, physically, he was not a person around who you'd like to be, anytime, and yet, God brought him, to this church, and this church, welcomed him, with open arms, they took in his stink, they took in his ugliness, they took in his language which he had not cleaned up yet, they took in the fact that he had been aroused about, and a criminal, and a crud, and a terrible mess, and they took him in, and they loved him, they loved him because they found out he could sing, now let me tell you something folks, he can sing, he's not great, but he can sing, and he does love to sing, in fact because he could sing, they brought him in to let him sing, and in bringing him in to let him sing, they brought him in to Jesus Christ, and he got saved, the next day he had on clean clothes, the next day he had shaved, the next day he didn't stink, the next day his language went away, the next day he came in singing, and that night they let him sing a solo, and since that time he's been singing solos all the time, he comes to our house, he's going to put caulking around all of our windows, we have 28 windows, we're going to have Larry for 28 windows, okay, he comes to our house and says, Brother Jack, Miss Barbara, do you mind if I sing a little bit, of course not Larry, he said, you know I love to sing, because God just filled my heart with music, he just saved my life, and then he starts telling you about, he said, Brother Jack, you would not have liked what I was before, he said, you would not have liked to have been around me, at all, he said, I was a bum, I was a crud, I was a mess, I was filthy, but God saved me, he said, Miss Barbara, can I sing a solo for you and Brother Jack, now we're out in the garage, turns on his little phone, has the music on his phone, here he starts, he can sing folks, and he sings pretty well, doesn't he Barbara, he just sings his heart out, so Barbara and I just sit there, and listen to him sing a beautiful song, about the kingdom of God, out of which he cuts it off, and he says, now Brother Jack, I know that you and Miss Barbara, love the king, would you like to sing that again with me, I said, yes Larry, I would sometimes other, but we need 27 windows caught, okay, so here we go, so he gets out of the first window, the little radio goes with him, everywhere he goes, so guess what happens at every window, we get singing at every window, we hear Larry singing for three days, he loves the Lord, he loves to sing, he's a wonderful Christian believer, this little church loves Larry, now, that's so nice of us, you see, verse 11, at one time, Larry, but now, he is useful, the kingdom of God, this church, my son, Barbara and me, anyone with whom he works, no matter where he works, he's going to get a song, if you want to hear somebody sing a song, and you need a handyman, I'll give you his number, and he does a good job, he's a good painter, he's a good carpenter, he's a good caulker, he's a good man, he's a kingdom of God believer, he loves the Lord, and he'll sing you down to the wall, and if you need him, I'll give you his telephone number, and Larry will come work at your house, but the first thing you'll find out about Larry is, you wouldn't have wanted to meet me before, you wouldn't have wanted to know what I was, and thank God, not that anymore, Onesimus, and so now the apostle Paul, with his soft, bushy, big stick, says to Onesimus, having confidence in your obedience, well that's a kick in the pants, I know, since I wrote to you, that you will do, not only this, but you will do, oh by the way, O Philemon, when I get out of this place here in Rome, would you please prepare a room for me, and I trust that through your prayers, I shall be granted to come to you, see Paul thought he was going to get out of prison, and get back here again, and then he says, as do I greet you, in the name of Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ, I greet you in the name of Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow laborers, oh by the way, Demas, here, in the first book of Timothy, chapter 4, verse 10, here he says, Demas is my helper, first Timothy 4, 10, he says, Demas has forsaken me, loving this present world, there, don't you know that was a crush for the apostle, and then he says, therefore, my dear Philemon, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with your spirit, amen, afterthought, about the turn of the century, there was a preacher, a bishop, who showed up, in the city of Ephesus, and became a bishop, according to church record, at the church in Ephesus, and that man, that bishop, was called Onesimus, coincidence, possibility, 1 to 1.3 quadrillion, 1 to 10.6 billion, what's the sovereignty of God, and, the same sovereignty, that worked in this story, by the way, worked in your, and my life, one day, God sent somebody to you, maybe you knew him, maybe you didn't, and that somebody said to you, could I tell you, the greatest thing, that has ever happened, can I tell you, how I was a sinful sinner, owned and bound for hell, and that I was introduced to a person, by the name of Jesus Christ, and that person told me, that if I would trust Jesus Christ, as my Lord and Savior, that he would do for me, what he has done for them, and he asked me, if I would pray a simple prayer, that I was a sinner, that I needed to be saved, and I could ask Jesus, to come into my heart, and I asked Jesus, to come into my heart, and he came in, that's your sovereignty, that's my sovereignty, the one that came was my best friend, 17, he was Baptist, I was not, and he, through the sovereignty of God, was brought to me, I don't know who your, I don't know who your, person was, but he was, he was, they were, could have been brother Jimmy, could have been another person, brother Bill, who passed away, who, did God, in his sovereignty, bring to you, go back and thank him for it, because, we are where we are, today, because we were useless, and now the kingdom of God, we're useful, isn't that a great story, you know, it's a great little book, it's such a sweet little letter, and I love the way the apostle Paul says, you want me to command you, I'd rather appeal to you, but I also would like to use a puffy big stick, and I'd like to pop you with it a couple of times, and let you know, that I expect, you, to do, right, what a wonderful, loving, eternal God, amen, Heavenly Father, I thank you for this little book, I thank you for the man Onesimus, I thank you for the fact that he was able, to meet two people, one of them brought him to the kingdom, one of them kept him in the kingdom, and how he was useful, after being useless, and ended up as a bishop perhaps, in the church of the Lord Christ, in Ephesus, thank you Father, for the way you miraculously slip in and out of our lives, so that we can be, brought to you, that our uselessness, will become, useful, profitable, gloriously, blessed, and for that we give you great praise, in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, amen, see you next week when Brother Jimmy teaches, 1st Timothy,
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