Philemon - Forgiveness In Action

SERMON OUTLINE:

Philemon : Forgiveness in Action

1. Book Background

Only one chapter – 25 verses

Thin book, but rich in content

Originally written as a simple letter

2. Historical Setting

Philemon – friend of Paul

Christian converted by Paul in Ephesus?

Philemon now living in Colossae

A wealthy Christian (likely owned slaves)

3. Background on 1st Century Slavery

Social institution

Economic necessity

Christianity was in no position to dismantle slavery

Christians Focus - Spreading the Gospel

4. Paul in Prison

Onesimus (Philemon’s slave) runs away (possibly stole something)

Onesimus seeks out Paul in Rome

Onesimus converted by Paul?

Paul encourages Onesimus to return home

Onesimus likely fearful of Philemon so Paul writes a letter to Philemon

5. Letter Overview

Letter written to various people in household

Wanted to increase accountability?

Begins by puffing up Philemon (Philemon 1:4-7)

“you have refreshed the hearts of the saints)

Emphasis on the word “heart”

Paul then gets direct to Philemon (Philemon 1:8-11)

Appeals to “love”

Makes the first mention of Onesimus (my son)

Refers to Onesimus as “his heart”

Paul expresses desire to keep Onesimus to help spread the Gospel

But says he would not do it without consent of Philemon

6. Paul Provides the heavenly perspective

That although Onesimus was gone for a while (as a runaway slave),

He now is returning to Philemon as a brother in the Lord

Paul says if Onesimus has done anything wrong, “charge it to my account”

This is a picture of the Gospel (i.e., of what Jesus did on the cross)

Paul then uses heart for the third time: “refresh my heart”

In other words make my heart happy, by taking back Onesimus

7. Summary:

At any time in life we can be Onesimus, Philemon, or Paul i.e., someone who has hurt another person, someone who has been hurt, or someone who is attempted to reconcile two people. Like Onesimus we are all part of the “fellowship of the forgiven”, we all fall short of God’s glory but through Jesus Christ have received the love and forgiveness of God. So we need to take that grace given to us and extend it to others.

FULL SERMON

You may recall that last month I looked at the parable of the unforgiving servant. Basically, the bottom line of that particular passage was that we need to look past minor offenses, particularly minor offenses of others, especially in light of the forgiveness that we received through the cross.

Today, as we look at the Book of Philemon, we are going to see forgiveness in action. So if you have your bibles with you today, open up to the Book of Philemon. Now I suspect that Philemon may be a difficult book for you to find. It is in the Bible unlike the Book of Eli, but it is in the Bible there, and it’s kind of sandwiched between Titus and Hebrews. It is toward the back of your Bible. If you are using the red pew Bible, I think it is on about page 1183, so it’s towards the back of the Bible. It is hard to find because basically Philemon only has one chapter with 25 verses. But even though the book is short on length, it is deep and rich in content. Last Thursday, we had our first community Bible study group, and we actually looked at the Book of Philemon. So many people came up with all sorts of observations and a number of applications from the Book of Philemon that we can immediately apply to our life. That is what I wanted to do today is to share some of those observations as we go through the entire Book of Philemon. One thing to remember, it really isn’t a book. When it was first written it was written as a simple letter. A correspondence between two friends; between the Apostle Paul and his friend Philemon.

Now keep in mind, when we are reading a letter, it is kind of like opening up and reading somebody else’s mail. It is helpful to have some background information on the letter before we read it. As I mentioned, Philemon was a friend of Paul, and Philemon was believed to be a Christian, someone who was converted by Paul likely in Ephesus where Paul spent a lot of time. Philemon, in this particular story, is living in what is believed to be Colossae, and he is a wealthy Christian. It is believed that he owns a number of slaves. Now I know that sometimes this idea of slavery, especially as we encounter it in the Bible, is difficult for us to swallow because it just seems like that is obviously not a good thing. But we have to remember, this is 1st Century. Slavery was a deeply embedded social institution. Really, at that particular point, it was an economic necessity for some. Again, the Christians were just forming. They were still considered a cult. They were just a small band of believers. If they were going to try to dismantle slavery all of a sudden, to incite the slaves to riot or to revolt, they would have risked the backlash of the Roman government. So what did they do? They just simply spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They spread the message of love and reconciliation to fellow man. Slowly, they pretty much aided in the dismantling of slavery. So the situation we have here in this letter is that Paul is believed to be in prison in Rome, and you have Philemon who is in Colossae, and he owns a number of slaves, including a slave named Onesimus. Now Onesimus actually means something. It means useful. Back then, it would have been a common name for slaves because some slaves were more useful than others. So Onesimus means useful. As the story goes, Onesimus the slave either stole something, either broke something, either damaged property, or simply ran away from Philemon. He makes his way to Rome where he seeks out Paul because maybe he knows that Paul knows Philemon. Whatever the case, he seeks him out and in the process Onesimus gets converted by Paul, but instead of Paul holding on and trying to protect Onesimus, he encourages Onesimus to go back home to Philemon and to reconcile with the master. He knows that Onesimus is going to be a little bit nervous about this so he sends a letter along with Onesimus back to Philemon encouraging him in his own gentle and creative way to receive Onesimus back into his home. So that is the background.