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PHILEMON 6
(Reading: Philippians 1:3-11; Philemon 1-25)
In Your Going Is There The Knowing?
Beloved congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ...
The apostle is still developing the background in his appeal to Philemon.
He wants him to clearly see what he’s asking for Onesimus, and why he’s asking for it.
This is why he introduces it in a way that will bring Philemon on side.
He will show how this is what they both agree on.
And he does that with nothing less than the call to consider where his colleague stands with the Lord.
In fact, this letter of Paul teaches us quite a bit about how to present a case in the best way.
And this is because the apostle gets to the heart of it.
He here will use what matters most of all to prove that this now must matter.
For though we might think verse 6 makes no reference to it, already now Paul’s preparing the way for what he’s going to ask on behalf of Onesimus.
You see, while we may not think much of it, slavery then was an essential part of life.
You could no more do without your slave than you could do without all those modern gadgets in the laundry and the kitchen today!
But the apostle wants to put this in a much larger picture than what the world was like then.
I mean, how would Philemon receive Onesimus?
Could it be that to him he was just an object?
Would he treat him as one of those kitchen appliances which had broken down?
Or, would he see him as the dear brother in the Lord Jesus he had become - a definitely changed man!
This is something which is far from easy for Philemon to do.
It would go right against how almost everyone else saw their slaves.
He needed nothing less than the Holy Spirit himself.
And that’s exactly what Paul prays will happen, “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith.”
He doesn’t mention the Spirit directly.
But it’s only the Spirit who can make this happen.
And notice in which way he prays for this to happen.
Paul writes, “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith.”
There’s no specific prayer straight away for handling Onesimus.
Rather, it’s put first in a wider context.
So Paul, having already thanked the Lord for Philemon’s love for the church, now prays that the Spirit will draw that out even more within the church.
The N.I.V. Bible seems to point us to an evangelising, or witnessing, to the faith.
A more literal translation, though, like the E.S.V., would go like this; “that the sharing of your faith may become effective.”
While that would certainly have the result of presenting the Gospel to unbelievers, most of all it’s about growing in what we’ve got now.
The prayer of Paul for Philemon here, is, in the words of the first aspect to this text ... SEE EVEN MORE WHAT YOU’VE GOT!
Congregation, it is from the Spirit inside that there flows to the outside the love which characterises the Christian life.
Philippians 1 verse 9 has the same special prayer point.
There Paul writes, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.
SEE EVEN MORE WHAT YOU’VE GOT!
Friend - compare your life with Philemon.
You’ve been put into fellowship with the saints.
A fellowship which begins with an inner spiritual relationship because of your faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, dear Christian, out of your inner relationship there will flow those acts of love and brotherliness which show the Christian life.
That’s why Paul prays that Philemon’s faith will always be on the go!
The Greek word used is the root word for ‘energy’.
There’s a power source which is continuously flowing through us to others.
Actually if you aren’t connecting - if there isn’t a flowing to the outside what you are on the inside - you’re not receiving the blessing.
James says this strongly in the first chapter of his letter.
In verse 22 there he says, “Don’t just listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves.
“Do what it says.”
Dear believer, you shouldn’t be passive or keep quiet.
You must always look to the good of others.
Because then you can give a lot!
Paul goes on to show how this does flow.
As we read further into the text, “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.”
Congregation, as we draw deeper into our Lord and Saviour we show that much more who he is to us.
It’s a reward we’re already given now, which tantalises the heavenly reward before us all the more!
We can compare this with the Lord’s Supper.
Although we know it’s only a foretaste, an appetiser of what is to come, yet through faith it becomes a strengthening in the Lord.
Let me picture this: There is a poor and weary traveller.
Knowing he’s thirsty and tired, he stops at the cool, refreshing waters of the well.
It satisfies him that much, he draws up more for himself and his fellow travellers.
In the same way, congregation, this rest along the pilgrim’s way makes us thirst for even more.
We’re not content to stay as we are!
We want to grow all the more.
And that growing comes out of what he’s already showing!
You think about those times you had difficulty in the faith.
Wasn’t it always connected to when you weren’t living out the faith?
But the times you are in close fellowship in the Lord are the times you really grew in the Lord.
You see, then the fellowship of your faith became effective.
You grew in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus.
Because you are then before him like the eager student sits before the great teacher.
And he is!
It’s this principle which will become clear for Philemon.
You see, it will be his action of forgiveness and love to Onesimus that will be the way he deepens his own forgiveness and love.
Isn’t that what we all pray in the Lord’s Prayer:
“Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us?”
We read the same from Philippians chapter 1.
Verse 9 there has Paul’s prayer that their love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.
Then he continues in verse 10, “so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.”
Do you see it?
As there is the going there is the knowing!
So we have considered the first aspect.
We saw that we need to SEE EVEN MORE WHAT YOU’VE GOT.
This leads us now, in the second place, to the recognition that ... THEN YOU DO GIVE A LOT!
We come to the next part to this text.
For the more Philemon is involved with the church; the more he’s in the body life of Christ; the more he’ll take Paul’s request the right way.
Perhaps you have once raised a concern with a fellow Christian.
You wanted them to see and share the same concern.
And you go out of your way to do it kindly.
But what a reaction you received!
You got a real battering!
“How dare you talk to me about that!” they roughly respond.
You’re told in no uncertain terms to keep you big nose out of their business.
Sadly, though such a person might feel justified in their own eyes, this kind of reaction often shows just how much they’re missing the fellowship of the saints.
They haven’t given to you the love of Christ for his people.
You’ll find this especially so with those who cut themselves off - those who feel they don’t need to mix so much.
In their being away from the rest of the fellowship they become more and more self-centred.
On one occasion an elder met with such a member.
He was a member who complained bitterly and often how much he and his family were despised in the church.
And he continued in the same vein to this elder, who knew him very well.
They had been close friends.
That elder was very sharp to him.
He replied, “Do you think those other people in church are honestly concerned about what you do?
“Are they going to spend every waking moment scheming and acting malicious to put you down?
“Who are you?”
He made it very clear that the real problem was the chip that man had on his own shoulder.
And he had made that chip bigger and bigger by more and more withdrawing from the fellowship.
But the whole way Jesus Christ set up his Church goes right against that.
The letter to the Ephesians, for example, is about the Church as the new society in Christ.
One of the sacraments, the Lord’s Supper, shows this very visibly.
Through that we see we have to be together, just like the parts of the body the apostle often writes about.
Just as a family eats and drinks together, so we are meant to be together, wherever we can.
There is a story told, and many of us would have heard it, about a minister in the 19th Century who went to visit a man who hardly went to church.
A man who had been quite open that he could get along quite well spiritually without going to church.
It was winter-time when the minister visited that man.
And being in Scotland the man naturally had his coal fire burning strongly away.
He was seated next to it, enjoying its warmth.
The minister didn’t say anything.
He simply sat on a chair next to him, around that fire.
After a while the minister, using the prong for the fire, took a coal out of the fire, and lay it outside of the fire.
Within a few minutes that coal began to lose its heat.
Soon it had died out altogether.
Taking it away from the fire had taken it away from the place where it could continue to burn.
On its own it couldn’t burn anymore.
It became cold.
It was useless.
That man got the message.
He was in church the next Sunday.
And he kept coming.
He had grown in his understanding.
He was realising the good things we have in Christ.
Hebrews 10 tells us about what should be a natural result of being a Christian.
With the same breath in which the author of that letter says, in verse 24, “let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,” he goes on in verse 25, “let’s not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let’s encourage one another.”
Being part of Christ means you can never be apart from His people.
Brethren, in the strength of God’s own Spirit, let’s make the fellowship of the faith become effective.
Let’s be active in sharing our faith.
Because then we have the Lord’s promise that all those things we really need will be given to us as well.
You see, what we have here together should be the motivation for each day.
This is making a difference.
The difference not just for this coming week.
The difference not just for some months, even a few years.
This is the difference for all eternity.
Because the reason for that difference is the One who has made all the difference in you and me!
Yes, it is God’s own Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who has come and given himself in the most complete way for us.
On the cross he shared himself in the way we would never have thought to do – let alone actually could do!
But now by faith in him it’s the way we can’t help but do.
Can you think of any other way?
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray...
O Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Hold before our weak and distracted eyes the sure sign.
Keep fixed in us your Spirit to empower us to walk your path, and so live your life in a world that doesn’t know you at all.
And may our fellowship as your people together shine out your love in your Son.
May, indeed, many around us come to know you through us, as we live in you.
For Jesus Name’s sake, Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
The source for this sermon was: www.rcnz.org.nz
(c) Copyright, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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