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PHILEMON 17-21
(Reading: Psalm 133; Gal. 3:26-4:7; Philem. 12-21)
When You’ve Been Paid For!
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
It has taken seventeen verses but now Paul says what the letter is really about!
In the closing part of his plea he puts his case to Philemon about Onesimus - his runaway slave.
But not now by talking about the change in Onesimus.
Hey - that’s what it’s all about, though, isn’t it?
Yet there’s no mention here of exactly how different he has become.
Quite the opposite, in fact!
Paul brings in himself!
In the words of the first part to this text, Paul says ... CHARGE IT TO ME.
This is the vital crunch time for pressing the point with Philemon, and he says, “So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.
“If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me.”
“I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand.
“I will pay it back.”
Friends, it’s a whole series of “me’s” and “I’s”.
And they continue on right through to the end of our text.
We could wonder how this would help the runaway slave holding this letter.
Paul was, after all, in a prison many, many kilometres away, and a whole sea away!
We shouldn’t look to the outside, though.
This is an appeal to the soul.
“Welcome him as you would welcome me,” Paul says.
And Philemon’s heart couldn’t but be touched by this.
What joy would have entered Philemon’s home if the captive apostle had suddenly and unexpectedly stood before their eyes completely free!
That’s the thought Paul plants in him now.
He puts his partner in the Gospel - and this word means here a tenderness far beyond any business association - he puts Philemon in a position where he simply cannot say no.
This is no coercion - it’s no unfair pressure - it’s simply what we read in Galatians 3 about what we are in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Congregation - what a preaching of the Word!
This is a most wondrous picture of what Christ on an infinitely higher plane has done for us all!
As Martin Luther remarked in the preface to his commentary on this letter in 1522, “What Christ has done for us with God the Father, that’s what Paul does for Onesimus with Philemon...for we are all his Onesimi, if we believe.”
The apostle follows the way of his Master.
As Christ is the great High Priest in the heavens, always interceding for us, so Paul, the believer, is interceding for a brother in the faith.
There’s no sense of authority, or command - only sacrifice!
You can almost imagine, in this same way, Abraham’s appeal to the Lord for the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, or Moses throwing himself as mediator for those disobedient Israelites.
Could you even see, dear Christian, how you have pleaded the same way for someone?
Because what do all these men and we have in common as we appeal?
What is it about when we’re begging before the Almighty God?
Is it because of the goodness in those we pray for?
Could it be a redeeming quality in ourselves?
Just thinking this way makes us realise that we or they cannot possibly be the way!
You’re on your knees man!
You can only pray it because of what Christ has done.
This is why Paul puts himself in the breach.
This is the reason he mentions this in his own letter.
For this isn’t done through a scribe as usual, but a personal hand-written note.
CHARGE IT ME, he cries.
Because he’s been charged to Christ already!
Whatever wrong Onesimus has done - whether desertion alone, or desertion with theft, or desertion with theft and multiple other crimes - Paul can say, “Make it mine!”
Paul knows the wrong the slave has done against his master.
It must be paid back.
And Philemon can be sure it will be.
Why?
Congregation, we hear Paul’s promise, “I will pay it back;” but there’s also his reminder, “not to mention that you owe me your very self.”
First of all he put himself there ... CHARGE IT TO ME!
But, secondly, there is the guarantee ... YOU KNOW I HAVE ALREADY PAID FOR YOU!
It seems like a subtle shift.
Paul doesn’t avoid his promise, however.
He will repay that physical debt.
Yet that’s no comparison with our spiritual treasure, is it?
Paul’s focus is again upward - Christ-ward.
He wants to get away from that stumbling we can so easily have over earthly things, like money, and realise what counts in heaven.
That’s why he appeals to put it to his account.
Because then they can be free to get on with being members together of the body of Christ.
Paul knows the change in Onesimus.
And he wants that changed person to be accepted.
You see, they had known that slave as he used to be.
They remembered the bad things he had done.
Maybe those bad things which had been done again and again, and after many times of saying he was sorry when he wasn’t.
And much as they would try otherwise, that past image would keep flashing back.
Boys and girls, don’t you find the same?
I mean, now you’re a lot different that what you were, say, five years ago.
It’s embarrassing when Mum or Dad, or another grown-up - and especially when your older brother or sister! - keeps bringing up what you used to be like.
Because they remember the bad bits a lot more than when you were good!
So, imagine what it would have been like for Onesimus.
He hadn’t even been a believer before.
That meant he lived quite differently than you and me.
Now he was back.
Just like that!
But Philemon and the others hadn’t seen his conversion.
They weren’t there to see his growing response to Paul’s preaching and teaching about the Lord Jesus.
When he professed his faith they weren’t in church.
They hadn’t heard about what he’d done for Paul.
The only thoughts they had concerning Onesimus were quite negative.
How could Paul put Onesimus in the right light?
Well, he did write about how he had changed.
But he also wrote how they ought to see him like they saw himself - Paul.
And when they thought of Paul what thanks there was!
For Philemon, Paul was a most special person.
It was Paul who had taken time with him, listening, teaching, guiding, baptising.
He was his mentor!
If he ever would owe another man anything at all it would be the apostle Paul.
So Paul pleads, “See him as you see me!”
That would be the oil of Christ’s Spirit flowing over his own.
The picture of Psalm 133 comes to mind here.
As the psalmist describes what it would be like for believers to be truly united, he sings in verses 1 and 2, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!
“It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes.”
Congregation, if we focus on what we are now in the Lord, putting aside the past which gets in the way - all those inter-personal struggles, the suspicions, the hurts, the material differences - the Spirit brings God’s blessing.
And I’m not trying to gloss over what happened.
But let’s simply put that past in perspective!
Well, how would you respond to such a request as that of verse 20 from the apostle?
“I do wish” - and then you put your name there – “that I may have some benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ.”
Paul lays it on the line that his sacrifice for Philemon in the past must make a difference now.
And not because it was Paul who did it.
“Refresh my heart in Christ,” the apostle asks.
As also he has said, “that I may have some benefit from you in the Lord.”
Congregation, this is the same oil which has already flowed in verse 7.
There Paul wrote thankfully about Philemon, “Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.”
The deeds of love done in the name of the Lord have their reward.
Even a simple glass of water given out of Christian concern refreshes us with the Spirit’s work.
Christ spoke about this in Matthew 10, the verses 40 till 42.
He pictured it this way, “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.
“Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.
“And if anyone gives a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he’s my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.”
Though we are such weak pots - mere clay pots - yet you and I carry the Lord’s treasure!
In those words from 2nd Corinthians 4 verse 7, “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
That we can give at all is a wonder!
But that we can give from God is only the blessing of his grace.
Then we know the pouring forth of Christ’s Spirit flowing from his sacrifice on the cross.
That’s the ultimate example of strength in weakness!
And it’s being replayed every day, in thousands of different ways, through people empowered by the Holy Spirit.
So Paul isn’t being brash by concluding his appeal like he does in verse 21.
Here is no false bravado.
The apostle is saying... I KNOW YOUR FAITH WILL SHOW!
This is the third part to this text.
For having now laid his case before his partner in the Gospel, Paul is sure of success.
As he is “in the Lord”, there’s a coming together in doing the right thing.
Anyhow, isn’t he writing to Philemon exactly because of his obedience in the past?
And, you know, that’s something we can have confidence from in our lives, too.
In looking back we have assurance that the Lord has been with us.
He has blessed us when we followed him.
We know following his command brought peace in us and through us.
Just as we know disobeying his commands brought us suffering.
Then we knew what sin does to us.
Philemon has proved his faith.
For that he’s been richly blessed.
As Christ Jesus became more and more part of his life, more and more everything began to be seen and done in a different light.
Congregation, the fact that we have this letter to Philemon, in our Bibles now, is evidence that Philemon did what he was asked to do.
Don’t our own feelings tell us that he would never have allowed others to see this letter if it didn’t show that he had done what Paul had asked?
But here it is.
And, yet, we could wonder what the last phrase means.
Why does Paul write, “knowing that you will do even more than I ask”?
This has been interpreted differently.
Some have thought it referred to Onesimus being freed.
Others suggest that he was received and loved as a brother of equal worth.
It does need to be something to do with the apostle, however.
He does say that it’s for something “even more than I ask.”
And then we can join this with the verses before our text where Paul has described how useful Onesimus is to him.
Reading between the lines, Paul is still looking to have him back, after he has been properly reconciled with the brethren there.
So, once they have seen him as one of the Lord’s own, and after a time realising how genuine his conversion was, there’s this sense that they would remember Paul’s missionary work, and send him this help.
That would be faith showing itself.
It would be a gift to have Onesimus given back like he now was.
And isn’t the gift of grace meant to be shown?
Congregation, let’s be open to God working in others.
And let’s help that by being open to refreshing them in their faith.
Then let’s not keep back the good gifts of the Lord.
If they have blessed us, we can be reassured that they can certainly bless others also.
Because that’s the wonderful work the Lord is still doing by his Spirit.
His sacrifice is being shown through his very own.
You see, we can replace the apostle Paul’s references to himself throughout this text with the Lord Jesus Christ.
When he says CHARGE IT TO ME and I HAVE ALREADY PAID FOR YOU, the parallel to the Lord simply cannot be missed.
And then to say that he knows YOUR FAITH WILL SHOW expresses so well the confidence that Jesus Christ has in us - his own!
It’s no surprise that elsewhere Paul encourages believers to model themselves on him, as he models himself on the Lord Jesus.
In Philippians 3 verse 17, he says, “Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.”
Yes, let’s take note - of Jesus Christ, of Paul, of Philemon.
But will others also take note of you?
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray...
Lord God, we pray that our hearts may have been refreshed in you through these words.
Do bless us in you, so that others can see in how we treat our fellow believers the difference that being saved by you really does make.
Because we have that confidence in what you have made us altogether.
O Lord, we are struggling to follow you.
But we are being blessed by the good oil of the Spirit among us, bringing to us always your saving work.
For your Name’s sake, we pray, 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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