So, today we are going to look at Philemon again page 1799. So, we read this letter last week. Do you remember anything about it? Philemon was a normal Roman citizen, he was a faithful follower of Jesus, and he was one of the leaders in the church that met in his house, and he had a slave named Onesimus. Slavery was legal in Rome. Slaves had no rights whatsoever. One day Onesimus steals from Philemon and runs away, and he runs to Rome, and meets Paul, and while with Paul he becomes a Christian, and now he is a faithful helper to Paul and it’s time to go back to Philemon and make things right so Paul writes this letter to bridge the conversation and to help Philemon think about how to respond to what’s going on as a Christian and last week I was focused on how this was so different than the way of Spartacus who was also trying to get out of slavery but he did it with weapons and warfare so Paul or Ian one of the two have given us a weapon this week. Paul, do you want to say anything about this weapon? I know nothing about it except not to touch the sharp part. It’s called a seax knife; it’s originally from a combination of the words sea and axe. It was used by the Norse and Danes, who often when they were out Viking. It’s heavy, like surprisingly, like you could really do damage here, and I feel like if I was an actor, I would like spin it in my hand, but I’m sure right now it would end in blood. So, what is this used for?

Audience Member: Chopping wood?

Curtis: Chopping Wood? No.

Audience Member: Chopping people?

Curtis: Chopping people. Warfare. It’s to force somebody to do what we want. You know, to have them at gunpoint. To make them go where we want them to go. To make them act a certain way or to stop acting a certain way. It puts us in control.

Audience Member: It’s a good-sized sword for a hobbit.

Curtis: It’s also a good-sized sword for a hobbit. I don’t know if it glows when orcs show up. Is this used for forgiveness? Is this a weapon that effectively creates an environment for forgiveness to truly happen? No, is this something that is used in reconciliation, no, in knighthood, yes, a weapon that is designed to overpower and create control cannot be used for expressions of love like forgiveness and reconciliation, right?

So, I posed this question last week: why did Paul not force Philemon to forgive Onesimus, or force him to let him go, or why did Paul not command that slavery stop? And part of the answer was that we’re looking for more than behavior change. We’re looking for a new understanding of who we are to each other in Christ. The weapons that the world uses, the weapons of power that it uses to get things done, are not the weapons in the ways used by Jesus. So, I was reviewing my talk last week with a friend and it reminded us of Lord of the Rings.  In that first movie, Fellowship of the Ring, and if you haven’t seen it, now you know what you’re doing this afternoon, what impressed me as I watched that movie was how people had to make a choice as to whether to grab the ring of power or not. The ring that was created by an evil being, Sauron, and contained the power to control others, like a knife or a sword, contains the power to control others. And one by one, the noble characters chose not to pick up the ring of power: Gandalf, Galadriel, Aragorn. Because even though it would give them great power, they knew it would corrupt them, and they would end up using it for evil. And the ones who did want that ring, the steward of Gondor or Boromir, they wanted to use that ring of power for good, but as you watched the movie, you knew that in their heart, bad would come from this. The ring could only be picked up by someone who didn’t care about power. So, we’ve hit this age, and we’ve hit it in history before that, for some Christians, what seems to be communicated is that they want power. That they would use power for good in society. So, they want to wield political power, they want to wield military power, to create good on this earth. But you can’t pick up a weapon of power that is designed to control and make people do your will, and naively expect that you’re going to create goodness and forgiveness and reconciliation and peace. because it’s not the intent that’s the problem. It’s the weapon that is the problem. The weapon’s not designed for acts of love. Make sense? Excellent, thank you. So, what are the ways of Jesus that we see in this letter that is actual power? Actual power to create forgiveness and reconciliation, and equality. to actually end slavery. And there’s a sense of, I was thinking this morning, this letter talks about slavery, but it’s an example to help us understand a deeper concept, and that deeper concept then gets applied in 100 different areas. So, let’s look at this deeper concept. Let me offer a prayer, and we’ll read this letter again.

Father, you are so good to us. Would you help us to understand Philemon better? There’s this sense of “this is such an easy message” and there’s also a sense of “this is deeply complex and deeply impacting”. Help us to understand. Help us to understand why you preserved this letter for your church through history that we would then learn and consider how to apply it to our life. That we would honor you, that we would do things your way, that your kingdom would come, or as we said earlier, that we would do things in your nature in the name of Jesus. So, thanks for this time. Amen.

So, letter to Philemon.

1 This letter is from Paul, a prisoner for preaching the good news about Jesus Christ, and from our brother Timothy

I am writing to Philemon, our beloved coworker, 2 and our sister Apphia, and our fellow soldier Archippus, and to the church that meets in your house.

3 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

4 I always thank my God when I pray for you, Philemon, 5 because I keep hearing about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all of God’s people. 6 And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ. 7 Your love has given me much joy and comfort, my brother, for your kindness has often refreshed the hearts of God’s people.

8 That is why I am boldly asking a favor of you. I could demand it in the name of Christ because it is the right thing for you to do. 9 But because of our love, I prefer simply to ask you. Consider this as a request from me – Paul, an old man and now also a prisoner for the sake of Christ Jesus.

10 I appeal to you to show kindness to my son, Onesimus. I became his father in the faith while here in prison. 11 Onesimus hasn’t been of much use to you in the past, but he is now very useful to both of us. 12 I am sending him back to you, and with him comes my very own heart.

13 I wanted to keep him here with me while I am in these chains for preaching the Good News, and he would have helped me on your behalf. 14 But I didn’t want to do anything without your consent. I wanted you to help because you were willing, and not because you were forced. 15 It seems you lost Onesimus for a little while that you could have him back forever. 16 He is no longer like a slave to you. He is more than a slave, he is a beloved brother, especially to me. Now he will mean much more to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord.

17 So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. 18 If he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to me. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it . And I won’t mention that you owe me your very soul!

20 Yes, my brother, please do me this favor for the Lord’s sake. Give me this encouragement in Christ.

21I am confident as I write this letter that you will do what I ask and even more! 22 One more thing – please prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that God will answer your prayers and let me return to you soon.

23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you his greeting. So do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my co-workers.

25 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

So I realize there’s a huge challenge here, right, that to see the way of Christ means a whole new way of living. So I’m going to highlight what Paul is doing in this letter. So, Paul highlights his deep loving relationship with Philemon; verse seven “your love has given me much joy and comfort, my brother”, verse nine “but because of our love I prefer simply to ask you”. He’s reminding Philemon of his deep, their deep love for each other, and Paul is also highlighting his deep affection for Onesimus. You know verse 10 “I appeal to you to show kindness to my son Onesimus, I became his father in the faith while here in prison”, verse 12 “I am sending him back to you and with him comes my own heart”. So, Paul is creating a relationship between the two of them. I love you, Philemon, I love Onesimus, and now you two have a relationship with each other because of me. You used to know Onesimus as a slave, but now it is different. So, verse 16 “he’s no longer a slave to you, he’s more than a slave, he’s a beloved brother, especially to me, now he will mean much more to you both as a man and as a brother in the Lord”. So, Paul is redefining their relationship with each other because of their mutual connection with him. So, we get this, right? I have a friend named Tom. I have a friend named Fred. If Tom and Fred ever meet, I would expect there would be some common ground and they would form a friendship because I am their common ground and whatever causes, you know, us to be friends. There’s probably some similarity there. So, Paul is redefining their friendship through himself, but then he goes further. Verse 17 “If you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me if he’s wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to me”. So there’s this exchange. What Onesimus owes you, what he stole from you, charge it to me, I will pay you back, and then you are to welcome him and treat him the way you would welcome me. You put the price of his crimes and sins onto me so that he can be forgiven and accepted by you, and the love I have for him goes with him to you, and the love you have for me goes with you to him. What Paul is doing is he’s living out the message of Jesus. He’s actually modeling the life of Jesus. He is acting as Jesus between the two of them. You have a new relationship with each other because of me, his sins are forgiven because of me, and the way you accept me and love me, you must extend that now to him. So, Paul is showing by his example how we are to relate with each other in Christ and that’s why verse 19, which is that weird sentence, makes sense. “I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it. And I won’t mention that you owe me your very soul!”. Imagine the voice of Jesus coming through Paul’s letter to Philemon, and Philemon hears Jesus speaking. “I saved you, I forgave you, I have saved and forgiven Onesimus, therefore you give me the crime he committed against you so that you accept him as a brother”. This is the power of Jesus bringing reconciliation and help to the world in a whole new way. The sins that were committed against you, you charge them to Jesus, so that you can forgive the person who sinned against you. So, for example, when your child has not been treated right at school and you go in to talk with the principal, or maybe another parent you’re going to talk with. You can go in with a weapon of “the justice that is owed me”, the weapon of battle, the weapon of demand, the weapon of conquer. You will see my side, and you will do what I want. Bring a sword. Or, you give the crime that was done to you to Jesus so that you can go in with the power of offering forgiveness, offering reconciliation, and offering to make things right. Justice has been done. No one’s asking you to not pay attention to the injustice or the sin, but you’re just not applying it to the person you’re applying it to Jesus. And you think “well, yeah. But if I go in all soft and gentle, I’m likely to get ignored”, consider this. Emotional power is just as strong as physical power. Emotional power could be, perhaps, stronger than physical power. So, if you come in all hot with passion at the injustice that’s been done to you, the other person is going to see a knife coming at them and they’re going to protect themselves from being hurt, and they may start to fight back, they might put up a shield and protect themselves. You’re not actually going to accomplish the goal of making things right because you will be in battle with the other person. The weapon of battle is not the weapons of love. Now I also notice from the example of Paul that, at times, we play the role of Jesus, absorbing other people’s sins so that they can find forgiveness. That sometimes we take on their sins. So stand firm in the grace God has given you and the way he took your sins and mistakes away from you and put them on Himself. And when you’re in a situation where injustice needs to be corrected, you can take their crimes upon yourself so that they can find the path to forgiveness or being forgiven, offering forgiveness or being forgiven. So when they insult you, you can absorb it, when they steal money from you, you can let the money go, when they try to hurt you, you don’t need to hurt them back. You’re not powerless because you are freely choosing to do it.  Jesus is with you. Jesus has got you, so you can take it and give it to Jesus later. This is a whole new type of weapon. This is a whole new type of power to accomplish change in the world

So, when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, one of the lines he said was “Please forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” That’s what we’re talking about here, how can you forgive the other person by taking their crimes done to you and charging it to Jesus, taking it out on Jesus, giving it to Jesus

So just to be clear, that line you know, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”, this is not a teaching that says God will forgive you only if and when you have already forgiven everybody else. That’s not what this is saying. It’s recognizing that I stand forgiven, and that needs to translate into me forgiving others. John Stott said about this passage, I think it’s a famous quote, he said, “Once our eyes have been opened to see the enormity of our offense against God, the injuries which others have done to us appear by comparison extremely trifling. If, on the other hand, we have an exaggerated view of the offense of others, it proves perhaps that we have minimized our own”. So, do you know God’s forgiveness in your own life? And part of that might be that you know your own forgiveness in your own life, and then do others know your forgiveness?
We don’t expect people to be perfect, right? right. We don’t expect people to be perfect. Of course not. Can you name the mistakes and the sins that others are allowed to make? Yeah, it’s a weird question. What a dumb question. How can we be okay with any of their sins or mistakes? But we just agreed that they don’t have to be perfect. So at some point, those sins and mistakes are going to make their presence known. So, at some point, we have to offer grace and forgiveness and just forgive because they’re not perfect, and, by forgiving, to treat them differently. To treat them as being on that same foundation of grace and forgiveness that we ourselves also stand on. So, we love and we accept because Jesus loves, we love and accept them because Jesus loves and accepts them, and Jesus loves and accepts us, and in Jesus we have a whole new understanding of who we are.