Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "The Difference the Gospel Makes" (Philemon 1-25) by Hiram Kemp

Transcript

"The Difference the Gospel Makes" (Philemon 1-25) by Hiram Kemp · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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There are all sorts of things, we spend a lot of time learning throughout our lives
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and then maybe after giving so much time and attention to them, we learn later on in life
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maybe they weren't as necessary as we thought in previous times.
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Think about all the time you might have spent as a student memorizing the abbreviations
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and the various designations for the periodic table and then you start thinking about your
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life in the current and thinking how often do I use that?
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How practical, helpful, or useful is that to me?
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Or maybe when you learn the different types of clouds.
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I guess there's a sense in which it's something beneficial to know the difference between
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the various clouds but today you just open up your weather app and it's there that you
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learn whether you need an umbrella or not.
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Then there's math equations, Pythagorean theorem, A squared plus B squared equals C squared.
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Maybe you spend a lot of time learning long division and you can even be thinking to yourself
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when's the last time I actually used that in a practical sense?
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All the teachers right now are like get him out of the pool pit, he's ruining our lives.
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Stay in school kids, it is important but there's a lot of things we learn all the time and
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if we're honest we say to ourselves all of the states and all of the various capitals
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of what practical use is it really in my day to day life and what concerns me is that this
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same thing can happen to us as it relates to Christianity.
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You think about the gospel, the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ
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and maybe you believe that that actually happened, that it's a factual event that took place
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and you might even go so far as to obey the gospel and become a Christian.
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But maybe you say to yourself you know what I'll put that on the shelf in the same way
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that I would the periodic table and that knowledge will be useful and practical to
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me maybe on the day of judgment but as for the day to day way that I live my life the
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realities that I cling to, the things we sing about as it relates to the gospel, they don't
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really have an impression on me.
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And maybe you don't put it in those words but maybe deep down inside we do think of
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Christianity and all of its tenants as something that's completely divorced from what we sometimes
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refer to as our real lives.
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The gospel is obviously designed to change our relationship between the God in heaven
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and our relationship on earth.
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The gospel is designed to forgive us of our sins and reconcile us to God.
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But embedded in the New Testament is also this idea that the gospel changes our relationships
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with one another and the way that we live our lives on a day to day basis.
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The gospel is designed to make a difference not just in what we believe in our head and
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the facts we memorize but also the way we go about living our very lives.
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The book of Philemon teaches this perhaps in a way that no other New Testament book
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does.
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You know sometimes people struggle with the book of Philemon and why is it even included
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in the New Testament canon?
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It's one chapter with 25 verses and sometimes people think to themselves as you read this
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book there's no deep theology about salvation or the plan of salvation or about the church
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contained in this book but the book of Philemon needs to be studied.
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It's real, it's practical, it's earthy, it's even disturbing at times.
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The book of Philemon is designed to teach us not just an ancient account of something
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that happened in the first century but how the gospel makes a practical difference in
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our day to day lives.
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There are three main characters or personalities in the book of Philemon.
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From Philemon verse one we learn there's a man by the name of Philemon who's a member
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of the church in Colossae and he's a slave owner.
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The second major character is a man by the name of Onesimus who was owned by Philemon
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as a slave.
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And then the third major character in the book is the apostle Paul who is a friend and
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mentor to both parties.
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Paul starts this book in the first seven verses by praising Philemon for his work, for his
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faithfulness, for his involvement in the work of the Lord in the church, thanking him for
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the great influence and impact that he's had on Paul's life and on all others that Paul
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has heard about.
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But then in verses eight and nine Paul gets to the heart of why he actually wrote.
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He wrote this letter to Philemon who was formerly the master of this slave Onesimus and he really
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has two requests for Philemon towards Onesimus.
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He wants him to treat him as a brother and he argues for Onesimus' release.
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It's assuming too much to assume from this book that Onesimus was a runaway slave.
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The Bible never says he ran away.
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Perhaps he departed on business from his master to run an errand, but whatever the case is
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Onesimus the slave found Paul in prison in far off Rome and it was there that Paul converted
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him according to verse 10 and verse 11.
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Paul sends him back to his master with this letter to argue for his release and his proper
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treatment.
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Paul even signs it in verse 19.
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He says if Onesimus owes you anything in relation to why he was put into slavery, I Paul write
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it with my own hand, I will repay it.
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And then he says in verses 21 and 22 he believes he'll be released from prison soon and he'll
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be able to check on these matters in person and see whether or not Philemon and Onesimus
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have responded in the way that Paul wants them to.
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The wrong way to read this book and people sometimes do this is to come at the book of
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Philemon with all sorts of questions about the Bible and about slavery or to just see
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it as an ancient text that talks about the reconciliation of two people from an ancient
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time largely divorced from the time in which we live.
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The book of Philemon is designed to teach you and me in the 21st century if we're Christians
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this is the kind of difference the gospel should be making in our lives and if we're
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not Christians, if we'll submit to his lordship and to the tenets of New Testament Christianity,
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here's the kind of difference that the gospel can make.
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So if you have your Bible, open it up to the book of Philemon and this morning let's notice
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six ways in which the gospel makes a practical difference and it's designed to be a difference
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maker and make a change in our lives.
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Here's number one, the gospel makes a difference in our lives because it introduces us to true
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love or real love.
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Paul starts in Philemon verse one by mentioning several different individuals.
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He mentions Archippus and Apathia and then he starts saying some things about Philemon
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and the church that he says in verse two meets in his house.
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In verse one, their fellow laborers.
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In verse two, the church meets in his house.
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In verse two, their fellow soldiers together.
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Notice verse four, Paul says he prays always and at all times for Philemon, giving thanks
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to God on his behalf.
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In verse five, he praises Philemon for his faith and works toward God and toward all
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Christians everywhere and in verse seven, Philemon's faith has become so prominent that
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it's spread throughout the city of Colossae so much so that Paul says in verse seven,
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he describes it as the hearts of the saints are refreshed by you.
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The first way the gospel makes a difference in our lives is it produces real love and
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Paul illustrates this in these seven verses to show the great difference that it's already
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been making in Philemon's life and this is the motivation for what he's going to call
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Philemon to do later on in this book.
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Maybe you've noticed this in our world and in our society, we've got various ways of
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describing love.
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When love first begins in the initial phases, we talk about puppy love.
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If we really have to do something hard towards somebody but we want them to know there's
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been no love lost, we talk about tough love.
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With all of the counterfeits of love in our society, sometimes when we want to show someone
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our love is genuine and sincere, we'll talk about true love and if we mean to communicate
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to somebody that this love is unending and it will continue throughout our lives, we
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talk about unconditional love but the New Testament knows no such distinction.
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In the New Testament, love is simply love and it's what Christians are designed to do
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by God as we live our lives for him and so Jesus could say in John 13, 34 and 35, a new
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commandment I give to you that you love one another.
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By this will all people know you're my disciples if you have love one toward another.
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It seems as Jesus got closer to the cross, he doubled down on this idea and so in John
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15 and verse 12, he says love one another as I've loved you or love one another as I've
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commanded you.
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In John 15 and verse 17, the gospel makes a difference in our lives because it produces
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real love in those of us who submit it to his teaching.
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It challenges us because it says in a world where love is just thrown around, look at
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the first seven verses of Philemon and Paul says this is what love is all about.
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It's tempting to view your life and think to yourself, I really love the people that
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I have a lot in common with or the people that I have good vibes with.
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Paul says no, here's the criteria for what real love looks like and maybe you start out
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in the book of Philemon and you think, Paul, why all of these pleasantries?
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Just get to what you want to talk about.
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You want Philemon to release Onesimus but there's a reason why Paul delays because what
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Paul wants to say to Philemon before he makes his request is the gospel's already been changing
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your life.
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Think about the kind of person Christianity has turned you into and this is the kind of
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real love it produces.
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If you want to know who you love and who loves you, Paul says these seven verses will tell
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you who.
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Verse one, it's the people you work alongside in spiritual endeavors.
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In verse one, he talks about fellow laborers.
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Paul says this about Timothy in Philippians 2 in verse 22.
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He says, you know the proven worth of Timothy that as a son with the father, he's labored
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with me in the gospel.
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Who do you work alongside?
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Number two, who do you voluntarily share your home and your life with?
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Look at Philemon verse two.
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There's a church in his house.
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Who do you voluntarily share your home and your life with?
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That's an indication of the people you love.
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Who do you go to war with and who would you go to war for?
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In Philemon verse two, he says, we're fellow soldiers together.
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Whoever you would go into combat with, whoever you would go to bat for, Philippians 127,
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Paul says, stand fast with one spirit, striving together for the faith of the gospel.
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That's an indication of who you love.
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Who do you pray for?
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In verse four, Paul says, I pray for you all the time.
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And then whose heart or whose life do you refresh?
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Or another way to ask it would be, who refreshes your life?
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For whatever else we think, this is the definition of true and real love.
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And Paul says, it's what the gospel produces in people.
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It changes you so that you don't just say, I love you with your lips, but you learn to
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say it with your life.
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First John 3 in verse 18, John says, my little children, let us not love in word or in talk,
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but instead in deed and in truth.
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It's easy to say it, but Paul says, if the gospel makes a difference in you, you'll show
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it by the way you live and by the way you treat other people.
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Look at Philemon verse 12, because in verse 12, Paul makes one of the strongest statements
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about love in the entire Bible.
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He's talking about the slave, Onesimus, who has made his way to him in prison.
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And he says, Philemon, I'm sending Onesimus back to you, sending my very heart.
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This is some of the strongest language in all the Bible.
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Paul doesn't just say now that Onesimus has been baptized, he's a Christian, though that's
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true.
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He doesn't just say this man is a fellow brother in Christ, though that's true.
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He says, I'm sending you my very heart because when people become Christians, if the Bible
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defines for us what love actually is, the people in this room aren't just people you
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go to church with or you sit on a pew with or you share a building with for an hour,
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they're people you share your ultimate life with.
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What does the Bible say about the relationship between David and Jonathan?
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David loved Jonathan as his own soul, first Samuel 18 in verse one.
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And if you want to know whether or not the gospel is actually making a difference in
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you or whether or not you've equated it to a spiritual periodic table or a long division,
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if it's actually changing you, you've got to start asking yourself, is it producing
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real love in me?
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Who do I pray for?
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Are these my people?
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Who do I go to war with?
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Who do I voluntarily share my home and my life with?
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What am I doing as far as refreshing the lives of other people and who refreshes my life
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as a result?
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Paul says, Philemon, the gospel is designed to make a difference.
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And when it does, it'll produce real love.
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Verse number two, it changes how you approach people.
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Look at verse eight and verse nine.
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Paul is now about to get to what he wants to talk to Philemon about.
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He says in verse eight, though I'm much bold in Christ to command of you what's required.
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He said, yes, for love's sake, I'd rather appeal to you.
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I, Paul, who am an old man, Paul knows he's an apostle.
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Paul's writings were guided by the Holy Spirit.
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And whenever Paul was writing under inspiration, his writings were as good as God himself speaking.
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In first Corinthians 1437, Paul would say, if any man thinks he's a prophet or spiritual,
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let him acknowledge the things I'm writing to you.
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These are the commands of the Lord.
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Paul has apostolic authority and Paul could command, but Paul's life has been changed
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by the gospel.
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And so even though he has authority, Paul does not view his authority as that which
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should be wielded and abuse toward other people and making people do things.
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But instead it should be stewarded in humility.
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In second Corinthians 1018 and in second Corinthians 13 and verse seven, Paul says,
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I've been given this authority not to destroy your faith, but to build it up.
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And he's about to ask Philemon to do a difficult thing.
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And instead of commanding, Paul says, I appeal to you in love.
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Throughout the New Testament, one of Paul's greatest ways, or I'm going to argue his favorite
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way to try to get people to do stuff, just read his letters and see if this is true.
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Paul doesn't often say thou shall and thou must do this or that.
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Paul's favorite way to try to get people to do the things God would have them to do
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is he says, I ask, I urge, I appeal, I even beg in faith.
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He'd say in Romans 12 and verse one, I beg you, therefore brethren, present yourselves
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by the mercies of God as a living sacrifice unto God, or I therefore the prison of the
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Lord.
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I urge you walk worthy of the calling that's called you with all lowliness and meekness
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and long suffering.
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Ephesians four, one and two, I urge you fulfill my joy.
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Philippians two, one and two, Paul realized something.
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You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar and so Paul says, I want to approach
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people kindly.
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A soft answer turns away wrath, Proverbs 15 and verse one.
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Solomon's wisdom is right in Proverbs 25 and verse 15 when he says, patience can turn the
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heart of a ruler and a soft tongue breaks a bone.
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How does the gospel change us?
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What difference does it make?
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It literally changes how you approach people.
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Some people have a problem with the New Testament and especially with the book of Philemon.
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They say to themselves, why doesn't Paul or any of the other writers of the New Testament,
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I mean, why don't they just come out and denounce it?
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If God's good and holy and perfect and right, why doesn't Paul just come out and say, thou
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shall not own slaves, just condemn slavery outright.
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Paul never does that and it's because Paul knew better.
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Paul knew if he would have done that, it would have never worked.
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Paul doesn't write the book of Philemon as a piece of legislation against slavery.
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It doesn't read like that.
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The book of Philemon reads like a love letter between siblings.
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Paul's not saying to Philemon so much, you should let Onesimus go because it's the law.
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Instead, he's going to argue, you should let Onesimus go because of your love.
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The love of Christ compels us, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 14.
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And what Paul mentions in verse 9, I, Paul, an aged man.
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It appears that age has sort of softened Paul.
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You know, there was a time in Paul's life where Paul could make people do things.
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Before he was a Christian in Acts 26, 11, Paul says, I compelled or I forced Christians to blaspheme.
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Paul used to operate through might, but now he says, the gospels changed me.
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I operate through love.
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And if the gospel makes a difference in your life, listen, it won't be theoretical,
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it will be real, and it'll be in how you approach people.
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Everybody in this room approaches people typically in one of two ways.
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You're using one of two approaches in your day-to-day life and how you engage with people.
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One of those approaches is what we'll just call one method is the courtroom method.
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The courtroom method is where you approach people and you gather your evidence.
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You present your case, you structure your arguments, you cross-examine,
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and above all, you want everybody to know, I'm right.
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It's what the brother does that approaches Jesus in Luke 12, 13, and 14.
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He says, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.
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Jesus says, man, who made me a ruler or an arbiter between you and your brother?
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The courtroom method says, I'm right, I want you to know it.
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And when you approach people, you've got arguments and cases and you call witnesses and you want
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to prove yourself right.
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The second approach is what we'll call the living room approach.
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This is where you sit instead of stand.
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You lower your voice, you open your heart.
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You listen before you speak.
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You ask rather than you assume.
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You try to get to know what the other person is thinking.
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And everybody in this room, you are typically using one of these two approaches with the people
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in your life.
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But let me tell you, if you go around in life using the courtroom approach with people,
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people will be about as happy to see you coming as they are when they learn to have jury duty.
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But if you use the living room approach, people will embrace you, fall on your neck, and kiss
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you even when you have to tell them hard things like a homeless man that you've just invited
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over for Thanksgiving dinner.
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See, what this tells me is that some of us are great lawyers, but we're terrible neighbors.
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Oh, we've got our arguments, we've got the truth, we're even right.
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But our delivery of such, it turns people away.
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Leviticus 19, 18, Moses writes, love your neighbor like you love yourself.
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And you're typically using one of these two approaches.
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And so am I.
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And what does this mean?
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It means in your marriage, you can be right with your spouse.
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But if you never use the living room approach that says, you know what, I'm right about this,
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but I would rather...
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Don't you see Paul?
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Paul says, I could command, I have authority, but I'd rather appeal to you in love.
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If every time your kids mess up, every time it's the courtroom method, the gospel hasn't
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really changed you.
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If people in your family always feel like they're on trial rather than in a home,
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that's how you know.
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What about the people on your job?
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It won't matter what you're saying here.
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Just ask them, they'll tell you.
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They'll tell you which one is your favorite.
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You might be thinking about Facebook.
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How do you engage with people?
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Courtroom or living room?
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What about your friends?
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And especially when you're right, the gospel makes a difference because it
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radically changes how you approach people.
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And there's two important things to take away from this.
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Number one, Paul could have used the one rather than the other.
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He was right.
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He had the arguments, he had the authority, but he didn't.
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And the second thing is to think about Jesus.
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And Jesus comes to earth and he could take us to court and prosecute us,
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but instead he sits to reason with us.
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The living room approach was Jesus' favorite way to deal with us.
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What does he say as he's heading to the cross?
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I could call 12 legions of angels.
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That's the living room approach, Matthew 26, 53 to 54.
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Pilate, you'd have no power over me at all unless it was given to you
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from heaven, John 19 and verse 11.
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There it is again.
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That's the living room approach that says, I could, but I'd rather not.
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If you be the Christ, come down from the cross, then we'll see and then we'll
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believe.
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Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, Luke 23 and verse 34.
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Over and over again in Jesus' life with us, rather than take us to court,
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he sits us down in the living room and says, I could exercise all of this power
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and authority, but I won't do it.
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And people who've been saved by a man like that, in a way like that,
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if the gospel actually changes us, it changes the way we engage
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with everybody.
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Second Corinthians 5.17, Paul says, if any man's in Christ,
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he's a new creature.
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Old things have passed away.
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Behold, everything's become new.
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And if you know you've really been saved by the living room approach,
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it'd make no sense to live the entirety of your life through the
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courtroom approach.
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See, the gospel is not just facts.
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It actually makes a difference.
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Why can Paul appeal to Philemon instead of command him?
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Because it changes how you approach people.
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You realize how God's approached you and it radically reforms how you
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approach everybody else.
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Here's number three, it changes your past.
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Philemon, verse 10, Paul says, I'm appealing to you for Onesimus,
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whose father I became in my imprisonment.
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He formerly was useless to you, but now he's useful both to you and me
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in the Lord.
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Here's Paul, where he really wants to be.
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Here's his argument.
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He says in verse 10, I'm writing to you, Philemon,
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about this slave of yours, Onesimus.
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And he says, whose father I became in my imprisonment.
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Evidently, when Onesimus came to Paul, Paul converted him.
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He became a Christian.
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And Paul writes this letter back and he says, hey,
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everything with Onesimus is different now.
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And Philemon, you've got to receive him this way.
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By the way, Onesimus' name means useful.
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There was a time when he was not living up to his namesake, but Paul says,
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now he is, and now his whole life is different.
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And Philemon, you've got to appreciate the gospel has changed his past.
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This terminology in verse 10, whose father I became in my imprisonment,
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it means that Paul was responsible for converting Onesimus to Christianity.
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It's what he says about the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 15.
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He says, you might have many teachers in Christ, but I'm your father,
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and I brought you forth to life through the gospel.
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It's what he says about Titus in Titus 1 and verse 4, his true son in the faith.
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And it's what he says here about Onesimus.
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But there's a bigger point underneath all of this.
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It's not just that Onesimus has becomes Paul's son in the faith,
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or that he's Philemon's servant.
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It's more than that.
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When he became a Christian, when he was baptized, Paul's saying,
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he's now the son of God, and everything's different about him.
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Galatians 3 and verse 26, Paul says, for we are all the children of God by faith
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in Christ Jesus.
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For as many of us as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
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The gospel makes a difference because it really does change your past.
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The Bible doesn't say if you become a Christian, you become like a new creature
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or you receive like a new life.
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It says you literally receive a new life.
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You're literally a new person.
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You rise to walk in newness of life.
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It's not a mirage.
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It's not a metaphorical statement.
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You really are a new person.
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What does that mean?
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It means if before you became a Christian, you lived a terrible life and you did
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terrible things, the gospel makes a difference when you learn you don't have
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to keep going back to the past to try to fix your mistakes because God's already
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forgiven it.
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Jeremiah 33 and verse 8, he says, I'll forgive their iniquities, their sins,
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their rebellion against me is forgiven.
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It means you see your past differently if you lived a relatively moral life before
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you became a Christian.
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You no longer look back there to appeal to your own good behavior.
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I really wasn't so bad a person.
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No man's righteous.
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No, not one.
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The gospel's made the biggest difference and it's made a change in me.
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What you see on the screen is an example of what AI technology is called the
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magic eraser.
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It was created by Google in 2021 and other platforms have since come up with
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their own.
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You take a picture with your phone or your tablet and through this technology,
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if you want the perfect picture, you can just kind of go in and remove people,
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photo bombers from the background, other images, and AI-generated technology will
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fill in the gaps with what it would have looked like if those people had never
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been there.
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What this picture is not saying, the final frame, is that those people weren't really
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at the beach with this girl on that day, but the final frame and the final picture
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makes it as if they were never really there to begin with.
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And the gospel is God's ultimate eraser.
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It's not to say the mistakes in your life weren't actually made, but it's to say,
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in the final frame of your life, the one that will actually be hung in the
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hallways of heaven, it won't be there and people try as they might.
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They can look it up and dig it up and bring it up, but God's balled it up and it
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won't be held against you.
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Hebrews 8 and verse 12, God says, I will be merciful to their
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unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities, I'll remember no more.
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Paul writes this to say to Philemon, I'm sending Onesimus back.
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But when he walks through the doors of your house, I want you to know he's a
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different person because the gospel can change somebody's past.
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Just think about the man writing those words.
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Paul knows what he knows because he could say, I was a blasphemer and a persecutor.
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I was a violent aggressor, but the gospel changed him.
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And Philemon, you're a Christian, you know what the gospel has done for you.
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And it's done the same thing for Onesimus.
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If you're a Christian, the gospel makes a practical difference in your life
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because it changes your past.
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Here's number four, it fixes broken relationships.
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You could say this is the heart of the book of Philemon.
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When you get to verses 12 through 17, Paul says, I'm sending Onesimus back to you,
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sending my very heart.
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Paul says, I could have just done what I wanted, but I didn't want to do anything
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without your consent.
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And verse 15, which Nat read for us, he says, perhaps this is why he departed
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from you for a season, that you might receive him back forever,
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no longer as a servant, but as a brother, both in the Lord and in the flesh,
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to you and to me.
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Paul says, the gospel, it fixes these broken relationships.
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The gospel makes a practical difference because it puts these
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relationships right.
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The preaching of the gospel is sometimes referred to in the New Testament as the
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ministry of reconciliation.
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That means you and God were enemies, the gospel puts you back together,
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2 Corinthians 5, 19 through 20.
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The preaching of that message is the preaching the message of reconciliation,
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2 Corinthians 5 and verse 18, to make people friends again.
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And what Paul's saying to Philemon is, Onesimus is coming back.
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And if the gospel has made a difference in you, you're not allowed to see him
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as a slave anymore.
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You've got to see him as a brother in Christ and you've got to treat him.
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Look at verse 17, he's going to literally command him,
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receive him just like you would me.
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And what we've got to ask ourselves is this, do I believe the gospel?
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You say, yes, I'm a Christian.
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And Paul would say, okay, how's the gospel making a difference
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in your life and is it fixing broken relationships?
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In my life, not just with God, but with other people around me,
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how do I go about letting it change my life and my relationships
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with other people?
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Because in the first century, churches were just like ours,
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they weren't perfect.
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Sometimes there'd be two women in the church that didn't get along and Paul would
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write like he did to the Philippians.
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Yoda and Syntyche, I want you to fix it, Philippians 4, 1 through 3.
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But Jesus expected that people that believed in him would have the spiritual
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maturity to fix their difficulties.
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He says, if your brother sins against you, I want you to go to him and solve it,
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Matthew 18, 15 through 17.
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And if you realize somebody has a problem with you, I want you to go to them,
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Matthew 5, 23 through 24.
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He says, leave your gift at the altar.
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That is, don't even come to worship until you get this fixed.
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That means if there are two spiritual people with a problem,
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they should actually meet on the way because they want to fix it and they want
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to solve it.
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And if you believe the gospel, the difference it makes is it fixes
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broken relationships because the gospel is the ultimate confrontation.
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I've already confronted my sin in the gospel and my God.
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And because I know I'm not perfect, I can engage with other people freely and
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regularly under that reality and I can allow it to do its work on me and
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change me.
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But, you know, people typically have two responses to this.
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They say, well, Hiram, wait a minute, I'm not the confrontational type,
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I don't like problems.
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Or on the other side, they say, I really don't want to have a confrontation
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with anybody because I'm liable to go off.
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I've got a bad temper and I don't want to explode on anybody.
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And both of those are incorrect and cowardly responses.
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The gospel won't let you stuff it down, it won't let you hide under it,
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it won't let you push it aside.
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If the gospel makes a difference when there are broken things in
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relationships with people, you've got the wherewithal to fix it
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in Jesus's name.
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Romans 12, 18, Paul says, as much as is possible,
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as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people.
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There are two ways people typically clean.
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There's the rush clean and then what we call the real clean.
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The rush clean is when unannounced company comes to your house and you start
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cleaning like a teenager, just throwing stuff in drawers,
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everything goes in the garage, coffee mug, you just want it to appear nice.
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Whether it's actually clean or not, this is what I want people to see.
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The real cleaning is when you actually throw things in the trash that need to go
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in the trash, put things in a place that actually belong in a place,
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and you do the hard work.
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And I'm telling you, it's possible to be a Christian and to hear this and say
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to yourself, yep, somebody else needs to hear that.
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And all you've ever done with hard relationships in your life is what we'll
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call rush cleaning.
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You stuff it down, you can't have hard conversations without losing your cool,
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or you avoid people.
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And if you do that, just like a drawer with stuff just thrown in it,
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your heart will be filled with junk, you won't have real reconciliation,
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you won't have real peace, you'll avoid these relationships.
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And if the gospel has made a difference, Paul says, Philemon,
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Onesimus is coming back and you won't be able to duck him,
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you've got to face him.
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And how many churches, and how many families, and how many jobs where people
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that claim to be Christians, I mean, we can't even do this,
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we can't have the hard conversations.
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Paul says, if you're a Christian, and if the gospel's changed you,
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you'll allow it to.
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It'll fix and mend those relationships.
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We won't simply say, well, how are y'all doing?
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We're all right, when you know it's all wrong.
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When you know there hasn't been real peace that's been made.
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See, the gospel is not just theoretical.
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It's not just words on a page, it actually invades our business and
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gets in our lives and it says, you know what?
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I've been made right with God, but when I find out I'm not right with others,
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I really want to do a real clean.
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I want to have hard conversations and I want to keep my cool, keep my Christ.
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We can talk to one another in love and we can fix it.
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Paul says, Philemon, you've got to do this because the gospel
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has really changed you.
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Here's number five, it empowers us to do hard things.
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He says, receive him just like you would receive me.
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I want you to receive this brother just like you would receive me.
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And he says, by the way, if he owes you anything, I'll repay it.
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I, Paul, verse 19, write it with my own hand, I will repay it.
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He says, to say nothing that you owe me, even your own life.
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How does the gospel make a difference?
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It empowers us to do hard things.
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Paul's probably asking Philemon to do the hardest thing he'd ever do in his life.
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Everybody around Philemon has slaves and Philemon, I want you to let Onesimus go.
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He's a brother, I want you to receive him like that.
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He now has a different master and I want you to accept it.
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You know there are some things in the New Testament in Christianity
29:03
that are very easy for you to do.
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And when you come across those things in the Bible,
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God wants you to do those things.
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And then there are some things you read in the Bible
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and they're terribly difficult for you to do.
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And when you come across those things, God wants you to do those too.
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Sometimes I talk to people about the Bible
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and they act as if I've been a preacher my whole life.
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Like I came out of the womb with a KJV right under my arm.
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You know, people think I'm not a real human being.
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They'll say, Hiram, oh yeah, the Bible says that but,
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and then they'll start in.
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Here is the thing, everybody struggles with this,
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including the person preaching this lesson.
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But the gospel makes a difference when we stop saying,
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the Bible says that but,
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and we start saying the Bible says that and.
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The Bible says that and, I'm just gonna do it.
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I can, I will, I must do hard things, Luke 9, 23.
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Philemon, I want you to receive him just like you would me.
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How can he do that?
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That's onesimus.
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I want you to treat him just like you would me.
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For some of us, that means you've got to forgive a deep hurt.
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People have hurt you, people have wronged you.
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How long are you gonna be a prisoner to it?
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The Bible says you can do hard things.
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You can forgive it.
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You've got to.
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If you want to be forgiven, Matthew 6, 13 and 14.
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For some, that means you've got to repent
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and turn loose of a sin that appears to have you
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as gripped as tight as your skin on your bones.
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But you can do it.
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You can do hard things, Acts 3 and verse 19.
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For others of us, that means you've got to confess this,
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surrender of self-reliance,
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and I can't do anything without him, John 15 and verse 5.
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But the gospel makes a practical difference
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when it says to us, you can do challenging things.
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Philemon had to do this and he could.
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And here's the last thing, number six.
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It saturates our lives with grace.
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If you're writing your Bible, look at verse 25.
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At the end of this letter, Paul gives some salutations.
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He sends greetings.
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He says, there's Aristarchus, there's Demas,
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there's Luke, there's Mark, there's Epaphras.
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All these people are with me.
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But the last verse, and it goes along with the song
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Mike sung right before the sermon.
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He says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
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be with your spirit.
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Earlier, he mentioned grace in verse three,
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and now the last thing he says in this book is,
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the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
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Paul sandwiches everything he says so far
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with the idea of grace, and that's on purpose.
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And Paul does this a lot in the New Testament.
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Commands a host of things of us and then says,
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by the way, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
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be with your spirit, because that's exactly
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what it's gonna take for you to do
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what God's asking you to do,
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the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Paul says we're saved by, yes, Ephesians 2, 8, 9,
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but we're also sustained by.
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Grace isn't just what gets salvation going.
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It's what sustains us throughout.
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I mean, imagine being Philemon.
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Tychicus or Onesimus comes back with this letter.
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You're in your house, you start reading this letter,
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and you start saying internally,
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Paul, there's no way I can do this.
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You have no idea what Onesimus has done to me.
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I just couldn't possibly forgive him.
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And then you lay your eyes on the last verse in this book,
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the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit,
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and then you start imagining God saying,
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there's no way I can forgive them.
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You've got no idea what they've done to me,
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but of course you know better.
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And you know that God's forgiven you,
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and because the grace of our Lord
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has led to our forgiveness.
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Everything that Paul asked in the 24 verses before it
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is possible and it's required because grace does reach us,
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and it changes everything about us.
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Our entire lives are saturated with it,
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and it's how we learn to move out in the world.
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Because he's been gracious toward us,
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we're gracious toward others.
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There's a lot of things you're gonna learn in life
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that in the end won't really make a difference.
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Christianity is not one of those things.
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I'm telling you, it's tempting
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to come to church your whole life.
32:25
Read the Bible, study, and pray, and think.
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These are great little spiritual truths,
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great little spiritual nuggets.
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All the while forgetting the gospel is designed
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to really change the kind of people we become.
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It redefines love.
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What's true love?
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What the Bible says.
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Not just the feeling, the people you love
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and serve and do life with.
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How do you approach people?
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Living room or courtroom?
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Ask the people in your life.
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They'll tell you.
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What about your past?
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Does it cling to you or have you left it behind?
32:53
And can you do the hard work
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of fixing broken relationships to the best of your ability
32:58
because the grace of Jesus Christ has done it with you
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in the most important relationship with God?
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The gospel makes a difference,
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but first it has to be heard, obeyed, and believed.
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And if you wanna do that this morning,
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we'd be happy to be witnesses to it
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and assist you in any way we can.
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If you believe Jesus is the Son of God,
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you're ready to turn away from sin.
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We'll take your confession that Jesus is the Messiah,
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baptize you in water for the forgiveness of your sins.
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You'll rise to walk in newness of life.
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And in conjunction with this lesson,
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it won't just be theoretical.
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Everything will be different.
33:27
It'll change your relationship with God, but with people,
33:30
and most of all, it'll change you.
33:32
Mike's gonna lead us in a song to encourage us
33:34
if you need to respond.
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Come nice together, we stand and as we sing.