Good morning, everyone. It is great to be here once again, and I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Philemon. It's a small book. It's a small letter. And let me see if I can help you here. It's page 1060, if you have one of those Bibles in front of you and the chair in front of you. So we're going to be doing just obviously a very short series through this little book, little letter that Paul wrote. So once again let us give attention to the word of our Lord, the word of God. And just this morning we're going to cover verses 1 to 3 but I'm going to read the whole letter just to give you some context. Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother. To Philemon, our beloved friend and fellow laborer. To the beloved Ephia, Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God making mention of you always in my prayers, hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy and consolation in your love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you, what is fitting, yet for love's sake I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul, the aged and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is my own heart, whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. But without your consent, I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary. For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. But if he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay, not to mention to you, that you owe me even your own self besides. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. But meanwhile, also prepare a guest room for me. For I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you. As do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow laborers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. your inspired, your inerrant, your infallible word. We just thank you for this feast that we've already enjoyed hearing from you through your word. And Holy Spirit, just give us understanding, give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to comprehend your word, your law. And Lord Jesus, may you be glorified. We pray this in your name. Amen. Well, pretty much my whole life, I've been a fan of sports. Just always loved sports, playing sports, watching sports. It's just been a big part of my life. Even so much that at one point I would consider it to be an idol, something that I had to push away from and repent of. But as I said, even today I still enjoy sports. I'd like to think it's more in balance now. But I have many memories of watching sports teams, and maybe the highlight or the most memorable moment for me goes way back to 1993. That was the year that my favorite baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays, won the World Series. I mentioned, I think, a couple weeks ago that I grew up in Canada, and the Blue Jays were my favorite team. And that was actually the second consecutive year that they won the World Series. And I just watched as many games as I could. And I remember many of the players from that team 30 years later. Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar, Paul Molitor, John Olerud. I mean, I could pretty much go through the whole roster. Loved watching the Blue Jays, and they had great pitching, too. Juan Guzman, Dwayne Ward, Dave Stewart. They just had a great team. And they went on to win the World Series. I'm not going to mention who they defeated that year. Maybe that might be offensive to you. I don't know if you're a baseball fan or not, but they beat the Phillies that year. I've since gone on to cheer for the Phillies, but why am I mentioning this? Why am I talking about the Toronto Blue Jays? Let me just say that there have been many, many great teams, sports teams over the years, and many great teams in just organizations in general, great armies, great battalions, great political administrations. And we could go on and on. There's just a lot of great teams out there. But the most amazing group of people Bar none is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me just clarify. I'm not here to to elevate the people of God. When we gather to worship, we are here to elevate the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone. But I do want to say that that the people of God are an amazing gathering group of people and this people here. at Grace Presbyterian Church is a remarkable group of people. It's a group that has differing gifts and abilities, but you come together here every Sunday, every Lord's Day to worship King Jesus. And what a beautiful thing that is. Now, what is the church? What is the church? This is a church. This is a local assembly gathering. What is the church? Well, we have many catechisms, of course, but I looked up question number 48 in the New City Catechism. The New City Catechism is a catechism that draws from Westminster and I believe the Heidelberg as well. Here's how it answers that question, that important question. God chooses and preserves for himself a community elected for eternal life and united by faith who love, follow, learn from, and worship God together. God sends out this community to proclaim the gospel and prefigure Christ's kingdom by the quality of their life together and their love for one another. Now, there's a lot there in that answer. But one of the things that we see is that the church is a community of love. Love is something that should mark every single church. Yes, every church is made up of individual believers, but they're believers who truly love one another. And as we start into this little letter, we're going to find that several people are mentioned by name. And we're going to briefly look at each of those individuals. I think you're going to be surprised by what we discover. I think you're going to be encouraged. Now, just a couple of contextual matters as we delve into this letter. This is one of just a few letters in the New Testament that are truly personal. By that, I mean a letter that was directly addressed to an individual person. So 3 John would be another example of that. The Apostle John was writing that letter to Gaius. But here in this letter, Paul is directly appealing to Philemon. And he has this request and essentially what it amounts to is receive Onesimus back. And we'll get into that next week, more of that. But he's essentially saying no matter how he's wronged you, forgive the man, welcome him back. And it's personal in that sense. Yes, the letter would have been circulated just like all the other letters, but this is a direct appeal Paul was giving to Philemon. Only three other letters bear the recipient's name. Often it's just the opposite. When you look at the New Testament letters or just the books in the New Testament, it's the author for which the book derives its name. not the recipient. So think of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They're all named based on who the author was. But in this case, it's the recipient. Now, the other examples of that would be 1st and 2nd Timothy, as well as Titus. Now, the section that we are going to cover this morning is called the greeting or the salutation, and this is very standard. for New Testament letters, for New Testament epistles. And really it was standard procedure for ancient letter writing. And here's how it works. It typically identifies the author and then it identifies the original recipients and that is followed with the actual greeting. Let me give you a couple more examples here. So turn to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. and verse 1. And what you're going to find here is that this greeting parallels the greeting in Philemon, very similar. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the church of God, which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." So you notice there, Paul, he is the author, and then that's followed by the recipients, the church in Corinth. And then you have that greeting, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And you will note 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 1 is pretty much identical. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the command of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. To Timothy, a true son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. So it's this standard greeting which you find in pretty much all the New Testament epistles. Now, what does Paul say off the bat here in Philemon? Well, he says this, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus. A prisoner of Christ Jesus. It's interesting to me that Paul is not shy about this. Not at all. And I'll talk more about that in a minute. But Philemon is one of those what are called prison epistles. prison epistle and that simply means Paul was writing this while in prison. A friend of mine is serving a life sentence here at one of the state prisons in Pennsylvania and I had the chance to visit him on a couple of occasions. 20 years ago, I think it's around 20 years ago, he murdered a man. Now he claims it was in self-defense and I think he has a legitimate case for that. The justice department is not convinced, but I have this friend and maybe you have a friend that's in prison right now. We live in a fallen world. We understand that things are not as they should be. There's conflict, sometimes even murder. And here, Paul calls himself a prisoner of Christ Jesus. A prisoner. He was in prison. And as I said, Paul is not ashamed of his chains. In fact, in Philemon, he mentions this multiple times. And if you go back to Ephesians, he mentions that three times. that he was a prisoner and one time in Colossians, another time in Philippians, he mentions his chains or his imprisonment. Now, most prisoners today and maybe in every day and age deal with this sense of shame. Most of them truly are guilty. They know that they shouldn't be there. There is that sense of shame. There's a reason why they're locked up. But Paul was a prisoner for one reason and one reason only, and that was his faith in Christ, his Christian testimony. And friends, he was not ashamed of this. And there's a sense in which we are all Christ's. We're slaves of Christ, we're servants of Christ. And maybe we're not in prison. But He has us, and let me illustrate to you what I'm trying to say here. Psalm 139, this is what it says, Psalm 139, I'm gonna start right there in verse one. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it all together. You have hedged me in behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it." Now think about what Paul is saying there in that wonderful song. Pardon me, David. I said Paul. What David is saying. He's saying, God, you know me. You know me completely. You know me better than I know myself. And so maybe there's a sense of security in that. But there's also this sense of bondage, if you will. You have hedged me in behind and before. You've laid your hand upon me. Friends, when we look back on our lives, we can see how God has guided us every step of the way. I mean, when I think of the script of my life, this is not the script that I would have written for myself. Now, my life is... filled with blessing. And when I think of blessing, my family right there in front of me, my wife and children, wonderful blessing to me. The gift of salvation, it's glorious. But the script that God had for me is different than the one that I would have had for myself. And so there's kind of this sense in which God is guiding and controlling our lives. And I think if Paul had his way, he would not have been in prison so much of the time. But here he was a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and God was using him, he was witnessing to his fellow prisoners, and he was even writing what would become scripture, these letters. Let me say another thing when it comes to Paul's name. Paul means little or small one. And maybe you know this, but Paul wasn't very impressive from a physical standpoint. And many weren't impressed with his speaking skills either. Here's what it says in 2 Corinthians 10 10. For they say, and this is Paul writing himself, his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech of no account. Now, Paul was just a little guy and he was brilliant, but he wasn't all that eloquent. But here's a man who just has an amazing testimony. He went from being a persecutor of Christians, in fact, he's the one that oversaw Stephen's death or his martyrdom when he was stoned to death. And so he went from being a persecutor of Christians to being an apostle. And I think it's fair to say that Paul was the greatest evangelist, the greatest missionary in the history of the church. But yet now here he is, a prisoner for the sake of Christ. So Paul was the author, but he also had a right hand man, and we know that to be Timothy. That's the next part. of verse 1, and Timothy our brother. Timothy was often mentioned right alongside Paul. He was there in Corinthians at the greeting as well as obviously in Timothy. And we know that Timothy came to faith under the tutelage of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. And then Paul himself further trained and discipled him. You might say he went to the best school possible. And he looked a lot like his mentor. I mean, if you're looking at Timothy, you're looking at a man that was very similar to Paul. It was interesting, I was reading in 1 Corinthians 4.17. Paul writes, for this reason, I've sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach everywhere in every church. Think about what Paul is saying there. He's essentially saying to these Corinthian believers, I can't come myself, but I'm sending Timothy to you, my beloved son. And guess what? He's just a duplicate of me. He's a mere image of me. And that's what Christian leadership is all about. We want to duplicate ourselves. You know, I should sound a lot like the other men. As you're in this season of transition, you're going to have other people filling the pulpit and giving leadership. We should all sound the same. Yes, we have different Personalities, of course, but men of God and women of God should sound and look the same. Second Timothy 2, 2, I love this verse, the things that you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses in trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. So Timothy was pretty much a duplicate of Paul. And he was a true brother in the Lord, as Paul calls him. He was a good and faithful servant of Christ. And think about this word brother that's used there. When I greet someone I know, I'm usually comfortable saying, Hey, Joe. Hey, John. Hey, Jack. But to say, hey, brother, or brother, just using that kind of language, And that's another story. There's a certain intimacy that's connoted with this term. I don't want to use it unless I really mean it. But Timothy was a true brother in the Lord. Now, there's a third person. And of course, this is Philemon himself. Look at how Paul describes him. Philemon, our beloved friend and fellow laborer. Now first, beloved friend. Friendship is something that we all need. I think friendship is maybe something that's underrated and misunderstood. We live in a world with social media and we can friend someone across the world that we've never met before and we're friends, right? That's how it works here in the 21st century. So that we've lost something of what true friendship is. Now, I've got this friend. His name is Bruce. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. And we have been friends for many years. And in fact, he was the best man at our wedding. And he is a good man. And he is a faithful friend. Even though we live 2,500 miles apart, he calls me, if not every month, then every other month. He's faithful and if there's any way that he could help me, I know that he would. He's very loyal and I'm grateful for that man. And maybe you have a friend like that. I was thinking of friendship and I couldn't help but think of David and Jonathan. What a friend God gave to David and Jonathan. Even though Jonathan was the prince, he was the son of the king and the king didn't like David. He was such a good friend to David, and that's what Philemon was to Paul and to many others. He was a beloved friend. But more than that, he was a fellow labor. And when we think of Christianity. We ought to think of of who we are. And that is servants of Christ. Christianity and the Christian life is work, it's labor. Yes, it's incredibly rewarding labor, but it's work nonetheless. And we need to see ourselves as servants of Christ, laborers in his vineyard. Think of the parable of the talents. Remember that parable? The master gave his servants talents, and he expected them to use those gifts, to use those talents. He wanted them multiplied. That was the expectation. And the same is true for us. God has given you gifts and abilities and talents, differing gifts. As I said earlier, we're all different, but we ought to be using them. for God and for his glory. And that's what Philemon was doing, he was a fellow laborer. Well, there's another person mentioned, the beloved Aphia. Who was Aphia? Well, there's a really good chance she was Philemon's wife. That's what some of the commentaries I was reading were suggesting. Obviously, we don't know a whole lot about her, but we do know that she was beloved. She was beloved, she was this lovable person, probably a lot like her husband, doing all that she could to build the church, to strengthen the brethren, to encourage them. And when we think of our brothers and sisters in Christ, This is how we should think of them, beloved. There's that affection that we have for one another. Let's look at the next person, Archippus or Archippus, probably Archippus, our fellow soldier. And again, you're asking, who was this guy? Well, he is actually mentioned in Colossians chapter 4. And there's a good chance that he was Philemon's son. Again, we don't know for sure, but that's what some of the commentaries were suggesting. Whatever the case, we do know that he was a fellow soldier. And I love that. A fellow soldier. We have to understand that the Christian life is a battle. There is war raging. And Spurgeon called the church the church militant. And that is true. And that's helpful for us. It's not that the people of God are looking for a fight. It's just that it must be so. We're always on the defensive. The devil is raging, he's roaring against God's people, he's raging against God's church. So it is a battle. It is a fight. And there's a great need for soldiers to stand and to fight. And Archippus, he's a great example of that. Here's what it says in Ephesians 6, 11 and 12. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Friends, there is this need, this great need to stand firm and to fight the good fight. It is a battle. And clearly, Archippus was a soldier for Christ, he's the kind of guy that that you'd want to have in your corner, or at least if you're in a bind. Never looking for a fight, but but never backing down. And oh, that God might raise up mighty men and mighty women of faith. Here's what it says in 2 Timothy 2 verses 3 and 4, So there we see, once again, it is a battle. But there's a great need for discipline. If you're a good soldier, then you're disciplined. You have to be. And we don't want to get caught up in the affairs of this world. So there is a need for strength, being strong in the Lord. It's not our own strength. It's God's strength. Well, let's look at the next part. This is not an individual. This is, well, as it's put there, to the church in your house. This was a gathering, a collection of believers. We call that the church. And most likely this church was meeting in Philemon's house. It's what we would call a house church. And the thing you need to know is that in the first century, pretty much every church was a house church. Philemon was probably a man of means and wealth. He probably had the largest home. out of all the Christians there. And so they met in his home. And probably the church wasn't very big, maybe 20 to 40 people. And that gives us some perspective, doesn't it? Last month, Let me say that again. Last March, my wife and I, we traveled down to Orlando to the Ligonier National Conference. Wonderful conference, rich time of fellowship and teaching. But one of the things, one of the people that we met there was a representative from a ministry called 20 Schemes. 20 Schemes. It's a ministry. that is seeking to plant churches in Scotland. And one of the things that we learned, even though Scotland has such a rich tradition and history when it comes to Christianity and even Presbyterianism, one of the things that we learned is it's a very secular culture. And he said it's very difficult there to plant a church. And so if you have a church of 15 to 25, that's common, that's normal. If you have a church of 50, it's a mega church and it's a church that's starting to reproduce. So it's different, it's hard soil. And I don't know how you feel about your church, but when it comes to the average size of a church around the world, 20 to 30 is pretty common. And sometimes the smaller churches here in the U.S. feel like they're in the shadow of the big churches because there's a lot of big churches. Even here in State College, there's a lot of big churches. But let me tell you, God has big plans for small churches or what we would call small churches. What happens here really matters in God's economy. And so I want to encourage you to keep on praying. Keep on serving, keep on being faithful, keep on sharing your faith. We'll talk about that next week. The work that is going on here at Grace Presbyterian Church is significant. This is a great work. And so press on. Because God has great plans for this church. One more thing I want to mention. One more person I want to mention, Onesimus. Now, we're going beyond verses 1 to 3, but in verse 11, it says, He was once unprofitable to you, Philemon, but now he is profitable to you and to me. So there's a sense in which this man is the reason we have this letter. And Paul's saying no matter what happened in his past, He became profitable and useful to me, to Paul. Clearly, he had a servant's heart. He would help Paul however he could. And now Paul is saying, I'm confident he's going to be profitable to you once again. He's the real deal. He's a changed man. He's a new man. And friends, that's the power of the gospel. So whatever happened in the past, forgive this man, receive him in the Lord. So here we have all these people that are mentioned right at the beginning of the letter and, of course, Onesimus a little later on. And then there's five more, five more individuals that are mentioned at the end of the letter. You see, the gospel is a partnership. The gospel is all about the Lord Jesus Christ, the person of Christ, the work of Christ, his death and resurrection. But we are invited into this gospel, the gospel is a partnership, and it's not just about those, you know, the big name players, famous pastors, authors. Seminary professors, the people that lead the big organizations. The gospel is a partnership. It's about ordinary people. Like you and me, like Philemon, Aphia, Archippus, Onesimus. In God's economy, people matter. Everyone in the body of Christ matters. And you have an important, indispensable role to play. So don't take that lightly. Do all that you can for Christ. Spend and be spent in service to your Lord. Now, before we finish up, I don't want to miss verse three, because verse three is very important. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. As I said, this is a standard greeting, but it's powerful. And there's so much contained here, it certainly highlights how salvation is all of grace. It's not of works, lest anyone should boast. And the Christian life starts with grace, but it never really ends there. The whole of the Christian life from start to finish is of grace. You see, it's about God giving to us what we do not deserve. And what we cannot give to ourselves. And all you have to do is think of the cross. Think of what Jesus did on our behalf. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He shed his blood on our behalf. Well, brothers and sisters, you woke up this morning. And you were desperately in need of God's grace. And the same thing will be true tomorrow morning. You're going to wake up and you're going to be going to be in need of God's grace. We never really move beyond that. Grace is the fuel that the believer lives off. And it's just another way of saying we live by faith. We trust Jesus to supply all that's lacking in our lives. So grace to you and peace. Peace is what flows from grace. Peace is the result of God's grace. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And at one time, yes, we were enemies of God. That's what it says in Romans 5. But now, because of God's amazing grace, we have peace with God. Our standing has completely changed. We're no longer enemies. We are friends of the living God. And so we have peace with God, but we also have the peace of God. And it's a peace which surpasses all understanding. I mean, I can stand up here and try and describe that peace to you. And you know that peace. Or I can try and describe that peace to a stranger. And that would be extremely hard to do because, again, it's a peace which transcends understanding. And that's what we have with God. So we must not forget that all this comes from God, our Father, we don't earn it, we must receive it by faith. So, brothers and sisters. Let me conclude by saying this, it's all about Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep. And day by day, we must fix our eyes upon him. We must see him for who he is. He's this wonderful, merciful savior. And today we've looked at all these kind of obscure individuals. And I wanted to do that to show you that, yes, the gospel is a partnership. And that in God's economy, people matter, but there is one person. Who stands above all others, and you know that person, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. And the more that we see him and the more that we see his glory, the more that we begin to see the world as he sees the world. So continue to strengthen the bond that you have here at Grace. What a privilege it is to be part of this family, to serve God together. And my prayer is that you would be energized in your serving and that that bond, that bond of peace, that bond of love would be strengthened more and more and more. Amen. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, your wonderful word. Your word is truth and light. And help us to see you, Lord Jesus. Help us to worship you, to glorify your name. And Lord, oh, would you just help us in the coming week, Lord? Remind us of the unspeakable privilege that we have to serve you and to know you. And as we leave this church, this facility, and we go out into your world, oh, Lord, may we go with joy. And may we go to those around us with the love of Jesus. So please work in our lives, work in our families. Glorify your great name. And we pray this all in Jesus' name with thanksgiving. Amen.