The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Philemon, verses 8 through 11. Let us now hear God's word. 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. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word this evening. Thank you for this opportunity to study and learn. And we do ask, Lord, that you would increase our knowledge of you, increase our knowledge of your truth, increase our knowledge of what kind of life you want us to live as Christians, and help us to renew our minds in all of these ways tonight as we consider what your Word has to say. We ask your blessing and for the help of your Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. What is the meaning of your name? Does your name have a special meaning? Here's my name. That's too skinny, isn't it? Okay, let's fix that. There we go. Nicholas. Although nobody calls me Nicholas. But that is, Dina does. Dina calls me Nicholas, that's true. times of danger, in trouble, you know. Nicholas, anybody want to take a stab at what Nicholas means? No, you can, no, you're disqualified. They know. Nicholas, Nicholas comes from Greek actually. And it means victory of the people. It comes from Nikos, to conquer, to win the victory, and Laos, which is people in Greek. So that's what my name means, victory of the people. What about your name? Anybody want to be a guinea pig? And Tiffany? My name comes from Theophany. Yeah. Yeah, a theophany is like a manifestation of God or an appearance of God. Yeah, very good. Anybody else? Lloyd? Okay. I didn't look yours up, Lloyd. Or did I? I didn't. All right, we'll have to help Lloyd with that. Okay, yeah, I don't. Okay. All right. Okay, Mitch. Now I did actually look up some of your names. Mitch, you might be interested to know, from what I read derives from Hebrew, which means who is like God. It's related to Michael in Hebrew, which means who is like God. Also Michelle. is related to that as well, if Google can be trusted, which sometimes it can, sometimes it can't. Well, you say, Mr. Nicholas, Ms. Tiffany, have you lived up to your name? Have you lived up to the meaning of your name? Well, for a long time, I did not, I wasn't, I was not the victory of the people. I was not the conqueror, the victor that God wanted me to be. And if anything, I was being conquered by the world, the flesh, and the devil. It took salvation to change me and help me live up to my name. Not that I am some world conqueror or something like that, except in the spiritual sense. Now, those who have faith in Jesus Christ, they overcome the world through that faith. through their relationship to Jesus Christ. Well, here in the passage before us tonight, we're going to talk about the man who is the subject of this letter. He makes his appearance for the first time here by name, and we'll think about his name and about how conversion has caused him now to live up to the meaning of his name. Now we are in verses 8 through 11. This begins the main body of Paul's letter to this man Philemon. We started last time by comparing and contrasting command versus appeal. What's Paul do? Paul says, though I could command, yet instead I will appeal. So Paul lays aside his authority, if you will, as an apostle, though he could use it. He could use it to command Philemon to do what is fitting, what is appropriate in relation to his slave Onesimus. But instead, Paul wants to make a loving appeal to Philemon, and you see that there in verses eight and nine. 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. So Paul is making a loving appeal to this man Philemon to receive Onesimus, to welcome him back, no longer as a mere slave, but as a beloved brother. And then you saw, we talked about the way And we see there in verse 9 how Paul describes himself. He describes himself as the aged, and we said that Paul is probably in his late 50s, early 60s at this point, somewhere in that neighborhood. He's an old man, and he's now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. So he is under custody of the Roman authorities, and you can read the story of that in the latter part of the book of Acts. And so that gives weight to Paul's appeal to Philemon. Well, tonight we want to try and finish this initial part of the appeal by looking at verses 10 and 11. Who is this appeal for? On behalf of whom does Paul appeal? Well, it is for this man, Onesimus. Verse 10, I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains." Now, this is the only time that this man's name appears in this letter, in this New Testament book, but he is the subject here. This is who is being discussed. This is the subject of the appeal that Paul's making to Philemon. It is on behalf of this man named Onesimus. Anybody want to take a stab at what Onesimus' name means? Dina's disqualified. I told her earlier today. Okay. Onesimus means useful, useful or profitable. Now, Apparently in the ancient world this was a somewhat of a standard name for slaves. So a lot of slaves had the name Onesimus or Onesimus. Why? Because this is what the master wanted the slave to be. He wanted the slave to be useful to him, to be profitable to him. So that is the meaning of his name. It means useful or profitable. That's important. We'll come back to that in just a little bit. Next, know what Paul calls him. He calls him his son. I appeal to you for my son, Onesimus. You say, is this the apostle Paul's biological child? No, Paul is speaking spiritually here, and this gets explained in the next statement that Paul makes. Paul says, I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains. Paul says, I've given birth. I have brought forth this man, Onesimus, and he is now my child. What's Paul talking about? Obviously, we're not meant to interpret this literally. What is Paul referring to? He's talking about spiritually. In what sense is Onesimus the son of the Apostle Paul? He's his son in a spiritual sense. The Apostle Paul has been instrumental in bringing this man to Christ, in giving him the gospel, the word of salvation. Onesimus has been saved. Paul is instrumental in bringing that salvation to him and thus is his spiritual father. Okay, that's the idea behind what Paul says here in verse 10. Now let's see some other examples of this in the New Testament because this is not the only person that Paul talks this way about. He talks this way about Timothy, about churches, about other people and other congregations in the New Testament. So let's look at a few examples of this. So keep your place here and let's turn to 1 Corinthians 4. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Timothy is one that the Apostle describes in this way on a number of occasions. And let's look at a couple of examples here. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 17. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord. Now was Timothy the biological child of Paul. No, of course not. Him being a son is qualified as in the Lord. So Timothy, Paul was instrumental in Timothy's salvation in his spiritual life. And thus he is his spiritual father and he can be described as his spiritual son, his son in the Lord. OK, one more example here for Timothy. First Timothy chapter one. First Timothy. Chapter one. Verse one, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God, our savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. Here we go to Timothy, a true son in the faith. There it is again. as Paul describes this man Timothy as his son in the faith. Now let's see Paul do this in relation to a church. So go back now to Galatians, Galatians chapter four. This is an interesting one because of how Paul puts it. Galatians chapter four in verse 19. Paul says, my little children for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you. That's quite the picture, isn't it? There's a vivid picture of the apostle Paul as like a mother who is going through labor pains in order to bring these Galatian Christians forth. And of course, this is referring to spiritual matters. But those are just a few examples of how Paul uses this language in the New Testament. So back to Philemon now. So hopefully you understand why Paul is referring to Philemon, or excuse me, Onesimus, the way that he is. Paul's been instrumental in him being saved and becoming a Christian, and thus he is his spiritual father. Now notice also the language of begotten, whom I have begotten. while in my chains. This reminds us of the new birth, right? This reminds us of being born again. Jesus told Nicodemus when he came to him at night, he told him, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. People have to be born again. in order to recognize and enter the kingdom of God. It's an absolute necessity. This is what's happened for Onesimus. He's been born again by the power of God, but God used the apostle Paul to bring him to life, to give him the new birth. So for example, in James 1 verse 18, James writes, of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. What happened? God gave his word of salvation, the gospel to the apostle Paul. Through Paul, it was delivered to Onesimus and God saved him by that gospel. Well, that's what's happened for you too. That's what God has done for you and for me. He sent someone to you with the Word of Truth, and He used that Word, the Gospel Word, the Word of God, to give you new life and cause you to be born again. This is what happened to Onesimus, and this is what happened to you as well. God gave you the new birth. He used human instruments to bring the Word of God to you, and the Word of God in the hands of the Spirit of God caused you to be born again. This is what happened for Onesimus and for us. Notice also the language of Christian family. I appealed to you for my son, Onesimus. We noted in our introduction to this book that one of the themes of this book is family. Family, not biological family, but spiritual family. Look back at the introduction now in verse one. Look at how Paul describes Timothy. Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother. That's family language. And then dropping down to verse 7, for we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. So there's family language again for Philemon in that case. And now Paul refers to Onesimus as his son. Hopefully that reminds you that when God saves you, when God saves a sinner, That sinner is ushered into the family of God. They become a part of a family with spiritual fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. We don't enter into the Christian life as a lone ranger, where God just sets us free to do our own thing on our own. Yes, we have an individual personal relationship with God, but we're also part of the Christian family. This is why we call each other brother and sister. This is why we refer to each other in this way, because we are all part of the family of God. And you can see that here in Philemon, in how Paul describes various people. Paul now has a loving family relationship with Onesimus. And think about what a radical transformation has taken place. Here you've got Onesimus, a slave, and then you've got the Apostle Paul, who's a Roman citizen, an educated man, a servant of Christ. They are worlds apart culturally. But yet, through the Gospel, through salvation, now they've been brought together into the same family. So much so that the Apostle Paul refers to this man with this affectionate term, this family term, and calls him his son. That's what happens when God saves us. He brings us into the family of God. And that means we ought to love each other. We ought to love one another like family. How do you love your family? Hopefully you love your family a lot, and you're committed to your family, and you'd be willing to sacrifice for your family. You'd be willing to do a whole host of things, even give up your life on behalf of your children or your wife or other family members, maybe not your uncle, but maybe somebody in your family you love that dearly, you care about that much. Well, we're brought into the family of God And we're supposed to love each other in an even higher way, in an even greater way than even our biological or our physical family. We ought to be willing to lay down our lives for the brethren, the apostle John says. Why? Because we're part of the family of God. Now also notice that Paul says there in verse 10, whom I have begotten while in my chains. When did this take place? It took place when Paul was a prisoner. So Paul has been arrested by the Roman authorities. We don't know exactly at what point he is here in the process, but we do know that he is a prisoner at this point to the Romans. And it is while he is in this status as a prisoner that he meets Onesimus, he gives the gospel, he proclaims the gospel to Onesimus, and he is saved, becoming his spiritual son. But it is while Paul is in chains that this occurs. So this is a point we made previously, but it's worth repeating again here. Paul has identified himself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. He's done it twice, right? Verse one, and also right here in our passage in verse nine. Paul is not ashamed of his chain. He's not ashamed to be a prisoner of Christ Jesus. And Paul has not given up his ministry for Christ in the gospel because of his chain. Now think about how dispirited you would be if you had to go to prison. Have you ever thought about that? How discouraging it would be. You might feel like, man, life is over. My life is over. I'm going to prison. How terrible that would be. Well, the apostle Paul's a prisoner at this point. And aren't you glad he didn't think, wow, it's over. My ministry is over. What did Paul do as a prisoner? He did the same thing he did when he wasn't a prisoner. What did he do when he wasn't a prisoner? He preached the gospel. He went all over the place, all over the known world, preaching the good news of salvation to Jesus Christ, his death, burial, and resurrection. What's he doing while he's a prisoner? The same thing. He's still doing that. So Paul hasn't hung up his... You know, his role, his job as an apostle, as one who preaches the gospel, he didn't give up. He didn't quit. He knows that his imprisonment has a purpose. Let me read you this from Philippians, where Paul expresses his purpose in prison. But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. And most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear." Ah, you see, Paul says, my imprisonment has actually furthered the gospel. It's caused others to be emboldened to preach themselves. And here in Philemon, we see that even as a prisoner, the apostle Paul was about his mission, to bring the gospel to people, and God used him to save this man, to save Onesimus. We say, well, what does that have to do with me? Well, everything. You may not be a prisoner, on behalf of the gospel. But we hit hard times and difficult circumstances in life, and we feel like giving up at times. We feel like we think, and we feel like, well, I've lost my purpose. What meaning is there for me in this part of my life, or this area of my life, or what have you. Do you ever feel like that? I feel like that sometimes. I feel like, man, is there anything going on? Is there some purpose that's being accomplished in these things? And yes is the answer to that. You need to be reminded, we need to remind ourselves that God has purpose. Did God have purpose for Paul in prison? Yes, he did. He most certainly did. Does God have purpose for you wherever you are in life, wherever he has you? Yes, he does. He has purpose for you. So don't be discouraged. And don't give up thinking, there's no purpose in this. No, remind yourself, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose, no matter where you are. Even if you feel like I've been put on the shelf, I'm not useful. My life's not profitable. You're wrong. If you know Christ, you belong to Him, and you're seeking to do His will, There's always great purpose in that. God's at work. He was at work in the Apostle Paul while he's in prison, and he's at work in your life too. Now, the next thing we learn about Onesimus here is in verse 11, and it's that his conversion has now made him profitable. Who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. So conversion has wrought a great change in Onesimus. He has gone from unprofitable to profitable, or we might also say, from useless to useful. That he has been begotten through the ministry of the Apostle Paul, he's been saved, become a Christian, and this has made him profitable. Now first think about that word unprofitable. We used a different word just a moment ago, useless. We might also use the word worthless, or as the New King James has it here, unprofitable. This is what Onesimus was prior to his conversion. Now, in what specific way was Onesimus unprofitable? Well, in terms of being a slave, on some level, he was not helpful to Philemon. Now, sometimes people kind of try to read between the lines about the situation with this man. Had he robbed Philemon and run off? Had he just run off? What were the particulars? We don't know that for sure. Commentators have to try and read between the lines about what specifically Onesimus did. But we do know that Onesimus has left his master because Paul is sending him back. And we do know from this text that he was unprofitable. So he was not a helpful slave. He was not someone who was a blessing to Philemon. Instead, he was the opposite. But now that has changed. Onesimus is now profitable. And as Paul says there at the end of the verse, he is now profitable to you and to me. So his usefulness now goes two different directions. At the very least, it goes toward the apostle and it goes toward Philemon. So let's think about it in terms of Paul. In what way would Onesimus be useful or profitable to Paul? Well, Paul actually goes on to explain. Drop down to verse 13, where Paul says, whom I wish to keep with me, that is Onesimus, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. Now, when you read that word minister, we often just think of me, right? Nick's a minister. or we think of a pastor in a pulpit or something like that. But minister simply means to serve, okay? So what's Paul saying when he says that he wished to keep Onesimus there with him that he might minister to him? What Paul is saying is he would like to have Onesimus there to see to his needs. to bring him food and drink, to secure clothing for him and blankets and that sort of thing. Whatever the Apostle Paul might need as a prisoner, Onesimus could be very profitable to him in ministering to him. Now, the Apostle Paul isn't necessarily in a jail cell at this point, but he is in a situation where The Roman authorities aren't responsible to provide him with three square meals a day and all his needs met and all that sort of thing. Paul needs other people to minister to him, to take care of him and see to his needs. So it goes that direction, right? He's now profitable to me, Paul says, but he's also profitable to you, to Philemon. And remember who Philemon is. He is Onesimus' master. They have this slave master relationship, something that we'll talk more about as we go along in our study of the book. But now, because of salvation, this man is going to be useful to Philemon as his slave. In what way? Well, I think a good way to answer this question is to look at the instructions that the apostles give to slaves in the New Testament. What are they supposed to do? How are they supposed to treat their master? So let's look at an example. Keep your place there in Philemon and turn to Ephesians. Just a couple of books back. Ephesians chapter six. And here in Ephesians six, Paul gives instructions to children and parents, but also to slaves and masters. Now, what does Paul say to slaves in the ancient world? Remember that this population of people was huge. There were a lot of slaves in the ancient world. A lot of people were in slavery. What does he say? Does he say, hey, make it as tough as you can on your master. Just every chance you get, stick it to him. You know, take what's yours, all that sort of thing. No, he doesn't say that. So Ephesians chapter 6 verse 5, bond servants be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh. with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart as to Christ. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service as to the Lord and not to men. Now, if a slave, a Christian slave, heeded that counsel and put it into practice, would they not be useful to their master? Yes, they most certainly would. They would be a profitable slave to their master. Think about it. If you're a Christian slave in the first century and your master knows that he can trust you to be working even when he's not looking, how profitable is that slave gonna be to you? It's gonna be valuable. It's gonna be very valuable. He's not gonna have to run out into the field every couple of minutes to make sure that people are doing what they're supposed to be doing. But the Christian slave is going to ensure that he is working for, being obedient to, and being profitable for his master. So back to Philemon. Now Onesimus is profitable to Paul and Philemon. And this reminds us that the new birth always brings change. It brings fundamental change And it brings practical change in the life of the person who has experienced it. You know, when I was in high school and the Lord saved me and gave me the new birth, things changed. Practical things changed about my life. Nobody had to tell me to clean up my room anymore. And I was less of a curse to my parents. You say, well, that was just you, Pastor Nick. Okay. But that changed in me. I became more helpful. I started to do chores to help my parents out around the house. I got better grades in school. I was no longer concerned about this set of things that distracted me from my schoolwork. Now I was concerned about this set of things, which actually lent itself to paying attention, doing homework, completing assignments, et cetera. Now, those are just some practical changes, but conversion made me a more useful, profitable, valuable kid student, et cetera. And that's because when someone is born again, this is an inevitability. There's going to be change. There's going to be real practical change. Onesimus has gone from useless to useful. He's gone from unprofitable to profitable. What explains that? What explains that is he's been begotten through the ministry of the Apostle Paul. He's been saved. He's experienced the new birth. And thus, in the language of 2 Corinthians 5, 17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new what? A new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. So if someone says, I'm born again, and you don't see that change in their life, you have reason to doubt whether they've been born again or not. You know, you hear from time to time polls in America about the percentage of born again Christians. Now, it's doubtful that people really understand what that means when they're asked, are you born again? But can we trust those numbers of how many people are quote unquote born again Christians in America? I'll never forget. I shouldn't say that. I'll get old and I'll forget one day. But at this point in time, I remember that when I got a job, when I got a new job at one place, someone said to me, I heard that you were a born again Christian. What does that mean? And so I explained it to her. I explained what that meant. But part of what that has to mean is if you are born again, that ought to show up in your life. There ought to be a change. Now, we don't all have the same dramatic, you know, I was a drunk this day and I was sober the next day. I'm not saying that, but there must be change. There must be something that indicates that you have actually experienced the new birth. Furthermore, this text teaches us something important about Christians. Onesimus is now profitable. Christians ought to be useful people. If we claim to be believers, then we ought to be useful. We ought to be valuable. We ought to be valuable to the people around us, to our employer, to our friends, our neighbors. They ought to recognize us, to put it a different way, as a blessing, as someone who is useful in the best sense of the term. Prior to salvation, we weren't. but with salvation we should be. We should be useful. Now let's finish with some Greek here. Okay. First of all, the Greek word for useless or unprofitable, which is what Onesimus was prior to salvation, Akrestos, this is the Greek here on the right, Akrestos. And here's the transliteration in the translation there, useless. What about the word for useful or profitable? Well, you can see the correspondence, Eukrestos, okay, which means useful or profitable. Now we see the connection to this man's name. Remember what his name means. Here's his name in the Greek language, Onesimus, or Onesimus, as we usually say it. And his name means useful. Well, now he's really useful. What made him useful? What's made him useful or profitable is salvation. Christ has saved him through the ministry of the Apostle Paul. And this man now is useful both to Paul and to Philemon and gonna be useful to the church as well because of the great change that God has brought about in him. So this is what should be true of us as well. When God saves us, there ought to be change. When God saves us, we ought to go from unprofitable to profitable. We ought to be someone who is eminently useful to the people around us. And that's what God did for Onesimus, and that is what God does for all of his people.