Amen. What a great song to sing, especially as we are going to explore the topic of God's sovereignty and His providence, as we consider what Paul says here, not only at the end of Philemon, but through Philemon, as we want to think about the message that's given to us here. And so as we begin, I want to remind you, we've been in this book. Of course, we took last week off for Easter, but we'd spent the previous two Sundays in Philemon. And we're looking at this great letter, a short letter, the shortest letter I think, but it's certainly unique in that it's a personal letter. And we don't see those often where it's written literally from one sender to one recipient. We know that there are messages in there for the house church that meets in Colossae in the house of Philemon, but this was clearly, given the content of this letter, meant to be given to Philemon to read, to consider, to hear, to think through, to pray about. And as Paul says, to act in a fitting manner based upon what he says there. Now, what is it about? Well, we've talked about that over the last several weeks. It's an interesting letter. It's a letter written by the Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to a man named Philemon, a wealthy man in Colossae, a man who was a slave owner. And one of his slaves, Onesimus, is at the heart of what's going on here. Onesimus has some way or another ended up with Paul, likely in Rome, when Paul is under house arrest at the end of Acts. Whatever the method by which he gets there, he's with Paul. And Paul evangelizes him, and he becomes a believer, and he is a Christian. And now Paul considers him a brother in Christ, but also a son in the faith. Because as we know, Paul terms things that way. When he is the one that God used as a means of delivering someone, sharing the gospel with them, then he says, my son in the faith. And so you'll see throughout this letter Paul refers to Onesimus in just this way. Now he could have used the same terminology for Philemon because Philemon is another Christian who was evangelized by Paul. In fact, Paul makes an argument in the text we looked at two weeks ago where he says, whatever this man owes you, put it on my account. I will repay it. Not to mention, Philemon, that you owe me your own self likewise. In other words, your entire life as a Christian came about by God using me as the means of evangelizing you and therefore you have something that you owe me that could be brought up. I don't think Paul's trying to elbow him there. I think Paul's basically saying, remember grace. God didn't have to save you. He didn't have to have our paths cross. God showed great grace to you Philemon. So I want you to remember that when you're being asked to show great grace to Onesimus. Now Inesimus has run away. By Roman law, however you want to deal with it, he's a criminal, he's a fugitive. He could be brought back, by law should be brought back in that day to Philemon, and Philemon could deal with him extremely harshly. Extremely harshly. And Paul is writing to him saying, I'm asking that you don't. I'm going to send him back." Now, Paul says, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, and you being a Christian, I have the right to order you to do what's fitting, to command you in this way, to tell you, here's what you must do. But Paul says, I would rather you do it because it's right. We talked about that three weeks ago, didn't we, that we understand that. If you have a position of authority, you like to see someone do the right thing for the right reason, right? They want to do it because it's the right thing. And so he's not looking to use compulsion here, but he says, I could use compulsion. Well, what is it he wants him to do? Well, it seems clear, at the very least, what he wants him to do is receive him back without all the danger that would be involved for Onesimus, without all the punishments, without all the difficulties. He goes beyond that and says, my greater hope, what I think you're going to do, what I expect to hear that you've done, is that you'll receive him back warmly. Now, in this time, that would have been almost impossible to imagine, right? Somebody has left, they've violated the law, they come back later, and they say, hey, Paul said he thought you might even receive back as a brother. Wrap your arms around me. Well, Paul says, actually, let me go a little bit further than that. What I want you to do is receive this man back to you as if it were me coming. Now we don't have to wonder in that day if you were a Christian who loved the Lord and loved His church and loved the apostles that were in that day, and you hear one of those apostles is coming to your home, you're going to roll out the red carpet, so to speak. You're going to do everything you can to entertain them well, to host them well. That just makes sense. Paul doesn't just say, receive him back. He doesn't just say, receive him back as a brother. He now says, receive him back as if it's me. I want you to roll out the red carpet for Onesimus. If you would have made me a special meal for coming into your home, make him a special meal. And my friends, you can see this is a difficult ask in that day. Highly unusual in that day, what's being asked of Philemon. And it's asking a lot, by the way, of Onesimus as well. Because Onesimus is being asked to trust and do the right thing, which is to return to Philemon and let Philemon handle it graciously. Now you could sit here and say, that seems risky to me. It would seem very risky, I think. But he's being asked to trust the Lord's working in all these things, just as Philemon is asking to put aside, being asked to put aside any pride or legal status. Put all that aside to do again what is right and fitting before the Lord, to handle this as brothers in Christ. Now, we'll get to this in a minute. I think Paul has beyond that that he'd also like to have. Well, I think he says it, so we'll see it here in a minute. But we want to recognize this is where we're brought to. Paul does not say you must free him from slavery. He doesn't say any of those things. But I said this the very first week. I think F.F. Bruce says it right, that this letter creates the environment in which slavery must wither and die. Because again, how can you justify owning people when they're your brother in the Lord? And so again, it began to set in place in the church slowly, very, very slowly, but a wrestling with these things and saying, does God ever look upon these things favorably? They've been a reality in the ancient world, but is it a reality that it should exist in the church? And the answer the church has come to clearly, and I'm grateful for that, is no. So coming back to this today, we want to look at how this letter closes over the last few verses. Brother Ben already read it for us, but I want to read it again so it's fresh in our minds. We're not going to stick to just these verses. We want to go back and look at the letter as well. But I want you to focus for a moment on these verses because Paul writes this, 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, and my fellow laborers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Now I want to say before we move into the exposition I want to look at today, I want to mention just really quickly about those last couple of verses. There's a list there of people that are around Paul. He often does this. He sends greetings and he receives greetings by mail. This is what happened. You didn't have cell phones. You couldn't call other churches. You had to send letters when couriers were going and you would send and say, we all greet you. And we see from the very beginning that Paul in a very special way ties Timothy in to this. But there are others and some names we know. We know names like Mark and Demas of course. We know in a different context Luke of course. But notice there at verse 23 he also mentions Epaphras. And Epaphras is incredibly important for this letter and for Colossians and for the entire thing going on here, because he is someone who had worked with Paul, and Paul had sent into this area, the area of Colossae, the Lycus River Valley, and he in fact was so famous as an evangelist in that valley, he began to be known as the evangelist of the Lycus River Valley, or the Lycus River Valley evangelist. And so he was a man well-known, well-known to Philemon, well-known to the church at Colossae, well-known to that entire region. And Paul says, he's with me here and my fellow prisoner. How in the world did Epaphras end up so far away and under arrest? We don't know. But he's there with Paul. I think it's an important thing to say there's a group of men there, of godly men that are trusted men that are kind of signing off on this letter. and saying, we hope, brother, we hope, Philemon, that you're going to handle this in the right way. I think it's also interesting that it may be, we talked about trying to figure out the background of this story. It's like pulling a thread that never ends, right? You never really come to the end of it. But it may be that Epaphras' presence there is what exposed exactly that Onesimus wasn't supposed to be there. He might have been the one to say he isn't supposed to be here. He was supposed to go and then leave and go back to Colossae. We don't know. But regardless, whatever these events are that have taken place, it's important to see that they are also here signing on this letter. But what I want us to look at today in this exposition are three points. First of all, Paul's optimistic expectation. Second of all, Paul's providential hope. And then third, Philemon, a letter of providence. And you can see that's been a theme in our music today, and it's been a theme that we want to see in this text today. I would argue that Philemon is a letter all about the providence of God. All about His providence. Now the entire Bible is about His providence, but this is one that's very easy to see it. And so we'll come back to that. Paul has a optimistic expectation. That's our first point today. Well, what is that optimistic expectation? Well, we already said he's been calling upon Philemon to do what is right. He says, Philemon, I've known you for a long time, at least by reputation. He didn't know him, but at least I've heard about your dealings by reputation. I've heard that you're a man incredibly gracious, a man who's opened your home to the church, and that's no small inconvenience. You're a man who has helped those in need in the church. You're a man who's always been doing the work of the Lord. I've heard it and I give God thanksgiving for it. But I'm asking now something more. I'm asking for something very concrete, very direct, very difficult to do. I'm asking you to receive back this man Onesimus and receive him back because he's a son to me and he's a brother to you. And what is more, even to receive him back as if he's me. Now, when you think about this, the entire push over and over is to do what is right and what is fitting. So although he doesn't command him, he makes it clear he does think there's a right answer to this equation, right? There is a right answer on what he should do given these circumstances. And then what does he say here as we enter our text for today? Having confidence in your obedience. Now, that's kind of a strange thing to say when you haven't ordered anything. When he hasn't at any time said, here's what you must do, here's what you have to do, it's weird to say I expect you to be obedient. But I think what we need to read between the lines here is while Paul never tells him what he must do, Paul clearly tells him what he should do. And when an apostle tells you what you should do, It's what you should do. Right? It's pretty simple. So when this apostle tells him, here's what you should do, you should receive him back as a brother, you should welcome him in, you should receive him as if it's me coming to visit you, then there is an expectation that those things should happen. And that Paul can say, though I haven't commanded you, because I don't want to command you, I don't want to force you to do something, I want you to willfully do it, willingly do it, desiringly do it, I want you to do it because it's right, though there is a way you can be disobedient. Because you can know what I want and say, not going to do it. Whether I've commanded you or not, it would still be disobedience. Maybe you can think about with your kids. You frame something not as an order, but what you'd want to see them do, and they just say no. Well, that's going to feel like disobedience even if you didn't command them to do it, right? So again, we want to recognize here that Paul says there is an expectation of obedience. I have confidence in this. I have confidence in the Lord that you will be obedient to all that I've asked. Now again, he's asked a lot. In the ancient world, in the Greco-Roman world, he's asked a lot. But I want you to look what he says beyond that. He says, I write this not only with the confidence that you'll do what I've said, but knowing knowing that you will do even more than I say. Everything I've outlined for you to do, as difficult as that would be to almost anybody in the Greco-Roman world, I know I have a confidence in knowing that you're going to do even more than I've asked. Now, that's kind of a gutsy statement out of Paul. I think he bases on the fact that he knows Philemon. He knows Philemon is a man of faith, a man who wants to honor the Lord in all that he does. So he reckons that he will want to do what's right and fitting, that he won't have to force him, he won't have to compel him. He'll do what's right. But it might lead us to ask the question, what is the more? One commentator said it's a tantalizing question. But I don't think it's really a mystery. I think Paul has hinted very broadly at what he wants ultimately for Philemon to go even further to do. Where are the hints about what he really wants? He says, I would have liked to have kept him with me. Onesimus has been so profitable to me in the work of the gospel, I would have preferred to have kept him with me, but not without your consent would I do this. So I'm sending him back. I think we can imagine that if you just read between the lines here, it's not that hard to see what Paul would love for Philemon to do is say, I'm going to set him free. I'm going to set Ernestmas free and send him back to you to work alongside you in the gospel. I'm going to turn what was once a slave now into a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To take the gospel message alongside you to wherever you go. and maybe to places that Paul doesn't even go. So I think we can see that here. There is more. There is more hinted at here. He wants something even greater, even if he doesn't act so bold as to say, and also, here's what I want you to do. It's clearly hinted at in the text. I think it also is hinted at when he says to him, you know, we talked about this in the second week, right, two weeks ago, that Onesimus means useful or profitable. And he says in there, a play on his name, you haven't found him profitable. You haven't found him useful. That could either point to a long argument between them where he just can't find the place he finds Onesimus to be profitable for him, or it could mean because he ran away. And therefore, during the time that he was gone, he wasn't profiting from him, clearly. But Paul says, whatever that understanding of what his name has been as a disappointment to you, know now he's no disappointment at all. Because it's one you formerly found unprofitable, now you and I both find profitable. Now, Philemon might say, well, I don't know. I haven't found it to be profitable. But he says when you hear the fullness of the work that he's doing on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ, you will say he's the most profitable investment you've ever made. He's serving alongside me. There's been times we've imagined, we've talked about this, I think the first week, that Paul probably is having a difficulty in jail. Now it's under house arrest, he's not in the worst of conditions, but who wants to be in any of those conditions? Who wants to be put in a room that they're not allowed to leave? I'm sure Paul is thinking all the time, I've got other things I'd like to do. Now he trusts the providence of God, we're gonna come back to that. But I'm sure he sits here and thinks, what am I doing on the sidelines right now? There's all kinds of things I could be doing. It takes a lot of trust in the Lord that He's got you there for a reason. And to be patient and to see what He's working together for His own glory and for our good, it takes some patience. And we're not great at patience, are we? That's why it's one of the fruit of the Spirit, right? We need it developed by the Holy Spirit in us. We need to learn long-suffering. Paul had to learn long-suffering. Paul says, I'd like to get about this mission to Gaul. Don't know if it's ever going to happen. But it's not going to happen in this room I'm stuck in. But you see, as he works through this, he has someone come and help encourage him. We had a sermon like six weeks ago in Acts where Paul is in jail while they're trying to figure out what to do with him. And he's clearly discouraged. It says, The Lord came and stood with him that night. The Lord came and stood next to Paul and told him, Be of good cheer, Paul. Now why does the Lord need to tell you to perk up, to be of good cheer if you're not down? Paul was wondering then, Will I ever make it to Rome? Well, the Lord answers that question, For as you have testified for me here, know that you'll testify for me in Rome. Well, now Paul's made it to Rome. Is this the end? Again, these things are going through any man's mind. He's struggling with these things. But Onesimus has been there as his helper and friend and encourager, a brother in the gospel, a fellow yokeman in the work of the ministry. And he's seeing him grow and develop and he says, I'd like to keep him. I'd like to have him here shoulder to shoulder with me to encourage me and to help me in the work. You see, he's not locked up. I can send him out to send messages to people. He can encourage me when I need it. My friends, that's clearly what Paul's hoping for. He says, he's been useful to me, and you may not realize it yet, but he's been very useful to you. Because on your account, he's been here serving me, even if you didn't authorize it. Right? It's because he's here, representing your household that I'm being blessed. He's very profitable to you. So my friends, when you think about this for a moment, think about what Paul is hoping to see. He's hoping to see a slave freed to go out and work alongside him as now an evident picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Freed from slavery. What better picture of the gospel can you have? It's a visual picture of what Christ does for us spiritually in shattering our chains and freeing us from slavery to sin and death. And so my friends, Paul has this optimistic expectation that Philemon will do this, will free him and do even more. But that brings us to our second point because Paul has another hope. This is a letter full of hope. It could be a letter that would be seeming the opposite of that, right? Very discouraging. Oh, who knows what's going to happen to Onesimus. But Paul has hope and confidence in how the Lord has worked in this man Philemon, that he will receive Onesimus well. Look at the very next verse and you'll see, I said Paul has another hope. It's a providential hope. He says, but meanwhile, in other words, while you're dealing with all of that, let me give you another note to be prepared for. Prepare a guest room for me, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you." I love this statement. You could preach a whole sermon on this verse. You could have a whole sermon on this verse. If we went to stay a while in Philemon and not get back to Isaiah, we might have done that. But it's a great verse to think about. Because Paul says, listen, I want you to prepare a guest room for me. Have it ready. I'm coming. Now, we might ask a couple of questions here. First of all, isn't there a little hiccup in this plan, Paul? You're locked up. How are you going to get there? And then the second question that we might think to ask about is, you know, I thought his whole plan was he wanted to go to Gaul. Is he really going to adjust his itinerary to go back to the east and back to Ephesus and the Lycus River Valley and spend time there? This is one of the arguments people make that he wasn't in Rome when this letter was received. I don't think it's necessary at all. I think there are developments that are happening in real time at this point that Paul thinks, whatever my future plan of going to Gaul, I first need to go back and deal with some things in the Lycus River Valley. What's going on there? Well, how about the Colossian heresy that's going on in the letter to the Colossians? Paul's going to have to deal with some of these things. And I think he's saying there, whatever God's eventual plan for me westward, I first need to go back eastward and take care of some responsibilities that I have there. So whatever the case, Paul says, I'm going to be coming. Well, now we come back to that first question. How are you going to get out of house arrest to even go back that way? Well, he answers the question for us, doesn't he? He says, I'm asking you to do this. Why? Because I trust that through your prayers, I shall be granted to you. God's going to release me. Now notice he doesn't argue that somehow Philemon himself is going to release him. This is all about God's sovereign power. There is a role for Philemon in this, but he's not saying, Philemon, you'll rob the guard or you'll send a letter to some high official you've got pull with and get me out of here. No. He says, God will release me, but he'll do it through your prayers. Now this is going to bring us to an interesting question about Paul's view of prayer. and its effectiveness. We might come to those questions we come to often in Scripture that are always fun to wrestle with. So which is it? Will God sovereignly free Paul from house arrest, or will they pray in such a way that Paul will be freed? And the answer is yes, right? What he's saying is God sovereignly will free Paul from jail, but God is choosing to wait in His own sovereignty for their prayers. This happens all the time in scripture, where we see where God uses the means of prayer to affect something. He could do it anytime he wants to. There are many times people gather around for a healing or something like that and somebody gets better or maybe people pray that God would bless the church in a particular way and they pray that for a time and then all of a sudden it happens and people say that prayer has been answered. But why do we need to pray? God had the power to do it. He would eventually do it. He knew before we ever knew that we were going to pray and that He was going to do it. So why prayer? And I think what Paul's showing us in verses like this, and that would well be worth spending a day on at some point, is that God uses prayer as the means, He waits for that as a means of calling us to realize our need of Him. to get us involved in prayer and seeking His face and seeking His will, to pray for and ask for things. If God just automatically gave us everything, right, we would never ask Him for anything. In fact, that's what He tells us, right, over and over again. You have not because you've asked not. Your children come to you because they desire things from you. We know this as parents. And what parent doesn't desire to give good gifts to their children? Jesus says, come to your heavenly Father and ask for good gifts and He will give them to you. Now when you wrestle with this, God is putting the Colossians, the members of the church at Colossae, and particularly Philemon in the position to realize they want something. That they cannot give to themselves. They cannot do for themselves. They cannot do for Paul. They're put in the position to ask God to do what only He can do and what they cannot do. And my friends, that's what really prayer is about. Right? I don't sit here and say, oh, that tablecloth needs to be adjusted. Let me pray about it. If I realize that's something I can do really quick, I do it. That doesn't mean you shouldn't pray over small things. Don't hear me the wrong way on this. I just mean prayer is really amplified in those moments where we sense our own weakness. That's one of the things that prayer does for us. It helps us to sense our own weakness, God's power, His greatness, His ability to answer all of our needs. And then it also teaches us about providence. Because God doesn't always answer our prayers the way we want Him to. There are times that we pray about something, and pray about something, and it doesn't happen the way we expect, or the way we even want. And God is teaching us, even in those moments, to trust Him. That promise in Romans 8, that He's working all things together for good, is told to us because we need to hear it. Because we don't always initially believe it. We think, God hasn't done the things I've wanted Him to do. Why does He hate me? But if I believe what Paul says in Romans chapter 8, the reason I've heard him answer the way I wanted to is because he loves me. And I can't see what he sees because I'm not God and he is. And that means sometimes we go through valleys that we want every way to escape. And we go through situations that we think, God, you could just easily pluck me out of this valley. And he doesn't. And we're asked to believe he does that for our good. My friends, I think Paul is saying here, if you ask for this, which I believe you are, God will answer it. I have confidence God will answer this prayer. If you ask for me, God will give me to you. That reminds me that prayer is effective. God is always working through prayer. He desires our prayers. They're not a bother to him, right? Again and again as we were going through the Holy War on Wednesday nights, one of the distinctives of the new covenant that Bunyan is pointing to is God hears the prayers of His people. Now my friends, as you think about that, we are called to pray. Paul prays. He says, I have confidence that I will be restored to you. He says it directly. I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you. Keep praying, and I believe God will move, and He'll free me, and I'll come, and I'll rejoice with you, and we'll deal with whatever the problems are when we get there. Now, that's a glorious thing to think about. And sees the hand of providence, doesn't it? That these things happen according to God's plan, His timing, His will. None of us can force God, manipulate God. We can't do anything like that. We can just beseech, we can just go to him, offer supplications. But trusting him as a perfect father that he will do what is right, that he can be trusted. Paul believes, just as I was told before, I've got a mission to Rome, so I believe now I've got a mission to Colossae and then on to possibly even Gaul. We can debate whether or not Paul made it to Gaul, but there are some people who think he did. Regardless, he has confidence he'll at least make it back to Colossae and have reason to say, prepare me a room. Well, this has me think a high note of providence that we see right there in Paul's dealings with the future. I have a confidence because I believe God will do that, but it's only because God will do that, and I can't force his hand. But I think when you think about this, and this is our third point, that this is an entire letter about providence. An entire letter about Providence. From the very beginning of this letter, it's about Providence. We looked at that very first verse. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Why not say a prisoner of Caesar? He's technically Caesar's prisoner, is he not? Paul says, I'm here because Jesus has allowed me to be here. I'm here because I'm a minister of the gospel, but I'm not just in jail as a happenstance. God has a purpose for me sitting here in this cell. And when he's done with that purpose, I believe he's going to free me to other things. I think that's exactly what Paul's talking about in verse 22 that we just looked at. There will come an end to the time in which I'm supposed to be here, and until then I'm going to be busy doing the work of the Lord. And Paul's always that way, isn't he? We even have him writing at the end of his life, all the saints of Caesar's household greet you. Paul's taking his time in jail to witness to those in Caesar's household. Praise God, Paul's always like that. Every opportunity he gets. So I think, first of all, he wants us to recognize that he's where he's supposed to be for now, for now. And he sees God's hand of sovereignty in that. As we go a little bit further, I want you to think even about this. 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. And we say, well, how is that something about providence? Well, think about this for a moment. We do this all the time. I thank God for Brother Ben, or I thank God for any one of you, all right? And I mean that. But if it's all Ben's doing, why am I giving thanks to God? I should give thanks to Ben, which I should also give thanks to Ben. But give thanks to the Lord as well. Why do we give thanks to the Lord for what people do? because we recognize in some sense men can only do what they do because of the Lord. This itself has a ribbon of providence in it. How are we a Christian? Well, throughout this letter we're seeing again in the background this idea of providence, of God led me and you Philemon together once upon a time in Ephesus. Was that chance? Did all those things just line up in a row and just fall into place? Or did God have a plan? See, think about how you answer that question. Because if it's just all happenstance and things falling into place, then there really is no reason to thank God for what people do. He has no part in it. But none of us would say that. In fact, even if we might argue that foolishly, we correct ourselves and we say, I thank God for you, brother. I thank God for you, sister. I thank God for these people. Because we recognize that God does have a part in all this. He calls us. He regenerates us through the work of the Holy Spirit. He gives us giftings. All these things we recognize. He brings us together as a people, taking all the puzzle pieces of our various gifts and brings them together into a beautiful picture. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians and elsewhere. So when you see this, Paul even says, I thank my God that you are such a faithful believer. I thank my God that you are so gracious to your brothers and sisters. I thank my God for all these things because all those things are an evidence of a divine love that is in you that is not natural. No matter how much we want to believe it's natural, Paul tells us it's not. It tells us in Romans 5 that the Holy Spirit pours out the love of God into our hearts. You have the love of God shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Spirit who's been given to you. It is not a natural love. It is a love that is given to us by the Holy Spirit. There is a sense in which Christians should be noted as different. Jesus said this. How will they know that we're His disciples? That we love one another with a different kind of love than what the world has. Now we could park here and have a whole other sermon, couldn't we? There's a lot in this book, this short little letter. But my friends, what he's saying is, I thank my God that he brought us together and that he brought you back to Colossae to bless the community of Colossae with this church. I thank God for doing that. Because however you've been involved in this story, God has been too. So my friends, when you see that another note of providence, and that's not even the most obvious one in this letter. Go down to verse 15 and think for a moment about the entire background of this letter. He's saying, Philemon, I want you to receive back Onesimus, though he's cost you money, though he's embarrassed you, though your social standing might be hurt amongst your fellow landowners and slave owners. I want you to receive him back, and I want you to do it because you need to look at this from a different perspective. You've been looking at it like chance. Oh, you know, Onesimus got upset and he left, and I don't know how this all happened that he ended up in Rome. I don't even know how he got there, unless it's how we said it, maybe he was sent there. But whatever the case, he ended up with Paul. He ended up a Christian. He ended up an effective minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now how did that happen? A series of random, crazy events that just came together to lead us to this exact moment? Or is God at work? Again, be careful how you answer that question, right? Because Paul answers it for you. He says, for perhaps he departed. In other words, he says perhaps all these things happened. All these things came to pass for a reason. Again we're talking about the language of providence. For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose. Now this purpose here, or reason, is passive. It's called the divine passive. It means Paul's clearly implying here that this is God's activity. This is God's activity. He says perhaps all these things came to pass. He departed, he came to me, all these things happened that something else might happen. that you might get a great exchange. Now what is that great exchange? We hinted at it a couple of weeks ago. Before you lost temporarily a slave, God has put you in the position you could receive back eternally a brother. I think we said two weeks ago, that's a pretty good trade. That's a pretty good trade. He's saying, see what, if you begin to look at this the right way, you begin to say this isn't random. But God allowed all these things to happen in the way that they happened to bring me and Onesimus together that I might witness to him the gospel, that he might be delivered by that gospel, that he might have working in his heart of the Holy Spirit to the degree that he wants to proclaim the gospel, learn more about it and proclaim the gospel. All these things happen for a purpose. What is that purpose? Well, for you, Philemon, that you can receive a brother from what formerly was a slave, but that the world can receive an evangelist and a preacher and one busy doing the work of the gospel. And again, to lose a servant and gain an evangelist is again a pretty good trade, especially a servant that Philemon didn't seem to be happy with in the first place. And now an evangelist or preacher that Paul says is wonderful, is useful, is profitable. So when you see this, he's asking him to look at this with eyes of faith. Eyes that see the providence of God working in this. He says, if you look at it for a moment, you'll see that God has transformed this entire situation from what would be a legal loss into a spiritual gain. into a kingdom gain, into a church gain. He's done this. God has done this. He's given unimaginable gain. If Philemon, you have eyes to see it. If you have faith to believe it, to see what God has orchestrated here. Now, I want to close here by saying that Philemon's not the only one who needs to have a bigger view of God's providence. It's one of the things I think that is often failing in our day. It's written about often by some of our greatest writers today that we probably have the lowest view of God's providence in the last hundred years that the church has ever had. the church has ever had. In fact, when you look at it, Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote this many, many years ago at the beginning of this time period. He said, I am prepared to assert that perhaps in the 20th century of ours, the most important doctrine in many ways is the doctrine of providence. Because people have such a low view of God's providence. That isn't shared in the early church. It's not shared in the days of the Reformation. It's a modern thing. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in trying to describe providence for us said this, Now, we can see providence in major things. I don't know about you all, but when I recognize providence, it's like when it's hitting me over the head with a hammer. You know, some major thing happens. You wonder, how's all this going to work out? And then it does in ways far more glorious than I could ever imagine. And I hope you've had those kind of events in your life where you can say, I need to give God praise and credit, right? I need to give him the glory. He's done this. The Lord has done this. But my friends, it can be harder to see it in the small things. But God is ever at work. I like what Spurgeon said. He said, blessed is the man who sees God in trifles. It is there that he is the hardest to see. But he who believes that God is there in the trifles may go from that little providence up to the God of providence. In other words, it just takes you up step by step to see how God is at work constantly. And by the way, just read the Bible. It's not just these major events. You would think in some sense Paul getting released at one point or another may not seem the biggest deal. Or other things as you're reading through the Scriptures, little things that happen that God is clearly at work to do. He deserves the praise for it. And so we need to recognize that. Paul is calling upon Philemon not to overlook the events before him, not to miss God's hand at work in those events, to realize that God has brought him to such a time as this, just as He did Esther, just as He did so many in the history of the Scriptures, where He brings them to just the right moment, where events seem to culminate just at the perfect time. I guess chance again, right? Just chance over and over again. No, we say it's providence. God knows what He's doing. He's at work to do these things. And so our God does all things well. Now, we're not 100% sure how all these events worked out. I think FF Bruce said, if it had not worked out well, this letter would have been lost. I don't know if that's true or not. But we can say this. We can say that God does all things well. And however this worked out, it was for his glory and for man's good. There is a little interesting historical note. I've been mentioning this the last couple of weeks. But church history, a few of the early church fathers, Jerome being one of them, says that this very Onesimus does get freed by Philemon, is sent back to Paul, does become a mighty preacher of the gospel. You might think like Apollos, a man mighty in the scriptures. He's a powerful preacher. He accompanies Paul for a time, and then Paul says, you know who really needs help? Timothy. Timothy's at Ephesus, he needs a helper. And so he sends Onesimus to Timothy at Ephesus. And it's there, not far from where he originally was in the Lycus River Valley, that he has a developing ministry helping Luke. And then eventually when Luke dies, Jerome tells us that Onesimus became the lead figure in the town of Ephesus, something like a bishop. Now, that's hard to confirm. It's the testimony of men hundreds of years later. But there is an interesting record from the very early days of the church. You may have heard of Ignatius. He was sent to Rome to be put to death for his work in the gospel and what they saw as an aggravation. This was around the 100-year mark. And Onesimus would have, if he survived, been a very old man. And Ignatius was going from the Middle East up to Rome for his execution. And all along the way, men would go to the route he was on to greet him, to wish him well, to pray with him. And the Roman guards, as we often see in the scriptures, are reasonable men. And they would stop and let him have fellowship for a time or prayer with these men. And when he came to Smyrna, it's recorded that a bishop came and visited him. and wanted prayer with Him and to encourage Him. And that bishop was the bishop of Ephesus, and history records that his name was Onesimus. Is that the same Onesimus? We can't prove it, but I kind of like the idea that it is, right? Because that's not only the gospel given to us in the word, but it would have been a visible demonstration of the power of the gospel in that day, that you could have heard the story of Onesimus as a man who was a slave and freed and who God used to mighty ends, to mighty ends. As I said, We'll one day get to glory and we can ask Onesimus ourselves or Paul or whichever person we run into there. But what a glorious story. My friends, as we close this book I want us to recognize that through the heartbeat of this letter is providence. Don't judge too quickly the events that are happening before you Philemon. Take a moment and look. God's hand is all over this story. All over it. So stop and think and give Him glory. My friends, we ought to do that a little bit in our lives too.