All right, it's good to be with you today. One of the greatest virtues of Christianity is forgiveness. Because at its core, the gospel itself is the good news that God's forgiveness has come to us through the work of Jesus Christ. That Jesus himself, truly God and truly man, has suffered and died in our place to earn forgiveness and pardon from the Father. And so, the message of the cross is one of forgiveness. On the cross, our life of sin is placed on Jesus, and at the same time, the righteousness of Christ is credited to our account. And by this spiritual transaction, if you will, God justifies the sinner, He declares them righteous, even though they're not righteous. He forgives them. He restores them. And He grants them eternal life. And for our purposes, the slate is wiped clean. All of our transgressions, all of our sins, all of the guilt and the shame of the past is wiped clean in the blood of Jesus Christ. There is true and lasting forgiveness. But forgiveness is also meant to extend beyond even the realm of salvation. The apprehension of God's forgiveness should motivate in the heart of the believer an insatiable desire to then forgive other people. It doesn't just stop at God's forgiveness with us. It is meant to extend. Since God has extended grace and mercy, since God has granted repentance and the forgiveness of our sins, because God has reconciled believers to Himself through the death of His Son, Paul writes, therefore, be kind to one another. Tenderhearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Ephesians 4.32. Because we have been so forgiven, we ought to extend forgiveness to other people. And thankfully, we have one of the most dynamic examples of Christian forgiveness taught in the Scriptures. Because the question is always, what does this look like? You say that the Bible tells me to forgive? Show me what this looks like. And so we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at Christian forgiveness. So turn with me to Paul's letter to Philemon. Paul's letter to Philemon is one of two New Testament letters that's addressed to an individual, the other being 3 John. But Philemon, although it doesn't include any formal didactic teaching, it records a plea from Paul to his friend Philemon on behalf of a runaway slave named Onesimus. While in prison in Rome, Paul dispatches several couriers who would deliver several letters to the churches in Philippi, Ephesus, and Colossae. But the journey to Colossae, which we spent some time on for the last almost a year, but this journey to Colossae would have been nerve-wracking for one of these messengers in particular. Dispatched to Colossae were two men. Tychicus, which we've heard about before, we'll hear about him again, and this other man, Onesimus. But Onesimus had since run away from his master, a man named Philemon, who was a prominent member in the church in Colossae. And now Onesimus is returning at a great risk to himself. But he wouldn't return empty-handed. He would return with a letter that Paul placed in his hand, this letter to be given to Philemon, and so look with me at Paul's letter to Philemon. Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our beloved brother and fellow worker, and to Apphia, our sister, and to 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 always, making mention of you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints. And I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother, Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper, yet for love's sake, I rather appeal to you, since I am such a person as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, who I have begotten in my imprisonment, who was formerly useless to you, but now is useful both to you and to me. I have sent him back to you in person, that is, sending my very heart, whom I wished to keep with me, so that on your behalf he might minister to me in my imprisonment for the gospel. But without your consent I did not want to do anything, so that your goodness would not be in effect by compulsion, but out of your own free will. For perhaps he was for this reason separated from you for a while, that you would have him back 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 regard me a partner, accept him as you would me, But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will repay it. Not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self as well. Yes, brother, let me benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you since I know that you will do even more than what I say. At the same time also, prepare for me a lodging, for I hope that through your prayers I will be given to you. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Now it's going to take a couple weeks to work through this letter. We're going to spend, by my count, maybe three weeks here. But I trust that you'll be edified by it. But when Tychicus and Onesimus arrive in Colossae, they encounter Philemon for the first time, and the tension would have no doubt been very high. Onesimus, a slave, had stolen from Philemon and run away to Rome to live in anonymity. I mean, where are you going to go if you run away? You're going to go to a big city where no one can find you. That's where he goes. But soon he catches up with the apostle Paul, and we believe that Paul led him to saving faith in Jesus Christ. And so now Onesimus, formerly a runaway slave, is now a Christian believer. Genuine believer. More than that, he's actually developed a relationship with Paul and serves as an assistant to Paul. So now he's helping in gospel ministry. But there's a problem. He is still a runaway slave. And he's a slave of a man who Paul knows. In the first century AD, institutionalized slavery was pervasive. It was built into the Roman economy. It's estimated that maybe somewhere between a third and a half of all the people living in the empire were slaves. Generally, slaves were either criminals who've been caught, and that was part of their punishment, or they were prisoners of war that were put into slavery. Or they were people in the empire who had debts to pay to other people but didn't have the money to pay, and so they would go and become bond servants, slaves to other people, and they would work out their debt until they were paid. And it was not uncommon for somewhere between maybe 7 to 20 years, they would pay off this debt and they would become free again. But under Roman law, slaves had no rights. However, they were protected under the rights of their masters as they were considered part of their property. Now, life as a slave wasn't always necessarily bad. In a good home, they would be well provided for. They'd have food, enough food to eat, clothing, sometimes even get wages to buy things they needed to buy. They had suitable living conditions. They were oftentimes given a room or even a portion of a house in the complex that their master was living. And sometimes this is actually better than some of the free men that lived in the rest of the cities. A poor free man would live in the streets and could barely afford to feed himself. But in this case, a bond servant in a wealthy master's home would live very well. And so, depending on the master, Roman era slavery could be tolerable even for some preferable. However, the consequences for runaway slaves was extremely severe. Because a large portion of the population were slaves, the laws that were keeping them in order were very heavy, in order to disparage uprisings. If all of a sudden half of your population rises up against the other half, no more nation, no more anything. Runaway slaves that were caught were either beaten severely or even killed. Those who were allowed to live were oftentimes branded on their forehead with an F for fugitivas or fugitive. And so in sending Onesimus back, Paul knows that under Roman law, it would mean possibly death to this young disciple. But he knows the master, thankfully. And in his letter, he appeals to him for mercy and for forgiveness. And so with Onesimus likely in front of him at his feet, he would have read this letter. He would have read this letter, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our brother, our beloved brother and fellow worker, to Apphia, our sister, to Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house, grace and peace from God, our father, the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is a relatively standard introduction for most letters of this time. You read other of Paul's letters and they start relatively the same way. But Paul begins by first identifying himself. He also identifies Timothy who's with him. It's not that Timothy wrote the letter, but he's with him when he's writing the letter. And he refers to himself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. This is no doubt a play on words because he is quite literally sitting in jail, chained to a Roman guard. But more than that, he's in prison because he's been preaching the gospel. And so he is in prison because of Jesus Christ. He didn't see himself as a prisoner of man, because even when he was free, he called himself a bondservant, a slave of God in Christ Jesus. Even when he was free. Twice in Ephesians, he calls himself a prisoner of the Lord. But more than this, he is bound to the Lord as an apostle. He existed to serve as the Lord's ambassador. So no matter where he went, it didn't matter, he bore the charge, the explicit calling and charge to preach the gospel no matter where he went. So wherever Paul would set foot, he was always to be, as he says in Titus chapter one, the slave of God. I'm always the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ because he has impressed on me this desire, this mandate to preach. At one point he says, woe to me if I don't preach the gospel. If I don't do what I'm called to do, my master will be very angry with me and possibly punish me for disobeying my charge. And so he refers to himself in such a way, which is normal. Then he addresses the recipients of the letter. First, he talks to Philemon, our beloved brother and fellow worker. Philemon, again, was no doubt a prominent member of the Colossian church. And while we don't think he was necessarily a pastor or even an elder, we do know the Bible tells us he's a beloved brother and fellow worker. He had a knack for encouraging the church, as we're going to see in verses five through seven. And then Paul addresses Apphia, our sister, which is most likely Philemon's wife. And then he talks to Archippus, our fellow soldier. Some believe that that's actually Philemon's son, but certainly he's one of the gospel workers in the ministry. And lastly, Paul addresses the church in Philemon's house. In the first century, there was not a formal building. There wasn't going to be buildings like even this one. until the third or fourth century. And so the local expression of the church usually meant people meeting together in one another's houses. And so he addresses this church and he offers them a blessing, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, a relatively standard blessing. It included the fact that the church is the recipient of God's grace. Grace is unmerited favor. It's favor from God that you can't earn or even deserve. It's what God gives freely. He also pronounces God's peace. Peace from God. Certainly we have peace with God because of Christ. We also have peace of God in the terms of the fact that the war with God is over and therefore we're actually at some measure of peace within ourselves. And so that's a standard blessing. We know that all of our blessings come from God the Father and through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But then after this sort of standard blessing and standard introduction, he moves right into addressing Philemon directly. And notice here that Paul is playing the role of peacemaker. More than that, he's playing the role of facilitator. And so, for as level-headed as Philemon might normally be, He would have no doubt been emotional at the sight of Onesimus. What is he feeling at this point? I mean, think about the situation here. They've already come and addressed the church, the Colossian church. Onesimus is there as an ambassador of Paul. And now Philemon sees this perhaps young servant that ran away and stole a bunch of stuff. His wife is probably still pretty angry about it. His whole household is still reeling over this. What is he feeling? Maybe he's feeling hurt. Maybe he's feeling angry, perhaps even in the flesh, vengeful. I don't know, but think about where you might be in his position. But Paul here wastes no time appealing to Philemon's character and to his sensibilities. Look at verse four. He expresses thanksgiving. He says, I thank my God always making mention of you in my prayers." If you were to look at the Greek, the you here is singular, so he's talking directly to Philemon. He says, Philemon, I'm praying for you. Not only this, but I'm always praying for you. I'm thanking God for you. And the question is, well, why? Is that just a nicety? Is he just sort of just using, just, is he ingratiating himself through fake talk? Well, yeah, I'm praying for you, brother. What is this? Look at verse five. He gives the reason for his prayers. He says, because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints. This pastor that we know, Epaphras, had traveled 1300 miles to tell Paul about the happenings in Colossae. But certainly in their conversations, in their just sort of debriefing, he would have told them about the situation with Philemon. And certainly Onesimus, who's sitting right there, would have filled in some of the gaps. And so he would have got a very good picture about the reputation and the life and the ministry and the affect of Philemon. And so the question is, well, what are they talking about? What do they say about him? Well, they tell Paul, and certainly Paul would have known this for himself on some level, that Philemon was a man of love, and a man of faith. Now Greek scholars have noted, if you were to write out this verse on paper and sort of line everything up, Greek scholars have noticed what they call a a chiastic construction to the verse, meaning that there is a crisscross if you were to put the words all out in lines. The first part of the phrase goes with the last subject and the second part of the phrase goes with the first part or the first subject. And so if you look at your Bible, love really goes with saints and faith really goes with Christ. What does that mean? Why does that matter? Well, truthfully, it's really, we think, more of a stylistic device, but the point is this. Philemon is known for his sincere faith in Jesus Christ, but also his love toward all the saints. This characterizes his life. Philemon was a genuine Christian believer. He believed the gospel. He believed in Jesus. He loved other people. He loved his church. And Paul is going to appeal to this in a moment here. But he cites two virtues, faith and love. I want you to just skip over verse six for just a second. Look at verse seven. Because of what Paul has heard from his friends, he confesses in verse seven, he says, for I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love. Paul here is rejoicing in Philemon's loyalty to the body of Christ. He adds, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother. It's almost like he's kind of waving, almost like he's shaking him a little bit and saying, hey, the body loves you. The whole body is refreshed through you. This word for refresh really means to give pause, to give rest, to set at ease. Philemon is not the kind of man who stirs up trouble in the church. He doesn't poke the bear, so to speak. Rather, he puts people at ease. People are, when a situation arises and they go to him, he kind of calms them down and sets their heart at ease and refreshes them. And they have peace because of the ministry of Philemon. He was a refresher of hearts. He himself was a peacemaker. And this truth brought great joy and comfort to the Apostle Paul who is sitting in prison. And so we're starting to see what kind of man Philemon is. He's not a hothead. He's not a troublemaker. He's not a vicious slave master. He's a man of faith and of love. Look back at verse six. Verse six. Because of all this, he says, and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. Arguably, verse six is a little bit challenging to interpret. I read a lot of different scholars and commentators about how to construct and deconstruct this verse. But here's the thing. Paul is longing for Philemon to act. If you notice, he's looking, I want you to do something. I'm hoping that something happens in you. You see that? He's praying specifically. This word for fellowship here is koinonia. It's also rendered in the ESV as sharing. sharing and it's pertaining to his faith. He says, the fellowship of your faith. Philemon has already been an example to other people. He's already been an example of faith. Everybody knows about his faith. And so here, He has an opportunity to, again, refresh the body, to share his faith. Not in an evangelistic sense. He's not evangelizing his own church. That's not what he's doing. But to share his faith in terms of edification. That they would see his faith. That they would see his faithfulness. In essence, Paul is saying, and he's making reference to this, people are watching what you do, Philemon. They see your life, they see your ministry, they see your love, they see your faith. They're watching you. What are people going to see when you deal with this runaway slave who comes back to you? What are they going to see? Is he going to scream at him? Is he going to beat him? Is he going to kill him? So he has a chance to include the church, to share his faithfulness with them. They're watching. He adds that your faith may become effective. The Greek energesis, it's powerful or energized. That this would happen, your faith would become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. And so I want you to follow this progression of thought with me. Faith becomes effective or energized through knowledge. That's what he's saying. That the fellowship of your faith may become effective through knowledge of every good thing. Okay, you see the line? What is he to be thinking about? What's the knowledge? What's he thinking about? Every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. Referring to the blessings that he has in Christ Jesus. It reminds me, at least sure it reminds you as well on some level of James 1.17 saying that every good thing given, every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights. Every good thing that you have, that I have in this life, in this world comes down from God, from the Father of lights. So what gifts has he received? Well, it's the same gift that any of us have received in Christ Jesus. He is the recipient, just like us, of amazing grace, of abundant mercy, of payment for sins, of complete forgiveness, of full justification, of the gift of the Holy Spirit. He's received a love for God and a love for the brethren. peace with God, and peace of God. He's received the good thing, eternal security, divine blessing, everlasting life. So Paul is saying, Philemon, before you even move a muscle, before you spring a finger on that weeping young boy in front of you, I want you to ponder the grace of God in your life. Don't do anything until you think about what God has done in you already. You have a chance to ponder God's kindness and forbearance and patience and let your faith become empowered by your love. So that everybody who's watching you is going to share in the faith that you have. That their faith might grow. He's saying, ponder this Philemon. Think about this. Here is your chance to demonstrate faith and love and refreshment. All the things that I keep on hearing about, here's your chance. It's so easy to forget that we're Christians sometimes. Especially when we're wronged. When something happens. When there is injustice. When someone has hurt you. When you've been treated unfairly. When there's been grotesque sin. In the eyes of the world, we might be justified, we might even be allowed and encouraged to retaliate. The world would say, well, yeah, they hurt you, hurt them back. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, the church members are suing each other in the courts. Now, they might have had a solid case, they might have been legally justified, but what does Paul say? He says, this is to your shame that you're suing each other. He tells them, why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? Do you have to collect your pound of flesh? Do you have to bring that Christian believer all the way to the court system just to get your couple thousand dollars that he owes you? Do you have to drag it along while the world is watching? Do you have to do this? This is to your shame, he says. Why not rather be wrong? When people hurt you, do you have to go and get your revenge? Do you have to get your one up? Everybody these days, they want justice. You hear about it all the time. It's on the news, it's on social media, it's in conversation. We want personal justice, we want social justice. Let me tell you, you don't want justice. Because if you really understood your own depravity in the eyes of a holy God, you would be crying not for justice, but for mercy. God's justice is the only justice that's pure. He's going to bring it. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. I will repay. That's a promise. That's not just a, I hope you get around to it, God. He says, I'm going to do it. I'm going to repay. Vengeance belongs to me. What does Paul say in Romans 12? How about this? Why don't you actually be kind to the person who's hurt you? Why not extend mercy? or follow what Jesus says, why don't you turn the other cheek? They take your coat, give them your shirt as well. Why? Because in doing this, you're gonna heap hot burning coals on their head. You're not the one at fault at this point. This is between them and God, and God is gonna get the last word. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded and belittled? Believers, we don't really want justice in terms of ourselves. Because as soon as you call for justice on someone else who has hurt you, God's looking down on you saying, I have forgiven you. I have not enacted justice on you. Because if true justice was given to you, you would not be saved. However, God's justice is satisfied in Christ Jesus. He takes on our curse. He takes on all the wrath and all the justice poured out on Himself, even though He is righteous in every way. He takes it on Himself and renders to us an innocent verdict, even though we're guilty. We receive pardon because of Christ, and we want to enact justice on someone else. In Christ Jesus, God grants forgiveness for us. If you had true faith and manifested a genuine love for other people, you would not be screaming for justice, you would be forgiving. And while sinners understand that they have been forgiven by God, they must all the more be eager to extend forgiveness to other people. The foundations of forgiveness are a regenerate heart, an illuminated mind, an earnest faith, a genuine love. Mature believers, sanctified believers, they don't want to hold grudges. We don't want to get even. We don't want to punish others. In fact, in Luke chapter 7, Jesus is dining at a Pharisee's table, and a prostitute comes in. And she anoints his feet with perfume and with tears. And the Pharisee becomes angry and he doesn't know what to do with himself. He's kind of like, what is this woman doing in my house, this prostitute? I mean, she should be dragged out in stone for what she's doing. But Jesus tells a parable. Jesus answers him, Simon, I have something to say to you. He replied, say it, teacher. A money lender had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii and the other 50. And when they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more? Simon answered and says, I suppose the one who forgave more. He said to him, you have judged correctly. Turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume. For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much, but he who has forgiven little loves little. Then he said to her, your sins have been forgiven. And those who were reclining at the table saw him and began to say to themselves, who is this man who forgives, who even forgives sins? He said to the woman, go, your faith has saved you, go in peace. If you know that you have been forgiven much, you'll be all the more eager to forgive other people. And by doing so, your faith is made strong. And so Paul here is appealing to Philemon to do the right thing. And I want you to note what he says in verses eight and nine. Therefore, I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper. Yet for love's sake, I rather appeal to you Paul is an apostle. In the law courts, Philemon has every right to be angry, to be vengeful, to make him sleep outside and suffer exhaustion and exposure. He has every right to beat his slave. He has every right to brand his forehead with an F. He has every right to kill his slave. He has every right to drag him out publicly and shame him and humiliate him. And Paul says as an apostle, I have the authority to tell you to forgive him. But instead, I want to appeal to you. I want to plead with you to respond in a desirable way. He uses this word confidence. It means boldness, freedom of speech. I could tell you to do this. I have the authority of Christ as an apostle. I can say, woe to you, Simon, for you didn't take care of this one. But I won't. I won't. For love's sake, I would rather appeal to you. I would rather entreat you and plead with you. from 1,300 miles away. He sends this little tiny letter, a letter most of us skip over in our Bibles. He sends this tiny letter in the hands, the trembling hand of a slave, sends it back 1,300 miles and says, I am trusting in the work of the Holy Spirit in you to do the right thing. I believe in the power of the Spirit of God working in you to act in a way that is honorable to Christ. If that's not faith in the power of God, I don't know what is. I'm trusting in you. I'm trusting in your faith. I'm not going to force you to do this. True forgiveness can't be forced. We try it with our kids all the time, don't we? One is mean to the other. You need to say you're sorry. Sorry. Do you really mean that? No. That's what we do to each other sometimes. Well, I know I should forgive. The Bible says I should forgive. Sorry. And God says, you really mean that? Are you sure? You can't twist a person's arm to forgive. You can't put them in a counseling situation. You can't put two people in a room and say, all right, forgive each other. Just make it happen. Otherwise, it's not really forgiveness, is it? It's something else. No, true forgiveness comes this way. The foundations of it. For true forgiveness really happens through a person who has been regenerated and who realizes their sin against God and realizes that they have been the recipients of divine forgiveness. The more that you see, no one wants to talk about the doctrine of sin these days. We don't want to talk about it. We don't want to talk about hell. We don't want to talk about judgment. I'll tell you, believers, it's really important that we do. Why? So that we just get to feel all terrible all the time and bent over and frustrated and guilty? No. We've been forgiven. However, a realization of all the sins in my life that have been forgiven, should motivate in me a desire to forgive others, for much less. When I see my transgression against the throne of heaven, when I see how much glory of God I've robbed, am I going to care about someone who's taken from me? If I see how terribly I have blasphemed God, am I going to care if someone cusses me out? If I've seen how much I have betrayed my loyalty to Christ, I'll be all the more eager to forgive when a friend betrays their loyalty to me. This is not license to let people walk all over you. That's not how this works. However, when you have been wronged, When injustice falls on you, when people hurt you, and you did nothing to deserve it, when things happen to you, that isn't the issue. The issue is how do you respond as a believer? What is to be your response? Why is Paul so adamant about Philemon forgiving this runaway slave? Why? Why does he push so hard? Why does he, if you notice the first nine verses, he's really, this is a running start into something else. Why does he push so hard for this? And why is Paul even willing to stake his relationship on it? We'll talk about that next time. But for now, let's pray. God, thank you for your work of reconciliation. God, we confess to you, because we understand our own hearts, our own nature, that by and large, we are not very good at forgiveness. Lord, it's so easy for us to become hurt, and embittered, and beaten down, and taken advantage of. We feel ridiculed, we feel used. But yet we are sinners. How much more did your son suffer even worse shame? Belittled by others. Forsaken. Abused. Taken advantage of. Mocked and spit on. And yet he forgave. He extended mercy and kindness and forgiveness. God, I pray that You would continue to use Your Word, this tiny, seemingly insignificant letter, that You would use this to convict our hearts, that You would do a work in us, that we would be cut to the heart, and desire to forgive those who have hurt us. We would stop looking for how to make everything right, to square it all up, but rather that we would appeal to You. God, You are the One who enacts vengeance and retribution. You are the One who repays. You are the One that brings justice. You are the One that can change hearts and minds. Help us, Lord, to appeal to You, to put our trust in You, to put our hearts, our very hearts at Your feet and say, I trust You with all of my wounds, all of my pain, all of my suffering, I trust You that You will heal me. And Lord, empower us and help us to find the humility to tell someone else, I love you and I forgive you. And I want to restore whatever we have. This is a supernatural work, God. But I know and I trust in the power of the Holy Spirit living in every single Christian believer that this is possible. And this is actually what you desire. And so thank you for your forgiveness of us your willingness to remove the transgression through the blood of Christ on the cross. Thank you. In Jesus name. Amen.