Wednesday Night Bible Study: Philemon - Session 2

[Music] [Applause] [Music] la all right good evening everybody most most of most of the people at home we got uh yeah Pam's online at home my mom is June might be lurking there somewhere um but yeah we we we we've got uh some cold weather issues keeping people at home and and travel and all that other stuff so and unfortunately as I was telling uh our people here is that um our our Baker extraordinaire is is not here tonight so we don't have any desserts and she text she emailed me today and I said well boy you know without that that sugar to kind of give me a little boost this might drag a little bit I'm not I'm not feeling the uh the energy like I usually do but because I forgot to do it last week hey buddy can you do the dessert slide this is what we had last week and it oh gosh help me remember it was like pecan bourbon yeah buttercream bourbon soaked with yeah it was it was ridiculous I got was ridiculous I got drunk oh I got like I got three four bites in maybe before and I'm like oh okay it was delicious so we we don't have dessert tonight so we'll have to the memory will have to be enough all right so we're going to we're going to get into fan tonight and uh so we we you know we talked all about slavery last week and then that the the Roman ancient Roman institution and how it's very different was very different from what we have a conception of and so if if we we might talk about it as we go on just to kind of clarify some things but I think we probably covered enough of that last week um I have no idea so is there there's only 25 verses 25 verses we've got four Wednesdays now I think to cover and in theory we'll get through seven verses tonight which seems like very few um but what I'm finding is that uh the the commentary that I'm using goes into a great amount of detail in the minutia so um we might get through this part quick tonight we might bar I have no idea so I I don't know how we're going to Pace ourselves I don't know how this is going to work if it's going to work it'll work but I don't know how so um so yeah we're just going to start and see where we go sound good cool first slide my man Paul a prisoner for Christ Jesus and Timothy our brother to phiman our beloved fellow worker and apia our sister and arpus our fellow Soldier and the church in your house grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ all right oh should have mentioned this before so just to recap this the the basic what's going on here is you got phiman who is a seemingly a prominent member of a congregation near colasse um he he owned or employed however you want to look at it it's a little murky here onesimus who was his slave and we obviously Paul is the Apostle Paul is writing to philimon because onesimus ran away from fi philimon ran to Paul Paul has kind of Taken onesimus under his wing and now he's writing to philimon to encourage him to take onesimus back to take him back forgive him him restore him and all this stuff so that's the the cause or the uh the reason for the letter so um what we have here in the first three verses is a typical greeting opening greeting for a letter um especially for Paul uh most of his letters open similarly to this um it is a typical greeting for ancient letters you've you've got basically your your sender recipient and salutation so you know Paul is the person person sending it to phiman and a couple other people and then salutation grace to you and peace from God our Father so boom boom boom very very standard uh the well so what what would be very Sim uh standard and and basic for us these salutations the opening in the uh in these ancient letters were were they communicated a lot there was very there was a complex kind of way of doing this that communicated a lot and and so how a salutation how an opening to a letter was formatted would tell you a lot about the the social um structure between recipient and sender um who got put first and and how it was all organized said a lot about the relationship between the people um the tone of the letter there was a lot involved here I got one little question yeah you happen to know when the the this was written because it does mention Jesus in here oh yeah yeah this well this is um this is pretty early on I think uh in the 50s to 60s 50 60 880 um so we're talking 20 30 years tops after uh Jesus died and Rose and ascended this was after oh yeah oh yeah all right oh yeah I see that yeah with so we're talking about like the first generation of the of the church okay than um sure sure I have a question yes was Timothy with Paul when Paul was a prisoner um he was seemingly yes with with him during this time now the the prisoner of Christ will we'll talk about that whether it's literal or figurative because you could look at it a couple different ways um and it's there there is some discussion about that about like where where exactly was Paul a prisoner at that time um because there were definitely places where he was imprisoned where it was more like prison where you know he couldn't really do anything go anywhere but then um especially during the last imprisonment that led him eventually to Rome where he he died um that imprisonment was a lot more LAX and so he had the ability to have people come visit him he actually had a lot more for lack of better term freedom in that to either come and go or have people coming and going and deal with so even when we talk about imprisonment there's a lot of fluidity to that um so yeah we we'll hold off on the The Prisoner Part because we'll we'll talk a little bit about that um so uh you know the the salutation would show you if you were talking about there were equals talking to one another if it was a superior addressing an inferior or if it was an inferior addressing a superior so you get all that from the it's a salutation uh the placement of names had significance you know and and and how they were structured um expressing you know your your deference to a social Superior Superior you put their name first um Paul usually refers to himself as an apostle of Christ uh so so by to establish his credentials so you look at most of the letters from Paul he says Paul an apostle of Christ or something along those lines um so he he kind of establishes his authority by saying that um uh like if I was to write you guys a friendly letter you know it be and in this format it be like from from from Shawn from Shawn your friend whatever if you I know something about you and you need a corrective this is not a friendly letter I'd be you know Sean your pastor your you know overseer your Spiritual Authority whatever you know if or or or you know if if if I even better if you got a letter from Pastor Shawn you'd probably be like oh okay what is he saying if you got a letter from Reverend McCoy you'd probably be like well that's different something something's going on there or you know you you know that something's up so the same thing goes on here so and we'll talk about this a little well when do we jump to that oh yeah right away um so he usually refers to himself as an apostle of Christ um meaning that he's he's showing his authority basically um you know telling these churches like hey I'm I'm I'm going to tell you some stuff and you got to listen because I'm an apostle it's not just anybody now granted they could say well of course Paul we all know Paul but you know not everybody is a monolith back then um you know especially well at the very beginning when Paul just comes into the church I mean nobody liked him everybody was afraid of him um you know even though he's like no I've been preaching Christ and he's like look i i people were like no so and Paul didn't necessarily always you know sometimes he' write to churches that he didn't personally visit or wasn't there yet so you know like well I've heard of Paul but why should I listen to this guy so he's like Paul an apostle of Christ selected by Christ you know he's establishing his his right to speak to them um and so in the letters where he's offering a corrective yeah it's like Paul an apostle of Christ like you guys are so bad you're getting a letter from the Apostle okay but here he says he's a prisoner of Christ this is the only place in all of his letters that he starts off by calling himself a prisoner of Christ there's one other place where he refers to himself as this and that's in Ephesians um and he actually refers to himself as that twice but it's in chapter 3 and four I think so it's further into the letter nowhere does he open up like I said the opening is is a significant part of the letter nowhere else does he open up saying he's a prisoner of Christ so right there is there's something significant because this is unique unique to phiman all right um so well what why why do you think why do you think he'd refer to himself like that what is he dealing with slave master relationship right now not to say that every slave master relationship would be like a prisoner but the fun thing is uh the Greek word here for prisoner um might be better translated as bound one like I I am as one bound as a prisoner or one bound as a slave so right at the top we've got Paul who is going to kind of identify on the same level as onesimus the slave and and throughout the whole thing this is kind of the the the really cool thing about this letter and why you know it's it's it's a onepage letter 25 verses you can easily I mean you skip over it when you're flipping through the Bible but the letter itself is a master class in how to deal with somebody pastorally how to deal with somebody and encourage them through the gospel essentially to you know walk in the right way it's it's every step of this is just like he's he's really crafting this perfectly um he references um his imprisonment what uh one two three four five times so five times in his 25 verse letter he mentions his imprisonment in verse 1 9 10 13 and 23 so he's repeating this idea of I'm I'm imprisoned I'm a prisoner in my imprisonment in my imprisonment um he keeps referring back to that kind of emphasizing that he is like reminding them that he's a prisoner um so he's he's he's expressing his authority you know I Paul everybody knows Paul um but he's showing his humility it's like yes I I I Paul an apostle but right now I'm I Paul a prisoner in Christ Jesus I am humbled okay I I I'm not coming to you in power okay and that's the key he's not coming he's not talking to a fiman from a place of like coming down like the law I command you to take him back not nothing like that um so in in these first few words Paul establishes the cool thing so Paul just the fact that he he gives you know I am Paul power right power and authority because he's an apostle we all know it but he also says he's a prisoner so he expresses weakness humility who does this remind you of somebody who comes in power and authority but expresses it in weakness and humility absolutely Jesus so Paul first verse half of the first verse not even um has already kind of set the tone that he's coming to he's addressing phiman as Jesus would address him or you know in in the spirit of Christ um power and authority yes but in weakness and humility as a servant as a slave as a prisoner okay so um really cool stuff um Paul includes if you look at um when he addresses everybody he well even himself he adds a little descriptive title to each person so Paul is a prisoner Timothy is our brother phiman is our beloved fellow worker apia is our sister arpus is our fellow Soldier um and then there's the church but the individuals are named with with a um a descriptive title to them so it it it indicates you know a familiarity it indicates a um closeness especially with you know Timothy our brother you know it's not physically his brother it's his brother in Christ philimon Our beloved fellow workers so phiman is a fellow worker in Christ whether that is he has an actual Ministry or if he's just a a fellow Christian but he's a beloved fellow brother um AIA our sister so a sister in Christ um arpus is a fellow Soldier um again probably not like soldier soldier but somehow whatever he whatever role he fills at that congregation um possibly or he's just you know maybe he's bold bold in Christ so um he's he's I don't want to say in gracious himself to them because there's nothing ingratiating to me feels like false like you're just trying to butter somebody up Paul's not doing that um this is genuine he's not just trying to flatter them or to say nice things to kind of like well I'm going to ask you to do something so I'm going to make sure I I grease the wheels he's not doing that um this really does come from a place of um love and understanding all right let's see what else do we want to say about that we got so much more um let me see here uh I'm going to skip ahead and then we're going to jump back um the only kind of interesting thing here in verse three is he says grace to you uh grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ now you might look at that and say well that's weird because he mentions the father and the son but he doesn't mention the spirit first of all this is this is kind of a standard early trinitarian sort of you know this is not like discounting the Trinity he's not excluding the spirit um this is this is kind of a an an early formula of a trinitarian greeting but the cool thing and this is this is my interpretation of this so do with it what you will um when I see this I actually see the holy spirit in this um and that is here let me write it so what does he say he says grace to you and peace from the father and the son right yeah okay so what I where I go is this is we got the father we've got the son and you actually do have the Holy Spirit do you know where where the spirit is the conduit of the grace to you and peace yes to you because you've got the father who sends the son you know for to for grace and peace the son accomplishes Grace and peace but how do you get it you get it through the holy SP Spirit Well that the holy spirit is this to you the holy spirit is what brings it to you so um I I just my thought on this is that it's actually just a very really cool um trinitarian formula that implies implies implies yeah sure implies the holy spirit in the to you so all right prisoner of Christ okay so back to what what you said about where was the imprison or or what kind of imprison imprisonment are we talking about um ah Mary says conduit very good all right good we were we were you know you don't get a free pass Mary you know if you're not here she is a yes she is all right you get you get a gold star for your attendance today um so prisoner of Christ there are different interpretations or um yeah interpretations of what is he what is he talking about he could be literally imprisoned I mean that that seems to be the most straightforward a prisoner of Christ so he was imprisoned he was imprisoned a lot you know there were several imprison imprisonments that he went through um everywhere he went you know he got into trouble with the Jews um because he would go and preach teach either in synagogues or near them um and so they were not happy with that so they'd often bring him to the council or whatever so that's that's possible um figurative prisoner he could be saying well I'm a prisoner in Christ um referring back to his conversion you know his conversion was not a you know it was kind of like he was taken right it wasn't like a oh I'm I'm learning about Jesus and now I believe it was Jesus showed up to him and was like bam why are you persecuting me stop it and and he you know blinded him and then made him see again so he could be referring kind of figuratively that he's like he has been taken prisoner by Christ so it kind of emphasizing this Master Slave relationship kind of you know I was I was taken almost as a slave like okay I don't I don't think Paul ever talks in other places in that way about his conversion um unless I'm completely skipping over some I don't think so um or he he is imprisoned somewhere um but it's not so much talking about he's not focusing on the fact that he's actually in prison but that he's trying to emphasize the fact that um or either that he's currently in prison or has been imprisoned um so as to say like I I know what it's like to be bound up I know what it's like to be taken and and held um so I I don't know I think that's probably a good place to go with it um the thing about a lot of what we're going to talk about is we don't have a lot of details like phiman this is the only place he's mentioned in all of scripture so everything we know about fiman is in this letter and we don't get much um there and and Paul doesn't get into a lot of detail there's a reason for it but it's just we don't we don't get it so there's a lot of speculation but you know we don't want to speculate too much because then it just that becomes our our process and not God's so um I kind of go with this kind of vague sort of like well he's either imprisoned or he's referring to having been imprisoned either way um he's focusing on the of Christ part so you know his imprisonment was for the gospel um and in a way where he's he's going to kind of go with this is to say like you know what whatever happened between you two in in in some way like you know what God is over all things and ultimately this will be for your benefit just like his imprisonment was always ultimately for the benefit of those he he he was sent to so why do you think Paul chose to write about this um pick this out of the A and oh well you know okay this kind of gets into um this kind of gets into Pro um a little bit of well stuff that we don't know which is why why did anist leave and I'm I'm jumping ahead a little bit but that's okay um so onesimus is is the the traditional View and the view that we take on this is that he he's a runaway slave now again slave whatever he he could have been a menial slave which would have been like you know manual labor working the fields working in the house whatever um I don't think he was most likely he was um one of these kind of managerial slaves where he probably managed the household um now there's there's some the some hinting here that when he left whatever he did because he he incurred some kind of a damage to phiman a financial damage so the based on the clues what it sounds most likely is that onesimus was a high ranking slave SL employee possibly managing the finances man whatever of filiman who who had seemed to be a have a some form of thriving business something that actually made some significant money um quite possibly the patron of this church so because he's writing this letter to phiman and then a couple other people who we don't know exactly where how they are if they're um uh who is it apia possibly philman's wife but we don't know she was a member of the congregation somehow but she was clearly affected by what happened so if she was affected well maybe she was his wife arpus traditionally thought of as his son maybe we don't know but also the congregation to their house so whatever onesimus whatever the damage he did to fman it affected that entire congregation so the the thinking would be that somehow whatever he did he maybe mismanaged funds maybe stole something we don't know but enough that it he took a pretty sizable hit and it affected the entire congregation so um so it was kind of a big deal and so that which would then make more sense that Paul would kind of take this up because he he goes to Paul you know and Paul definitely he's like he sees that okay well there's there's issues here and we need restoration we need reconciliation um but it seems to be that that the fact that Paul takes the time and is very careful ful about how he addresses this letter how he doesn't you know he doesn't include details so as not to embarrass anybody so as because he his his mode is I want to bring reconciliation so the whole congregation needs to come together and we're trying to get this runaway slave who has incurred some kind of a a damage we want to get him back into the company restored and even he says like not just as a slave but as a brother in Christ so it seems like it's a pretty big deal like this is not just a like if he was just uh working in the yard and he ran away it seems like Paul is kind of almost doing Overkill like it's great for Paul to do it but it just seems like this what damage could he have done I mean maybe if he stole something but then again how does that affect every I mean it's like well he's a runaway slave this happened often in know um slaves would and and not just like run away I mean sometimes they were encouraged sometimes by their their other fellow slaves sometimes um they just sort of you know it wasn't again it's not like slavery how we um know of it in in our country's history but it was there was a lot more involved here um so yeah he he seems to it seems to be a bigger deal um and so something something kind of more than just the average thing he he he needs to reach out and fix this the other side that is a little farther down is that he had grow very close to yeah oh yeah there's definitely there's definitely a um um a relationship that that a friendship that uh flourishes there um so he does care for him certainly but he cares for everybody and that's that's kind of what we're going to see throughout this letter is that you know he wants you know he he says like hey I would love for animus to stay with me he's he's helping me he's a good guy um I know that he's incurred a damage to you and you know I get it um but he's also he he's very careful with with addressing fman he doesn't want to embarrass him he doesn't want to um cause him any more pain he he does want to restore he does he's very interested in in getting this kind of you know um yeah I I don't know if if if a parallel would be like if in this congregation if somebody embezzled some money which I know this congregation actually has that in the history um and you know in in a perfect world you know so if somebody embezzles money and they run away and they you go to Paul and Paul wants to it's like take take this person back um it would be hard you know coming from us it like oh from our end it's like no that person embezzled money um so Paul everything he's going to say is going to try to link the the the grace of Christ in with it and be like yes I I understand the situation but you know there needs to be Grace there needs to be forgiveness and so even so you know if somebody embezzled money ran away it would be incredible if as a congregation we were able to be like you know what come back because what's more important to us is not the money you took but the fact that you are no longer part of our congregation you not you are no longer part of our family and that is what breaks us not the money um which I mean that would be tough I I mean it it would it would be really especially I mean it would be hard enough if it's one person but if it's the whole congregation now you're trying to manage all of so yeah it's it's every time trust is broken in a relationship oh yeah it's hard yeah yeah um well yeah I mean shoot you go with um you know in a marriage you know one is unfaith a spouse is Unfaithful I was just thinking of that I mean for in an our common experience of this well that's automatic divorce that's automatic done um in fact the the the idea even the the the the notion that you should seek to forgive and reconcile that is almost a an abhorent idea in our in our culture because like well no they they can't be trusted they're going to do it again and you're just rolling over and no no no but um I mean the the desire and the hope is that the the spouses can reconcile and there can be forgiveness it can be done it's it's been done it's Ron's not a part of that whatsoever um it's it is very difficult yes it is um and especially you know and and to to kind of parallel this too is you look at it and say well it's just one couple in a congregation that has effects and especially if it's a couple in the congregation well you know what happens well if they if they separate well now you take sides because you got the friends and now who's going to be and whatever and then um it's hard enough for a couple to reconcile it's even hard it's hard in the congregation now you'd think like the congregation should be like Hallelujah which I think sometimes that that might be the case however there's always like there's people there people who are hurt by it and protective of whatever spouse was cheated on yeah and you put up that Shield oh yeah yeah yeah so it's yeah this is this is big so that's why I don't think it's just a a a simple matter of a runaway slave it's like this had ripples this affected a lot and yeah a trust that was broken in such a way that it's like oof you know you need the big guy to step up you know this this isn't a Timothy letter you know you don't pass it off to the the young guy it's like Paul's doing it the other thing to be learned is that Paul didn't stay silent right didn't shy away from it absolutely no this is um and that's kind of the beauty of it is you know he writes these letters to the congregations that are sweeping and wide ranging and like doctrinal issues and whatever but then he writes a single page letter now granted it does affect a congregation but it is very personal um so yeah he does take it an active interest and desire to see the individual relationships um and so yeah it's it's which is it's fun being a pastor because in in in our culture because we're so independent and and and private and um it seems to me I don't know I I I was never a part of this experience of you know back in the day when pastors were more involved in like the private lives of the congr you know if there was something happen happening in in the congregation like privately that they would come to the pastor I mean that seems to be the stories I was always told nowadays oh no no um I I get I get people coming to me with like some things but um rarely are they kind of like the big private kind of stuff um which is unfortunate because I mean not that I have the secret answer to everything and I can just you know boom fixed but I mean I can offer Grace and peace forgiveness we could build a little confessional for you we could drum up some bus oh gosh yeah you know I say that and I going be one of those like be careful what you ask for yeah you know about all that down cuz yeah honestly the few times that so yeah again I say this like I would love to be more involved and the several times or a couple times that I have been drawn into those situations it's like it's more than you need to know well or want to know well want to know yes yeah um but you got to say uh okay right and but it it's like but it's I mean you think about it people suffer and deal with the stuff alone um there's more of that nowadays than there ever was I well yeah a privacy is is a big deal keeping things private um my understanding is I I was like we got seven versus get through we're we're we're going to get through in a breeze we're not even through three and I'm like ah let's talk about cuz one one of the things that like um that I'm hoping to do a a special we're well long story um uh women who suffer miscarriages nobody ever knows I mean if you think about it women rarely share when they've suffered a miscarriage um unless I mean if if if they've made a big deal about you know we're pregnant you know well then it it kind of becomes obvious but if it's before they've kind of announced it if they're keeping it kind of secret um and they have miscarriage usually nobody knows not even pastors okay um which is which is very sad because um they're suffering in silence and they're going through some they're going through a horrible experience that they feel like they don't want to share or can share and so yeah stuff like that where it's like you're right because I got an email from my cousin who lives in um hagertown Maryland and we were exchanging Christmas greetings and that kind of thing and her daughter who lives in North Carolina and her new husband came to visit my cousin her mother and um Christmas Eve um she woke up and was having issues and I rest her in the HP was in miscarriage and she didn't my cousin was telling me I don't know if you communicate with Christa but she doesn't want anybody to know so I know what you're saying exactly um and and part of it I can understand you know the hurt the pain and all that but it's like that's it's like when you need the church when you need that love and support um it's like when when it kills me when somebody says like well I'm just going through a tough time I just don't feel like I could be at church right now like that's where you need to be like that's what we're here for but that used to be a common occurrence years and years ago back 1800s of women had maybe two or three miscarriages before they had a baby it's and they had a lot of them like that I I mean I don't know the statistics but it's very much a common occurrence I I don't I would assume it's it's not as common as it was back then but it's very common well uh this is off the path but I heard that that new that new abortion pill is very very dangerous for the women taking it very that's probably why because they a good chance of bleeding out it's yeah I mean so yeah yeah it's it's some stuff have you ever seen a tombstone where it said uh mother and daughter yeah okay yeah died in child birth okay we got to get back on well now now I'm looking I'm like looking at the time in at 640 already and we haven't we barely got through three verses why do you get me talking because it's I'll blame you guys um it's fun so anyway um actually you know what I covered most of this in a roundabout way um any questions about three through one through three there all right good next next section which oh we'll get through this quick uh why don't we go through the next slide there buddy fman 4-7 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the lord Jesus and for all the saints and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ for I have derived much joy and comfort from your love my brother because the hearts of the Saints have been refreshed through you all right let's make some space here all right so the purpose of the thanks than giving is to set the stage um this is kind of the the Thanksgiving it is a it is a normal part of the letter again a salutation then a Thanksgiving um normal part of Paul's letters and and of um letters of that time too so it is to kind of it could be used to flatter the person to kind of um to ingratiate yourself towards them uh in Pagan cultures it could be to um kind of you know I like Paul invokes God here you know I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers a pagan uh uh letter would would might invoke their God and in order to try to even flatter that God or to encourage needle kick cajo whatever that God to bless or do something whatever it is it it's setting the tone of the letter um Paul's use of it is follows the uh the practice of the day but then also just expresses a Thanksgiving again he's not trying to this is not false flattery he's not just trying to butter him up so that way when he asks to take fight uh onesimus back he'll be like oh well you were so nice but he is doing something here okay there there is there's purpose behind how he's using the language uh the first thing is that it's very brief um you know he's talking about I thank you uh I thank my God I remember you in my prayers and what is the content of my prayers um I hear of your love and of the faith yada y yada there's four verses here right 1 2 3 4 um this is very brief the Pagan custom in these sections was to be very long a lot of words because um in order to be heard by your God put a lot of words in there if you keep talking maybe the God will listen that was the thing so it'd be long sections um and the the prayer too this was how they prayed to their gods you know you just talk your God's ear off and maybe he would just grant you out of spite um Jewish prayers similarly were often repetitive okay Paul's prayer is very brief short prayer I'm so glad we got time for this all right Luther has something to say about this okay and this is fun I love Luther okay so regarding um restraint in prayer so keeping things brief in prayer Luther writes this the Gentile delusion is that prayer meant um prayer meant making both God and oneself tired with yelling and murmuring but the Christian's prayer is easy and it does not cause hard work for it proceeds in faith on the basis of the promise of God and it presents its need from the heart Faith quickly gets through telling what it wants and because the Holy Spirit knows that God is listening to him he has no need of such Everlasting twaddle therefore the ancient fathers have said correctly that many long prayers are not the way they recommend short fervent prayers where one sigh toward heaven with a word or two as is often quite possible in the midst of Reading Writing or doing some other task which is great like you work Lord help me like good prayer but the others who make it nothing but a work of drudgery can never pray with gladness or devotion the man who is serious in his intentions and takes pleasure in prayer neither NE knows nor feels any toil and trouble he simply looks at his need and he has finished singing or praying the words before he has a chance to turn around in other words prayers ought to be brief frequent and intense yes just like when you give thanks for your food oh yeah yeah you got to hurry up it gets cold which you I wish some of these people are long women see I wish Mary was here cuz I I can Vision her expression as I would read that so whatever you're expression was Mary you need to tell me about it um here's the here's a fun thing so everything's attributed to Luther you know there there's so many go on social media it's like oh you know Luther wrote this there is so much attributed to him that he never said here's the key if it's clever it wasn't Luther if it's crass it's Luther I mean not hard and fast but I mean if it's if it's kind of clever like here's here's a famous one you know the the Shoemaker the Christian Shoemaker um doesn't you know spend his time putting little crosses on shoes he makes good shoes there's no evidence Luther said anything of the sort or if Luther said that if he knew Jesus was coming back tomorrow he he'd plant a tree today or whatever um oh and the worst one is preach the gospel always sometime you know if use words if necessary Luther definitely didn't say that never said that wouldn't even would have never said that so if it sounds clever and cute probably wasn't him if it's crass in some way or just like ah that was stupid like oh these people these Christians over here saying that that's dumb don't listen to those idiots here's what it is that was probably Luther um and I just love that um yeah he says like yeah when uh ever Mary quoted it Everlasting twaddle um um yeah that that this prayer is making both God and yourself tired with yelling and murmuring he has no time for that um so yeah for for Luther it is literally like as you're going about your day if you need to pray okay well then you're you know you're doing dishes and like for me it's like Lord get these kids to just figure out to how to do dishes on their own amen and you go on go on then go off to something else um you know that's that's a good prayer for Luther um we do need to have a prayer Workshop one of these days that would be fun um you sure oh yeah I mean it could be just an hour and we should be good um I like it we're doing it um but yeah Luther has some great words on just like yeah these prayer doesn't have to be verbose it's just what did he say uh brief frequent and intense Lord have mercy that's a beautiful prayer Pray it often I pray it all the time oftentimes when I'm picking up stuff at home Lord save these children um I like one not for uh I pray all the time when we're eating this dear heavenly father thank you for this food we're about to receive from your bful goodness in your dear son Jesus Christ amen it's a great prayer it's in it's in yeah oh yeah no that that's a wonderful prayer the portals of prayer um sometimes I drink it out a little bit just cas not too much I mean I'll keep us safe today sometimes I I do long prayers and and that's that's not coming from okay so if you hear me doing a long prayer it's usually with somebody and the intention is not so God would hear usually I'm trying to comfort the person in the prayer so I I'm saying more than I need to say but it's not for God it's for them um yeah usually like oftentimes even in in prayer here it be like oh Lord bless our homes I don't need to get I don't need to preach a sermon about it just pray it um so anyway Paul has a very brief like this is my prayer boom done okay um hearing so what does he say because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the lord Jesus and for all the saints all right how did Paul hear like well if he was in prison literally um was it from others like people bringing him news could have been you know the gossip whatever um so if you figure if if we go literally Paul's in prison how did he hear how has he heard about filan's love for um love and faith onesimus probably yeah oh onesimus I mean how is the news about I mean granted gossip there was gossip back then just as it is today and certainly gossip can get around and news travels but I mean the most direct route for him to learn about phiman and the situation is through onesimus now so he says this he makes a point to saying I hear of your love and the faith that you have toward the lord Jesus and for all the Saints likely heard it from onesmus what does that do Philman hears that onesmus is saying what good things onesimus has good things to say about philimon okay so you see how he's he's already trying to diffuse and I'm not saying like he's lying cuz he's not but he's saying like look let's let's bring it down onesimus says great things about you he says wonderful things about you okay so he's getting this news likely from onesimus um so he's he's not speaking poorly about filiman but then also kind of like you know what what that also tacitly sort of communicates is that onesimus maybe feels guilty it acknowledges like phan's a good man he's a good master I messed up I have nothing but good things to say about phiman so if he has nothing but good things to say about phiman and this is a terrible situation of conflict who's the result of the conflict or who's the the cause of it onesimus so he's he's acknowledging that like we have a repentant sinner here okay we're not dealing with just a runaway slave we've got a repentant brother in Christ right so he's setting the setting the scene for it all right um why is a joyful thing he says a joyful thing um where does he say that I thank my god oh okay just he thanks go my God always when I remember you in my prayers um oh verse seven for I drive much joy and comfort all right well he's imprisoned again literally well how is that joyful well he hears how um even in the midst of this conflict even in the midst of this situation phiman is is expressing love and faith so he's saying my joy is that even in this what I hear is that the gospel is doing its job you are holding fast to your faith so I understand that you're angry but there's so much more going on here and you need to remember that okay what you are expressing even though you're angry at the situation you've been hurt you've been you know crime has been committed against you and yet your love and faith I hear about this and this is good so he he's building it up and saying there's there's so much good material here there's a good foundation which is a great way for pastoral support here is to you know when somebody comes to you and you're like I've got nothing it's like you've got it no you've got a lot you've got way more than you think you have so let's build this back up let's Build You Up From The Bottom here and show you just how sure a foundation you have um classic kind of move here um cool little grammatical thing here says I hear of your so he has what he has love and faith right if I can spell love and faith for whom you know what Jesus and for all the saints all right so he has love and faith for for Jesus and the Saints which is a weird thing because you've got these two packages together and these two packages together so love and faith with Jesus sounds about right you should have love and faith in Jesus love and faith in the Saints though that's like that's weird cool thing is this is a really nice short example of a kaym right where you've got a love matches up with the Saints a prime okay B Faith matches up with B Jesus sorry just one so a chastic structure has this parallel kind of thing that that whittles it down and you've got um the beginning and the end match up and then the next thing the the second thing and the second from the end match up and so you just kind of do that until you get to the middle or until you've got equal sides so in this way it actually makes a lot of sense because he has love for the Saints he has faith in Jesus and of course the love for the Saints is expressed out of faith in Jesus right the faith produces the love so you have a nice little grammatical kaym going on there um I mean there's nothing more deep than like there's nothing like woo secret to that it's just kind of a cool little thing um all right sharing your faith and I pray that the sharing of your faith excuse me may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ um so sharing your faith the word there sharing is not it could be sharing it's not like sharing is more uh participation in the faith um because sharing in the faith and and I think the ESV is one of the few that actually translated sharing um because he says and I pray so I pray my prayer is that you're you're doing something so you're sharing the faith so that your work may become effective for the full knowledge so it is kind of putting a lot of the focus on his doing something whereas the participation in the faith is a little bit different that's less of his active role and more of kind of the passive participation like we all participate in Christ by being in Christ um so what he's saying here is most likely um he's he's praying that the faith in which phiman converted to was brought into um and now sustains him as a Christian would would remain and and become even more effective through more understanding of the Gospel um which if you you put that against everything that's going on seems to make a lot of sense because he's like okay so I know you're upset I know you you're owed a debt I know onesmus has has wronged you um so my my prayer is that your participation in the faith so so my prayer is that you as a a brother in Christ would um that that this your participation you're receiving the word you know kind of like how we participate in a church service we participate by receiving so he's saying my prayer is that by receiving the word of God by receiving the sacraments by receiving all this stuff um become more effective so strengthening okay more effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ what is the good things in us for the for the sake of Christ Grace Mercy forgiveness Peace Truth so in this situation he's saying as I read it at least he's saying I my prayer is that as you receive the word of God that this anger and this hurt that you have that the grace of God becomes more effective in dealing with that and taking care of that forgiving that taking that away from you and so that that good thing from the gospel the the grace the Forgiveness will will come be more effective that you will be filled with the desire to forgive to reconcile to bring back um so this is a really skillful way that he um is sharing his prayer his desire for phiman um not discounting anything like I say he's not just buttering up he's like no I pray that you receive the word in fact you know he's like yes fiman you you are upset you've been hurt go to church um go receive the word receive the sacrament um going back to like when when somebody's struggling like I I just don't feel like I should be in church right now um it's like come to church receive the word receive the sacrament um there how much time we got um you know when somebody you know it's hard when like uh somebody doesn't want to receive communion because they're they're you know they're dealing with something and they're just they're not in the right mind to receive communion it happens and I'm not discounting that at all I mean I hate it when that happens I hate it when somebody is so either upset angry hurt whatever that they cannot they feel like they can't receive communion um I under and it makes sense because you're like you know what I don't want to profane Christ's body CU if I take by taking this communion I'm I'm saying my my public confession is this is forgiveness and it is now a part of me but if I'm right from the getg go unwilling to forgive and I'm unwilling I'm like you know what I know I'm going to be pissed off at this person afterwards and I'm going to still be angry you know there's a sense of that like you know what I don't want to take it unworthily I mean scripture warns us about that if you know that you're not going to let go of it I mean you're essentially telling Jesus I don't your forgiveness is not strong enough that's that's a bad place to be so I totally get when people get there I hate it when they're there um because you know my my you know theolog uh theology brain says what it doesn't matter what what you receive there is stronger than any of that and it should it should take care of that's what you need the irony is that is what you need more than anything in that moment you need the body and blood of Christ in that moment in everything that you're feeling you need that and yet at the same time you can't take it because you don't want to profane it which is it's a terrible place to be um and you know I've I've I've encountered a handful of people whove you know and I get it and I've always tried to work with them and like you know what let's get you to a place where we can get you taking communion again in a way people are just doing this to God kind of just pushing back yeah um the the thing where where I the the difference I think in in in that is that it's a it's not out of ignorance like some people you know push away like oh I don't you know out of ignorance of it like I don't need it the people who don't take it when they're in that it's usually because they realize they do need it but it's just they're they're not they're not discounting it but they're they're actually acknowledging like yes it is what need but I'm not in the right mind to take it right now like I don't want to call Jesus you know a liar which is what I'd be doing if I took it knowing that I was unwilling to you know do anything whatever or you know it's very whenever these situations rise they're very emotional very complex very deep so there's a lot going on with those um but uh wow I'm not even sure how I how I got there from what I was talking about I'm sure it connects with this somehow oh it was telling him to come to church because he say he tells F lemman like you know I know you're hurt I know you're wronged come to church receive okay this is what you need um and then the conclusion we're a minute over oh well um so for I have derived much joy and comfort from your love my brother because the hearts of the Saints have been fresh through you um uh so oh this is kind of cool so in this last verse he repeats a couple things throughout the letter and um his heart my my because the hearts of the Saints have been refreshed through you uh throughout the letter he'll refer to um here that the philemon's love refreshes the hearts of the Saints he'll talk about in verse 12 that onesimus is Paul's very heart and in verse 20 he says refresh my heart in Christ like by doing by reconciling you will refresh my heart in Christ so he has this repeated theme of of the heart the heart the heart the heart of our our um is being refreshed in Christ that in reconciliation it this does it and then he calls him his brother my brother um he refers to Timothy as his brother um philimon is Paul's brother in verse 7 and then uh at the end of towards the end of the letter verse 16 onesimus is referred to as a beloved brother to Paul and to Phile so he he includes these words that he'll kind of repeat later on to kind of emphasize this like okay refreshing the heart refreshing the heart refreshing the heart you are my brother onesimus is my brother we are brothers so he's he's subtly using these terms to kind of put them all in an even field like so in this in this Thanksgiving portion he's he's like okay you're looking at it like I'm the master he's my slave I'm telling you we're brothers we're brothers in Christ this is our Common Ground let's start there instead of where you want to start from um so yeah everything he's doing is very very um very wise very um loving his his entire approach in every step of this very um pastoral um this is like I said it's a beautiful example of of how a pastor should be dealing with his people um how and not just I mean how we all should be dealing with people um and uh you know always going to the grace of God the gospel you know using that as our greatest tool um I keep looking at the comments online and the last one is Mary quoting Everlasting twaddle and I I can't I can't be serious when I see that all right any questions comments it's it's interesting how he goes from addressing the letter to fiman AIA arus and the church in your house very broad MH to then be very personal yes by verse seven yeah and he does that it's like most of the letter is clearly it's like singular you referring to philan but there are parts of it that actually does open it up to the whole congregation so the idea being is that the letters were often read in the congregation um so even a letter like to fman but I mean this is being addressed to the church so I mean this was intended to be read which is another kind of nice thing that Paul does is like okay this is going to everybody he's not going to say anything that's going to like portray fan in a poor light with the whole congregation because it's like he's the one who he's trying to heal when you were talking about Verses 4 through 7 um it seemed like you were implying you meant phiman specifically in this yeah in this regard really have to say that until verse seven where right says my brother yeah um I'm I could I'll double check that like so um the nice thing about Greek is that so um I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers the Greek will actually tell you if it's singular or plural um I'm fairly positive it's singular in this case I'll double check um but it it it could be um that he some of it is being pointed to the congregation um and actually the the the other side of that is that by addressing it mainly to phiman um and this I think would probably be supported by the idea that phiman is the patron of the congregation is that phiman kind of represents the congregation so whatever he says a phiman it applies to them too which in a way it it would anyway because it is addressed to them so even if he is addressing phiman singularly in that mode it also applies to everybody else too because kind of like as as the leader of the congregation goes so does the congregation kind of kind of idea um so it could um either way I think it works um and I'll I'll double check to see what the the case is on that one but I'm pretty sure it's um it's singular good call though all right barely got through seven verses in an hour now I know how this is going to go all right well thank you everybody online for sticking with us and uh we'll be back at it next Wednesday

Channel: Ascension East Lansing

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Id: HIz0zLHFMF4

Length: 65min 49sec (3949 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 18 2024