Postcards

So tonight, we're we're carrying on in, this series that we're doing called postcards, looking at single chapter books in the bible.

And that tonight, Pete will be opening up Philemon, for us. There's so many names in this book. I will probably pronounce them 1 way. Pete will pronounce them a completely different way. Who's right?

I have no idea, but you know, we'll just roll with it anyway. So, file Eamon is, on page 1 1 9 8, I think, of your so 1 1 so 1 2 0 0 of your church Bible. Get it right. And we're we're as we say, we're reading the whole book, which is just 1 chapter. Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother.

To file Eamon, our dear friend and fellow worker, also to Afya, our sister and archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your home. Grace and peace to you from god, our father, and the lord Jesus Christ. I always thank my god as I remember you in my prayers because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the lord Jesus. I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the lord's people.

Therefore, although in Christ, I could come could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do. Yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul, an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ of of Christ Jesus that I appealed to you for my son, onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly, He was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. I am sending him who is my very heart back to you.

I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. But I did not want to do anything without your consent so that any favor you you do do would not seem forced but would be voluntary. Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever. No longer as a slave, but better than a slave as a dear brother. He is very dear to me, but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the lord.

So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, I'm writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back. Not to mention that you owe me your very self I do not wish brother that I may have some benefits from you in the lord.

Refresh my heart in Christ. Confidence of your obedience. I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I ask And 1 more thing, prepare a guest room for me because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers. Apaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. Until the Mark in aristarchus, Demus, and Luke, my fellow workers, the grace of the lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Well, good evening. My name's Pete Woodcock, I'm 1 of the pastors at the church here. And if you're visiting, I think there are some visitors, then it's great great to have you great to have you with us. If you're a student and you're new and you wanna find out about what goes on at the church, please you know, make sure you see us afterwards or fill in 1 of those forms, come and come and chat to us. Please don't just run away.

It'll be be be really good. We got lots of good stuff on for, students as well. And then just 1 notice I think I need to give, and that is We have a a vision dinner coming up at the end of the month. What what date is it? 20 first of September.

And if you wanna sort of get involved in the church, you wanna find out what the church is like. Be worth coming to that vision dinner. We're gonna eat lovely food together, and we're just gonna sell the visions that we've got for the church in this area. And, it'd be very, really exciting to to to just fill in what's going on there. And that's how you'll get to know people as you eat eat and stuff together.

Filemon, let's pray. Father, help us now. This fantastic little book, full of so much. It's a postcard, but it's full of so much stuff. So help us to to concentrate on it and to be blessed by it.

We pray your spirit would open our ears and eyes to the truths in it in Jesus' name, amen. So, Feilemon, this tiny little letter of Paul, it's the shortest letter of Paul. We've called this series, postcards, because we're just looking at these 1 chapter books we did over Dyer in the Old Testament, last week. We're gonna do 2 John and 3 John and Jude, I think. But this fine demon, this little postcard, tiny letter, really, compared to Paul's great letters like Romans and stuff like that.

And this postcard's been described as 1 of the most, beautiful rhetorical letters in ancient writing. Lots of people get excited by this letter, just the way it's written. We come back to that, perhaps in a minute. It's intensely personal. Don't know whether you saw that.

It's very relational. It's beautifully working out the Christian gospel, in the lives of those people mentioned that's 1 way of looking at it, and that that's the way I want to take it. Others others hate this postcard. It's amazing. It's just a postcard.

So some are saying it's fantastic. Others hate it. And they condemn Paul, because of this postcard because they say, look, what Paul's doing? He's sending a slave back. I mean, does he does he believe in slavery?

So they see him as backing slavery from this postcards. So it's amazing. This little postcard has caused a division, throughout history. And we'll come back to that as well in a minute. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna I'm gonna take you through my first 2 points.

We're gonna have a break. And I wanna show you a little video thing. And we'll pray. And then we'll come back and I'll take you through 2 more points, and I'm gonna deal then with, you know, the slavery issue there. I'm gonna move this because I can't see these people here, and they might be making faces at me So how does this work?

So can we just get rid of this? That's it. Actually, no, put it back up again. Is it? So here's here's my first point.

My first point is the picture gallery. So I want us to have a sort of introduction to the characters. As I say, it's a fantastic little book described as 1 of the greatest, letters ever written. It was written by Paul, to a man obviously called philemon, he includes Timothy in the or authorship there. And I think there's a lot in that.

I just love the way Paul includes a younger man. Timothy was a younger minister that he was training up, and he includes him in his work to give him boldness and to, you know, to get Timothy, you know, stuck in with with what Paul is doing. I think there's a lot of stuff in that. But it's it's primarily from Paul. It's a letter written to encourage philemon to live for Jesus.

In fact, the lord Jesus Christ is mentioned, I think, I counted 12 times in 25 verses. So Jesus is central to to to to this a book. And Philemon is is encouraged to live out a life for Jesus by forgiving onesimus, who's a runaway slave. He's runaway slave. Apart from the lord Jesus Christ and god the father, there are 11 other names, I think, mentioned.

But the 3 big characters, as I've already said, let's just have a quick look at them. This picture gallery. First of all, Paul. Now Paul himself, as you may know, used to be called Sore, who's a very religious man, and he was a persecutor of Christians. He had the first martyr put to death Stephen, if you know the Bible.

But he was completely enlightened and changed from his former self when he saw that the lord Jesus Christ was in fact the Messiah of the Scriptures that Paul poured over. He suddenly saw that that all the scriptures that he was really committed to were all about the lord Jesus Christ, that he was opposing the very 1 that he was trying to find in the scriptures, and it knocked him off his horse, and you may know the the whole story. Now he becomes a committed follower of the lord Jesus Christ, and he's called an apostle. That is a set apart 1. So Jesus is a set apart Paul to be now an authoritative preacher of the Christian message.

Of this good news about this savior king, this Jesus, this Messiah, god's king who's come into the world to rescue us. And because he's glowing around the Roman Empire boldly explaining this, Jesus's king sees or isn't. He's in prison, and he's in prison in Rome. And you can see that from verse 9, the second half of verse 9, where he talks about I'm an old man now. Now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

He's actually in prison in Rome. So that's Paul. He's, zealous for the gospel. He's an old man now, and he's in prison. Then Philemon, He's the 1 that the postcard is actually written to from Paul, from prison.

And he's clearly a wealthy man, if you read this. You'll see he's a very he's he's a wealthy man. He's a free man. He's probably a Roman citizen, almost undoubtedly. He's wealthy, we know because his home is big enough to to have a church in it.

You see that from verse 2, the church meets in his home. And also Paul at the end of the letter says get a guest room ready for me. Well, who has a guest room, you know, other than someone who's rich and got a big house? Paul calls him a dear friend, a fellow worker, a partner, a brother, a refresher of hearts, That's 1 of the that's 1 of the lo loveliest things to be called, isn't it? You know, we we're brother partner, but someone who refreshes the heart of god's people, you can see that in verse 2 and verses 6 and 7.

Clearly, Phylemon, came to the same Messiah, the same rescuer King, came into this the the good news through Paul's ministry. I I think you see that from verse 19. I think it's no doubt that Paul is sort of the way he's writing this. He's he's he he he's playing. He's playing with words.

Again, hopefully, we'll see some of that in a minute. But look at verse 19. I, Paul, I'm writing this with my own hand, I will pay I will pay it back. Not to mention. I love it when people say not to mention, then they go and mention it.

But not to mention that you owe me your very self. Now I don't think Paul would talk about that in any other terms that that than Philemon had come to know Christ through his ministry. His very self, he discovered who he was because you discover who the Messiah is And when you see the Messiah and the rescuer, and you know that you're loved by god and god is your father, you discover your very self. So Paul had introduced philemon to Christ. So philemon owes him.

He's gonna play on that 1. So that's Paul, that's Philemon. Next 1 is, onesimus. Now, onesimus is a runaway slave, and he's Philemon's slave. Now remember, before we get all sort of worked up, We're we're talking about Roman days.

We're talking about the first century Rome. So and and this this was what was what was going on. Slavery was the was was absolutely not only accepted. It was part of the whole structure. Oneissimus actually means useful.

It's a great name, isn't it? Although I don't wonder what parent would call their kid useful. You know, how do you know they're gonna be useful? Anyway, onesimus was called useful. And Paul, as I say, loves playing with words, and he says onesimus has become useless.

So you look at look at verse 11. Formerly, he was useless to you. Oneissimus, useful, had become useless to you. So not only was this slave useless, not only now was he a runaway slave, but undoubtedly he was a thief. And he may well have stolen big stuff.

It may well have been, you know, really difficult for Lima. We're not sure, but look at verse 18. If he has done, and I think again, that's just the way Paul is writing. It's not that he there's any doubt here. But if he has done you any wrong or owes you anything charge it to me, he had done wrong, and he did owe.

So onesimus, useful onesimus was useless. He had almost undoubtedly stolen and done some wrong and hurt philemon and was a runaway and he ended up in Rome, and lots of lots of runaway Lots of runaway slaves in those days ended up in Rome. In fact, there was a whole sort of section, for runaway, slaves in in in Rome. But 1 nessimus had to be careful and he had to be in hiding because there were bounty hunters. There were people going around gathering up any slaves they could and getting money for them.

And if he was caught, then the best thing that could happen to him was that he would be brandished with an f on his forehead. Meaning fugitive on his head. And at that point, then he would really be useless. No 1 would wanna touch him. So it's like the mark of Kain on his head.

At worst, he'd be crucified, and many slaves were crucified. So, you know, to be a runaway slave, you don't wanna, you don't wanna get caught. In fact, at this very time of Paul writing this letter, there was a wealthy businessman, that was killed by 1 of his 400 slaves. And when they found the murderer, the slave that killed him, They killed all 400. They crucified them.

So, you know, you you you're in big trouble here. Now, okay. Here he is, hiding in the underworld in Rome, and guess who's there? Paul, for not being a criminal, but for preaching the gospel. And so somehow he meets Paul.

This is wonderful workings of god, isn't it? He meets Paul, and Paul clearly brings him to be a follower of Christ. So we got Paul a follower of Christ. We've got Filemon, who's a follower of Christ through Paul, and now we've got onesimus, who's a follower of Christ. Through Paul.

It's a fantastic thing. They've all become followers of Christ. Look how Paul puts it in verse 11 and 12. Formally, he was useless to you, but now. Paul loves that little phrase, but now if you read his read his writings, He's often saying a Christian is once was, but now he's this.

Look, formally, he was useless to you, but now he's become useful, 1 isimus, both to you and me. I'm sending him who's my very heart back to you. And Paul calls him a a son, Paul calls him a brother. God had forgiven him and reversed his life. So there's the gallery.

There's the picture gallery of this little book. You got it? It's wonderful. 3 people all come to Christ, all followers of the great Messiah, all wanting to serve Christ. That's the picture gallery.

Here's my second look at it then. Second look at this little book. It is in fact a picture of sin and salvation. You actually see here by reversing things the Christian Gospel. And it's wonderful because it's the Christian gospel being worked out in real lives.

So how these 3 men relate to each other is actually a reflection of the Christian message. And of course, it is, and that's how we're meant to live. We're meant to live the Christian message and how we relate to people. So there a pattern, if you like, of the Christian life. And when you look at all these 3 characters, you can read back from these characters and from their behavior, how Christ worked to us?

You can read how this is a picture of sin and salvation. Let me let me just show you. K? A picture of sin. Well, that's wanesimus.

I mean, what is sin? What is sin? Well, runaway slave is is actually a really good picture. Jesus sort of paints that himself, doesn't he? In his very famous parable of the lost son?

Do you you know that? The prodigal son, where the son goes off from the father and goes into a far country. Well, this is this is a real life drama going on here. It's a perfect picture of sin. God goddess God has made me to give everything to him, to be useful for him, that I give my whole person to him.

That I serve him, that I'm god's servant. I mean, that's that's a that's a wonderful thing. I don't serve myself. I serve god. I'm made to serve none other than god.

And to give myself away and be useful for him. But what's happened is? What happened to me? I became a runaway slave. Are we not like Buenosissimus?

Haven't we been like him? Useless to god, actually. Always banging on about myself. Always whinging on about me. Never about god.

I become the center. And it's absurd because I'm so small. And so you have this runaway that decides to live his own life. Have I not run away? Have I not done what Oh, well, when isimus is done, stolen from the master?

Have I not stolen my time from god that is supposed to be used for him? Have I not stolen things that he gave me for his purposes? Have I not stolen the gifts and abilities and mind abilities? And my energies that were were given to me to bring glory and worship to the lord god, haven't I used them for my own benefit? Have I not stolen my life?

That god has given me and used it for myself. Haven't I not not stolen his glory and that we should be looking at him and glorifying him and going on about him and thanking him? You know, do I even thank him? Have I not used my mind and my time and my energies in useless pursuits flicking constantly through my phone, endless, useless time taking. Rather than loving god and loving god's people.

Have I not run away? Have I not got lost? Am I not hiding in the crowd? Oneissimus is a real life prodigal son, a lost son, running from the master, running from the master. And so are we?

See, it's very interesting, isn't it? Sin, of course, sin, of course, and you can read this in the scripture, is breaking rules. But foremost, sin is breaking relationship. That's the big thing about sin. It's not so much rules, but relationship.

It's breaking off from god. It's running away from him. That's a great definition of sin. Of course, it's breaking rules. And those rules will come against us, but it's fundamentally splitting from relationship with god.

So this is a great picture, and 1 1 isimus is a good picture of sin. But here's the second thing we see in this little book. We see here the punishment that is due for sin. The punishment for a runaway slave, as I say, was either a a stamp on the forehead. That was the least thing saying f.

And for the rest of your life, you had f on your head. And really, you were distant fugitive. You were away from anything useful. You were kept in the useless position or was crucifixion. Crucifixion.

And the Romans crucified, and they crucified runaway slaves. And if you know anything about crucifixion, my goodness, that was something. If Paul had sent a onesimus back to a man who wasn't a Christian, that master could have had onesimus crucified. That was the punishment for a runaway slave. It's harsh, isn't it?

Yeah. This is even harsh, though. Are you ready for this 1? I have to tell you that god's punishment for runaway sinners is crucifixion. In other words, the crime is so bad that nothing other than humiliation, and a shameful death shows us how bad running away from god is.

It really is that serious. So crucifixion is a picture of being cut off from god, which is the very thing that a runaway wanted to do. It's a confirmation of that lifestyle. That's how serious things are. And, you know, we play around with sin.

We play around with god, but it is serious. If we run away from the god of life, where on earth do we go? If we run away from the god of light, where does it take us? If we run away from the god of truth and beauty and joy and peace, Where are we gonna end up? You see how serious it is to run away from the relationship with God?

If god's not just some rule maker out there that we tend to think he is, making up rules to sort of try and ruin our lives. And, we may break a few, but kindly just sort of forgive us. He's a policeman far away and come on, mate. You know, don't we all do a bit wrong? That's not how it is.

This is crushing relationship. This is turning from the 1 who who made us and designed us and created us and to brought brought us into beings. This is this is We are all the design and makeup of god. We were seeing this this morning, and it's a very important point. And you should listen to the sermon.

God isn't far away distant sort of god out there you know, like like like the politicians sort of making up laws for us and it it sort of affects our lives, but we don't really care about him. No. He's utterly intimate god. He sustains us. He gives us a breath that keeps us alive.

The heartbeat he's actually doing, we're told in the Bible. Jesus is intimately in every cell, keeping you alive. He made you to know him, to love him, to be loved by him, to be known by him. If we run away from god, that is not only stupid It's utterly shameful. It's utterly shameful.

We're putting ourselves above god. We think that we can love better than god can love. We think that we can find light and truth and beauty and joy where god isn't. You can't. And so that is so shameful the way we've treated god by being a runaway.

Crucifixion reflects the crime. Do you see that? That's the second point you see from this little book. Amazing little book, isn't it? Third thing, though, bear with me.

We see someone who pays all the debts, and Paul is doing this for onesimus because he's reflecting Christ. Remember? Paul says, I'll pay all the debts of onesimus. If he's robbed you of anything, if he's done you any harm, and I think he had robbed and he had done a lot of harm, what that was, we're not sure. But, he says, put my name to it.

If he owes you anything which he does, put my name to it, put my name on it. If you're in debt in those days, it was often made very public. There was parchments in in, in the marketplace with your name on and how much you owed. If you're in debt to, like, you know, shop owners and things like that. And, if you had a friend who loved you and he was prepared to pay your debt, he would come along and he'd fold your name over, and he'd write his name on, and then he'd bang a nail in it.

And that meant that the bond was paid. The debt was paid. Paid. Yeah. Listen to colossians chapter 2.

We had a reading from colossians earlier, but listen to colossians listen very carefully talking about Jesus. He forgave us all our sin, how? Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. He's taken it away, nailing it.

He's paid the price. Jesus has written his name over our debt paid. Bang. Nailed it. Jesus says to father god, if he or she owes you anything, if he or she owes you anything, I'll pay for it.

Look at verses 18 and 19. This poor behaving like Jesus, you see. If he has done you any wrong he had or owed you anything he does, charge it to me, that's Jesus. Can you imagine that? See, do you see how amazingly freeing the Christian message is?

Father, you know what he's done? Charge it to me, says Jesus. Charge it to me. I, Paul, I'm writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back.

I will pay it back. I'll pay everything. It's okay. I'm gonna pay it forward inissimus. See the see the picture here?

A picture of sin running away. Picture of punishment, put a picture of the indebtedness. We have to Jesus Christ, and Paul is living that out. But hold it. There's a fourth thing here as well, I hope you see.

Paul is prepared to plead with Philemon for forgiveness on behalf of on behalf of onesimus. That's the whole point of the letter. He's pleading Forgive the man. He's done you great harm, but I am interceding. I am pleading.

I am asking you on the basis of what I've done for you. Would you forgive this man? So what Paul's whole letter is a plea for onesimus. Not only have I and Jesus as someone who's paid for me? I have someone who pleased for me.

Someone who says to god the father on my behalf, father, forgive him. Father, forgive them. A patriot father, forgive them. So it's so wonderful, isn't it? So do you see the pattern here?

What Jesus has been to me, then I work it out with others. And so what you've got here is the working out of others, and then taking us back to what Christ has done. What Christ has done for Paul, Paul dues does for others. And he expects Christians, that flow of love, that flow of forgiveness to go right the way through from Christ to how we treat others all the way through. Verse 17.

So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. That's what Jesus says to the father god. Father, if you consider me a pa we're partners I'm in the I'm in the Troy Troy unity. I'm the son and we're course we're partners and father if you consider me part of part of the godhead, then, welcome him. The guilty sinner, as you'd welcome me.

Imagine that. It's extraordinary. And that's exactly what Jesus says to the father. Father welcome them as I'm coming to you, receive them for my namesake. But there's something else here as well.

This is a perfect picture of salvation. We've seen it's a picture of sin. It's a picture of punishment. It's a picture of, how Paul pays the debt. Jesus pays the debt.

It's a picture of forgiveness and how Christ pleads for us before the father and what he's done. But this is really a wonderful picture of what a Christian really is. And if you're not sure what a Christian is, we've got it right here, and this is the thing that blew me away. Look, salvation is composed of 2 things. I'm gonna use 2 big words.

It's composed of 2 things. Justification and sanctification. Justification and sanctification. Now they're the big sort of words but you see it worked out here very simply, so we don't have to be clever and know those big words really. But, the the the the you need both of them for salvation.

So justification means a change of status What my status is changed? I was useless. Now I'm useful. Centification means a change of state, actually me changing. Yeah.

That's what's what's going on here. So I put put it the wrong way around. But but the change of status is that onesimus, a slave is now a son He was a slave, but now he's a son. He's going back. Paul is saying, not as a slave.

Taking back as a son as a brother. Yeah? When this was taken back, look look at verse 10. I appeal to you for my son were misim uh-uh were misimous, who became my son while I was in chains. He got converted while Paul was in prison.

For 16, look, no long treated him no longer as a slave, but better than a slave. As a dear brother. He is very dear to me, but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and a brother in the lord Jesus Christ. It's a change of status, yeah, a slave to a son, a slave to a brother, an ungodly man to a brother in the lord. An dear person that's abused you to someone who'll be dear to you, dear to you.

But it's a change of state as well. So he's gone from useless to to being useful of verse 11 again. Formally, he was useless to you, but now he has become useful to both you and me. That's salvation. And if you're a Christian, you need to know those 2 things.

What Christ has made you in him And also now your life has changed direction and you're gonna become useful. If that hasn't happened, you you you're not a Christian. Those 2 things are very important. And you get it here in this little book. Or philemon.

But hold it. I just want 1 more thing before I stop, and we have a little break. It's just an there's another beautiful phrase here. Look at verse 15. This is this again is just wonderful.

Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever. No longer as a slave, but better than a slave. As a dear brother, He is very dear to me, but even dearer to you both as a fellow man, and a brother in the lord Jesus Christ. He look. Perhaps this whole thing happened, of him running away in the end is for the good because he's going to be better off than he was when he originally started.

Don't you see the Christian message in that? Why did god allow us to run away? Why did he allow sin to come into the world? To bring us into sonship so that we would have a closer relationship with god. So that we would see who god is and how much he loves us.

His utter love that he would come running after us into the place of where the slaves are, into the depths of the gutter of where we are in all the failed foul things we've done to lay his life down for us to show us how utterly loved we are now with sons in a different way that Adam and Eve never could have been. Without allowing us to go away and come back. He's now back forever, a lost son, back forever. Forever in the master's house. Forever, a useful son.

Back with god. That's what Jesus does. It's lovely, isn't it? That's conversion. We're back to Filemon.

We've seen the picture gallery. We've seen that it's picture of sin and salvation. But actually, you also see it's a picture of of Paul working out a life based on the Christian Gospel. We've sort of seen that. But what I wanna to show you is, and it's really hard to without just reading it.

So I've got Anne to come up and we're gonna read it again all the way through. Just look out for how clever Paul is, and this is why people love this Just how clever his arguments are. You know, I that this is voluntary and then there's suddenly a bay. And, there's all kinds of ways he's using to lay on, for, for Filemon to live the Christian life. And to forgive this brother that wants to be forgiven and wants to come back even though he's been really hurtful.

So Anne is gonna read it. Just just watch watch out and she'll she'll read it and hopefully you'll Well, I'm using this letter, and I think I love the way Paul, he's he's really got a bad name, Paul, and it's wrong. It's just wrong. He loves words. He loves playing with words.

And he clearly loves people as you can see, in this very relational letter. So Anne's gonna read it all again. Thanks, Anne. You see if you slow it down and really see how masterly that is, working through the gospel in the life of Philemon. So that's the third picture.

The fourth picture is, and I do I do wanna deal with this because, you know, a lot of criticisms on this on this book is a picture of social concern. What are we what are we to do with evils like slavery? You know what? And that was that was a big thing. I mean, that was a big social evil in the day.

60000000 people were slaves in the Roman empire, 60000001 in 3 people were slaves, and slaves could be bought and sold like cattle in the marketplace. I mean, some of the slaves had good jobs and they were businessmen and on behalf of their masters, but they still didn't own themselves. They had no rights, slaves, and they, had no right, even to life. So a master could put that to death a slave for any reason, like, and it wasn't a crime. So how does Paul then tackle this social evil?

How does Paul tackle this o social evil? And what's this little book, got to do with it? I think from this letter, we we learn, and I think that, you know, I'm trying to work this out. So we'll have a little question time if we've got time. I think that from this letter, Paul, Paul teaches us something that we need to learn about the way Christians should check tackle social injustice.

I think there is a Christian way of doing it, and I think if we don't do it the Christian way, we're in danger of establishing more injustice and not really dealing with the issue. So at first sight when you read this, and this is why enemies of Paul hate him, at first sight, he seems to support the system of slavery, doesn't he? I mean, look what he's doing. He's sending a man back to his master. He's he treats onesimus as if he's still owned by philemon in 1 sense.

He's because he's sending him back. Paul didn't lead a protest movement against slavery, ever. Paul, didn't, talk about a revolution to overthrow the system. He never wrote anything like that. Paul didn't say to Filemon, you were absolutely out of order and wrong in the first place to have 1 dismiss as a slave.

So I'm not sending him back to you, you, evil. So and so. He doesn't work like that. So Paul's been criticized for sending onesimus back, and, and therefore, the whole of Christianity has been criticized. On on the basis that Paul is our great apostle.

He's been criticized for writing to the colossians and the Ephesians, things like slaves obey your masters. So is he supporting the system? That's the question. And are Christians committed to injustice letting it just just go on? Is that is that what we're about?

But when you understand this letter, this little postcard has done more for social against social injustice than anything you and I could claim to do. That actually anything that riots and that I can see around today that's ever done. This little letter, if you know the history of it, has smashed slavery. It's extraordinary what this little this letter has done. So how did he do it?

What did he do? Well, you gotta remember when people say, why didn't he call for the system to go down? Well, who was Paul to be able to do that? He wasn't Caesar. He was imprisoned.

He's a nothing So Paul never had the political opportunity to go against slavery. I mean, it's daft to say that he could. He wasn't. He was a prisoner for the lord Jesus Christ. He wasn't anything special.

So how did Paul go about bringing down slavery in our minds and our thinking. How did he do it? By building a gospel church by building a gospel church. It's slow, but it undermines. This is how he did it.

Look how he did it. First of all, he loved the slave. He loved onesimus. He was in the area where there were slaves. You know, god had taken him there as a prisoner.

You see how the gospel comes? And he loved the slave. He treated onesimus as a son, as a brother in the lord. He calls him his very heart. You cannot ill treat people if you love them.

The power of love changes everything. It cracks the system. Paul's love for an onesimus, and in calling him a man, and not a slave, and a brother cracks the system. He goes for the root rather than shouting out at the top here. Do you see that?

The second thing is he appeals to philemon to do exactly the same thing to love onesimus. To forgive him, to regard him as a man. Did you notice that? And a brother, and a son in Christ, and a precious so this is the new wine that breaks the old wineskin. Of the system of slavery.

This is the fresh live word of god. You know, you know the parable. You put new wine in an old wine skin, and it will break it break it because it's still fermenting because it's alive. This is the new wine that burst the bottle. To treat people with brotherly love is to treat people as people are not things.

The worst thing about slavery is that you're treating a man or a woman as an object as a tool. Aristotle Great philosopher called slaves, living tools because they had no rights. Living tools. Paul calls him a brother, a son, My very heart. The language is so radically different.

It cuts the root by love. Now, let me tell you what happened then. Centuries later, 2 things happened that enabled slavery to be banished in a major part of the world, which is our part of the world. 2 things that Paul didn't have. So don't blame him for not having them.

He didn't have them. 1 is political opportunity. Paul didn't have political opportunity, but I think if we're going to change injustice, there needs to be political opportunity to improve social justice. Paul had no power, no political opportunity. He was a prisoner.

The second thing is, and this is what I've been thinking this week, is public opinion. Public opinion needs to be changed if we're going to change social injustice. Paul had no opportunity to campaign. To change public opinion. But in our country, at the time, amazing grace was written, a man by the name of William Wilberforce did have both those things.

There he is. Young bloke. Amazing bloke. And you should know about our history here. William Wilberforce had the political opportunity.

He had to fight, and he fought and fought and fought and he also had the public opinion on his side. What had happened before Wilberforce was campaigning for against slavery, the and the the Atlantic slavery was a revival in this country under Whitfield and Wesley. Wesley's last letter that he ever wrote was to will before saying, keep on going against slavery. And they preached Jesus first. And because so many people had come followers of Jesus, they started seeing people as people.

Are not as tools, not as living tools. The black man is a person. He's not a living tool. This is horrific that we how we treat these people because they're people made in the image of god. The gospel changed public opinion, And William Wilberforce had the political Nelson and the political opportunity to push those things into change.

And 1 of the major things that he used to change the politics and to focus public opinion, guess what was what? What what it was? Filemon. Filemon changed his heart. He also published thousands of Filemon postcards.

And sent them around the country. It was the little book of philemon that changed the political situation or helped to change it and the political and the public opinion. Philemon, the little book because it treats people as people. It cuts the root. Do you see that?

So how do we work out, when we see injustices in the world? It's it's largely in the church. This is how we do it. And when we see and we preach the gospel, and when more and more become Christians, then we might be able to say, Hey, let's change Let's change the law here. But it's in the church.

If we wanna eradicate racism, don't have racism in the church. It's in the church where we love, and this is why, you know, even in in, in Kingston, which is a fairly sort of, you know, white area. It's a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful thing at Cornerstone. We we counted 40 nationalities. In our service, and that was quite a number of years ago, and we've grown since it's a joy, isn't it, to have people from different nationalities and different backgrounds?

That's the church. There's nothing like this. Anywhere else in Kingston except in churches. It's churches where you see so many diversities. It's churches that are doing And why?

Because of love, because of the gospel? And as we preach the gospel, we learn to love and respect each other in Christ, and it changes things. That's my third, or whatever it is. Fourth look at it. Is it fourth, isn't it?

Yeah. I forgot I did have a fifth point, but I put it down as 4. There is a fourth point. I'm gonna finish, and then you can just you can argue with me. I'm not sure if we got much time, but, The picture does does that did that all make sense, by the way?

The picture so the way we change change society is to preach the gospel and live it in church. And it cuts. It's more powerful than you think. But here's my last point, a picture of a useless man becoming useful. In AD, a hundred and 10, Yeah.

Remember that year? There was the Empire Trajan. Trajan was waiting in Rome for a shipment coming from Antioch in Syria. He had sent quite a number of Roman soldiers to bring this shipment. Yeah?

It was like the Amazon of the day, but you had a guards on it, and he was waiting in Rome for the shipment. The shipment had to stop in Smyrna, a place called Smyrna. Just for a break until it carried on to Rome, a Smyrna in Asia Minor. The precious cargo that he was waiting for was a bloke called Ignatius of Antioch. He was the main preacher, the main pastor at Antioch.

And, he he actually personally knew the Apostle John, and, that's rights in the in the Bible. He was, he was, being delivered to trajan because he refused to denounce Tragan as god and lord. And said, no, Jesus Christ is. So he he was up to being fed to the lions. And Trajan was looking forward to this very, very well known pastor called ignatius.

As they waited in Smyrna to change ships and freshen up and so forth, a number of men came to visit before he was executed. 1 was a bloke. You may know if you know your history called polycarp. He's a very famous man. He came to visit, but 3 other men came to visit from different churches.

And 1 man, 1 of the pastors of the churches, was from ephesus, and his name was onesimus. His name was onesimus, and he was the pastor at ephesus. An Ignatius, who was a very famous preacher, described this pastor, 1 isimus, a man of inexpressible love. Ignatius wrote to the church at ephesus, and said blessed is the 1 who has graciously granted you such a pastor. You've got a great man there.

His name was Wernisimus. He's probably 70 years old, and Wernisimus was still being useful. Isn't that great? Let's pray. Father help us now, please.

To love this book, to love the gospel, to be useful for you in Jesus' name, amen.