“Philemon (335 words) (Philemon)” | 3/7/2021
Philemon | 3/7/21 | Will DuVal
This morning is week 2 of our 5-week mini-series entitled “Little Book, Big Message: a study through the single-chapter books of the Bible”. Last week we studied the little book of OBADIAH, and heard his big message that God will judge all those who oppose him (as represented by the Edomites), but God will deliver all those who belong to him (as represented by the Israelites in the OT, but today, God invites ALL of us to trust in Christ by faith and be delivered to belong to him).
But this week, we turn to the NEW Testament, as we examine PHILEMON together. Philemon is the shortest of Paul’s letters; the apostle Paul wrote 13 epistles, almost half of the NT. And this is his shortest letter, just 335 words in the Greek. Philemon is the ONLY letter in which Paul does not EXPLICITLY spell out the GOSPEL for us - the all-important good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in the place of us sinners. But I’m gonna argue this morning, that the reason Paul omits it here is because he is instead offering us a LIVING ILLUSTRATION of the gospel in real life, on display, in 3D, we might say. Elsewhere in Ephesians 2, and Romans 6, Paul explains the gospel in this way: that once you were slaves to SIN, but now through Christ Jesus you have been adopted into the very family of GOD! And THAT is the gospel being played out in 3D right here in Philemon, as we’ll see.
And the Big MESSAGE of Philemon, that Paul wants to IMPRESS upon us this morning is simply this: The Gospel changes EVERYTHING!
The gospel changes everything.
We’ve ALL had those moments, those life-events in our past, when time seemed to stand still, as you realized: this changes EVERYTHING!
-I’m too young to remember it, but I’ve got a hilarious photo of when I was 2 ½ years old, holding my baby sister for the first time in the hospital, and my FACE says it all: “This changes EVERYTHING!” I am NOT the center of the universe anymore.
-I CAN still remember sitting in my dad’s brand new, hunter green 1997 Toyota 4-Runner, in the parking lot of Union University as he explained to me and my sister that he didn’t love Mom anymore, he had fallen in love with someone else, and he was leaving our family.
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-Or standing at the altar, watching Polly walk down the aisle…
-Standing in the hospital room, 8 years later, watching our daughter emerge FROM Polly…
-Or just 1 year ago next WEEK, signing the papers to legally adopt my son…
In ALL those moments, it was that same, thrilling, terrifying realization slowly washing over me: THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.
But from an ETERNAL perspective, all of those moments pale in comparison to when I stood on the banks of Lake Maxinkuckee, listening to a friend simply share with me the gospel, the good news of who Jesus is and what he had done for me, the same gospel that I had professed faith in, two decades prior, the gospel that I had been paid to PREACH to high school STUDENTS for those last 5 years, and finally realizing that I had never actually repented of MY OWN sins, never personally surrendered MY OWN life, never trusted in Jesus as MY OWN Lord and Savior… and finally recognizing how much I NEEDED to! But feeling both excited AND scared, as I realized THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.
Friends: you and I are so sinful, and Jesus is so perfect, that He cannot help but turn our entire worlds upside down, when He comes into our lives; and praise GOD for it! And this morning we get a vivid, 3D, biblical picture of that in the lives of 3 men - Paul (the author), Philemon (the addressee; the guy to whom Paul is writing), and most of all, Onesimus (Philemon’s SLAVE-turned-brother in Christ); we’re gonna see how the gospel changed everything, for all THREE of them, and how it ought to touch and transform every nook and cranny of OUR lives as well.
Would you stand with me... ENTIRE BOOK of PHILEMON:
“1 Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6 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.[a] 7 For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.
8 Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9 yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus— 10 I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus,[b] whose father I became in my imprisonment. 11 (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. 15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a bondservant[c] but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
17 So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. 18 If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. 20 Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.
21 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. 22 At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.
23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, 24 and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”
This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
CONTEXT: A quick word of context here before we dive in; I’ll just read it straight from my MacArthur Study Bible: “Philemon had been saved under Paul’s ministry… several years earlier. Wealthy enough to have a large house (v2), Philemon also owned at least one slave, a man named Onesimus. Onesimus was not a believer at the time he stole some money (v18) from Philemon and ran away... to Rome… Through circumstances not recorded in Scripture, Onesimus met Paul in Rome and became a Christian. The apostle quickly grew to love the runaway slave (v12) and longed to keep Onesimus with him in Rome (v13), where he was providing valuable service to Paul in his imprisonment (v11). But by stealing and running away from Philemon, Onesimus had both broken Roman law and defrauded his master. Paul knew those issues had to be dealt with, and decided to send Onesimus back to Colossae… with Tychicus, who was returning to Colossae with the epistle to the Colossians (Col 4:7-9). Along with Onesimus, Paul sent Philemon this beautiful personal letter, urging him to forgive Onesimus and welcome him back to service as a brother in Christ (vv15-17).” (p1841)
So you’ve got a guy stuck in prison (Paul), asking… EXPECTING this wealthy, influential leader (Philemon) to forgive his lying, thieving SLAVE (Onesimus), and not only that, but to WELCOME him back now NOT as a slave, but as a BROTHER?! How’s THAT possible? Because the gospel changes everything. It changes 7 things...
#1 - Our IDENTITY. (vv1-3)
Paul opens the letter: “Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
TWO Recurring New Identity Markers there:
#1a - The gospel calls us into a new FAMILY. Notice Paul’s language:
-v1: He calls Timothy “our BROTHER”
-v2: Apphia (probably Philemon’s wife) is “our SISTER”
-And v3, and most significantly, Paul calls God himself, “our FATHER”
New brothers, new sisters, a new FATHER; you’ve been adopted into a whole new FAMILY, as a Christian, haven’t you?
Ephesians 2:19 “you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are… members of the household of God”
John 1:12 “ To all who did receive [Christ], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”.
1 John 3:1 “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”
One’s identity markers have become a HUGE topic of discussion in our world today, haven’t they? We like to label others, and sometimes even OURSELVES; so we can fit them in one box or the other:
Man, woman.
White, black.
Straight, gay.
Rich, poor.
Conservative, liberal.
Majority, minority.
Oppressor, oppressed.
But friends, God’s word is very clear: there is only ONE identity marker that matters ETERNALLY; only ONE that GOD is gonna be concerned with when you stand before His Judgment Seat on your day of reckoning: Are you a CHILD OF GOD, or not! Have you “received Christ, believed in his name, and been given the RIGHT to become an adopted son or daughter of the King of the Universe,” or are you still a “stranger and alien”, estranged from God in the rebellion of your sin?
For those of us who are now in Christ, “There is now neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave[g] nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all ONE in Christ Jesus. ” (Galatians 3:28)
And when THAT is your new identity, it comes 1B - with new PRIVILEGES. When you belong to a family, you get to enjoy the benefits associated with being a member of that family. And Paul alludes to just a FEW of them here:
-v1: he identifies HIMSELF as “Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus”. You say, “I’m sorry, I must have misunderstood you; I thought you said belonging to God’s family came with PRIVILEGES. But then you said ‘Prisoner’?!” That’s exactly how Paul describes it.
Romans 8: “we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (16-17)
Jesus himself said, “A servant is not above his master. If they persecuted me, why would you think they’d do anything DIFFERENT to you, if you’re truly living for me?”
So in Acts 5:41, when Jesus’ disciples-turned-apostles are rounded up and beaten for their faith, “They left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for [Jesus’] name.”
Today, we’re living through a unique turning point in the history of our country; holding to Christian values used to place you in the majority; now we find ourselves in the minority. Speaking of “identity markers” even self-identifying as a Christian - in 1990, 85% of Americans checked that box on the survey, by 2015 it was 75%, and just 4 years later in 2019, it had dropped to 65% (Wikipedia). And just TWO years from THAT, here in 2021, it may well have already dropped below 50%.
Let me ask you: as it becomes more and more unpopular to be a Christian in our country, will you “rejoice that you’re counted WORTHY to suffer dishonor for Jesus’ name”? Remember: that is your PRIVILEGE, as a child of God.
In Paul’s case, it literally landed him in chains. A prisoner for Christ.
In Philemon’s case, v2, it meant becoming a “fellow worker”. We hear in v2, he hosted the entire CHURCH in his house. I gotta tell you: as much as Polly and I miss being able to host y’all - I make a point to grab lunch or dinner with EVERY newcomer to West Hills who goes through Entry Point… and then we were ALSO hosting life group in our home every week - as much as we miss it, I’m not sure I’m EVER gonna be able to convince my wife to move life group from meeting here at church back to meeting at our house. Cuz you realized how much WORK it takes, to host church in your home! Philemon is a “fellow WORKER”. That’s HIS privilege - he gets to spend all afternoon cleaning only to have a dozen kids ruin HIS basement every Monday night!
Archippus is called a “fellow soldier” in v2. Paul says, “Our battle isn’t against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil”, and exhorts us to “take up the full armor of God” (Ephesians 6:11-12).
In America, the privileged, the “fortunate sons” (as that great CCR song calls them); they don’t HAVE to fight. I asked Keven this week, new brother here at West Hills, just moved to town as an ARMY recruiter - “What percentage of your new recruits come from families in the top 1% economically in this country?” I’ll give you a hint: it’s LESS than 1%.
But in God’s Kingdom, his children GET to fight. We are blessed, privileged, to be sent to the frontlines every single day, in our workplaces, in our schools, in our own HOMES, fighting for the souls of our own KIDS, some of you - for your SPOUSES; what a privilege, that God deems us WORTHY to fight right alongside him, in the most important war that has ever been fought, the battle for peoples’ ETERNAL SALVATION!
Do you sense a THEME here? Prisoner… worker… soldier… Are they really PRIVILEGES?! Well, they are, v3, when God is your FATHER, and Jesus Christ is your LORD. The Greek word for “Lord”, by the way, is kurios, it’s the same word Paul would use of Philemon in relation to Onesimus, his slave, because it literally means “master”. Jesus is your MASTER. Paul says in Romans 6 that we are now SLAVES of Christ. But OHHH the privileges of being his slave. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. It’s so good to suffer for him. To serve him. To fight for him. Because friends, JESUS is so worth it.
So the gospel changes our IDENTITY, #1. Secondly, it changes:
#2 - Our LOVES (vv4-7)
Look back with me at vv4-7: Paul writes, “I thank my God… because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints… For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.”
Now, commentators will point out that Paul is employing an ancient rhetorical strategy here known as FLATTERY. Adulation. Blarney. Wheedling. Cajolery. “Buttering up”. Paul’s aim in this letter is to persuade Philemon to forgive Onesimus, so he’s building him up, talking him up so much that Philemon has no CHOICE but to rise to the occasion. And you noticed in v2, by the way, that Paul addressed the letter not ONLY to Philemon, but to Apphia… and Archippus… and the whole CHURCH - WHY? Cuz when Philemon opens this letter and reads it out loud on Sunday morning right after Bible study in front of the whole church - “Dear Philemon, I REJOICE that you have such love for ALL the saints… hint, hint: even the ENSLAVED ones… nudge, nudge: even the enslaved ones who’ve WRONGED you in the past, STOLEN from you…” - does Paul leave Philemon with much of a choice OTHER than to forgive Onesimus?
It’s the same thing I do with y’all every year when VBS - Vacation Bible School - rolls around, and we’re a week out and Ally’s still 12 volunteers short. I stand up here and remind you that “I thank God ALWAYS for you in all my prayers, for your LOVE toward ALL our children here at West Hills. That I get to pastor the most WONDERFUL church, full of folks who WILLINGLY give up a whole week’s worth of their free evenings, to come love on ungrateful, whiny, germ-infested, COVID-spreading kids.”
That’s what Paul’s doing here. Philemon’s got no choice but to do the right thing and forgive Onesimus. But keep in mind - Paul is not just some manipulative swindler; he’s an anointed apostle of the LORD. So he is being HONEST here when he reflects on both his love for Philemon, and Philemon’s love for the saints... as well as BOTH of their love for the Lord. Those are the 2 new loves that God gives us, when the gospel changes us from the inside out:
2a) Love for GOD :
-v5: Paul praises Philemon’s “ love… toward the Lord Jesus”
-v6: He prays that Philemon would grow in his understanding and LOVE for Christ.
And then 2b) God gives us love for HIS PEOPLE (vv5-7).
-v5: “I hear of your love… for all the saints”
-v7: “the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.”
These are the two great commandments: “Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”” (Matt 22:37-40)
But here’s the thing: you and I have got NO shot of keeping them on our own. Hebrews 11:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please God”; why? Because the only way we can actually obey God’s commands, actually love him and love others, the way He’s called us to, is if God supernaturally intervenes and changes us from the inside out, and GIVES us new desires, GIVES us new loves; 1 John 4:19 says, “We love [WHY?] because he first loved us.” God’s love CHANGES us, and causes us to love him in return, and love those He loves, His people.
#3 - The gospel changes our INFLUENCE. (vv8-10)
Vv8 & 9: Paul claims, “though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9 yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also...”
See, in Jesus’ upside-down kingdom, authority is derived NOT from power, but from love.
The surrounding society says, “We put the old out to pasture.” We pay the nursing home attendants to listen to their old war stories. Your WORTH is dictated by what you can contribute to society. But Paul says, “Yeah, I’m an old man. Oh, and by the way, have I mentioned yet, I’m in PRISON also.” How’s that for a position of power, as he’s writing to this wealthy, influential church leader.
Yet Paul reminds him: “I could COMMAND you to take Onesimus back.” I could pull rank. Why? Because rank in the Kingdom of God isn’t determined by your age, your wealth, your social status; no, what matters is your SPIRITUAL status. Where do you stand with GOD?
But just AS Jesus, who “was in the form of God, but did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b] 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” and suffered and DIED for us because God so loved us, Paul now MODELS that same gospel love for Philemon by saying: “I could pull rank, but for LOVE’S sake, I’m just gonna ASK you to do the right thing.”
Second, authority is not only derived from love, but it is DEVELOPED within spiritual relationship.
V10: What IS Paul’s appeal to Philemon? “I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus,[b] whose father I became in my imprisonment.” This is the first we hear of Onesimus. Paul is 10 verses in, finally getting down to business, the point of his letter. And he does it, once again, in the context of the spiritual FAMILY; he says Onesimus has become my SON. “So Philemon, if you feel good receiving my own SON back as a mere SLAVE…”
No - the gospel changes our identities, and thus, our influence, and the way we relate to one another.
#4 - It changes our USEFULNESS.
V11: Paul admits, parenthetically: “(Formerly Onesimus was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.)”
Paul’s making a play on words; the name “Onesimus” in Greek means “useful”. Paul acknowledges, “I know he USED to be a USE-LESS slave. In fact, he was WORSE than useless; he STOLE from you. He brought NEGATIVE value, to your household economy.” But the gospel changes everything. He’s been redeemed. He’s now use-FULL indeed, not just to you, but to ME. I’d selfishly like to KEEP him here with me in Rome.
What’s the application for you and me today, friends? I wanna be careful here. “Pastor: are you saying people who HAVEN’T been saved and changed by the gospel are WORTHLESS?!” No. We all have intrinsic worth and value and dignity simply because we’re made in God’s image. By why DID God make us in his image? Think back to Genesis 1, last year: God MADE us to be reflections of His glory. To bring HIM glory and joy. And we already read Hebrews 11:6 - It’s IMPOSSIBLE to please God without faith. So an image-bearer who has been created to reflect God’s glory to the world like a mirror, but who REJECTS God in her sin, and lives for herself instead, is at best a very BROKEN, useless mirror. Not WORTH-less. But useless.
But the gospel changes that.
It changed Paul from a persecutor of the church - who brought NEGATIVE value to God’s kingdom economy - into a patriarch of the church - who indisputably did more for the sake of Christianity than anyone other than Jesus himself.
The gospel changed Onesimus from a lying thief into a sacrificial servant of Paul in his chains.
And the gospel can bring new purpose and meaning to your life as well. BECAUSE...
#5 - It changes our ACTIONS. (vv12-22)
Listen, the gospel will cause you to do formerly UNTHINKABLE things for the sake of Christ. Take action that would be UNIMAGINABLE, and ABSURD, if not for the transformative power of the gospel at work in your life.
We see that both in Paul’s OWN example of radical selflessness here, as well as in Philemon’s anticipated selflessness, the sacrificial love that Paul CALLS him to here.
Paul first, in vv12-14: He writes “I am sending Onesimus back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord.”
Understand: Roman prisons were NOT 21st c. American prisons; our prisoners get the vaccine FIRST. They get 3 meals a day on the tax-payers dime. In a Roman prison, if you didn’t have an Onesimus in your family to come feed you, you went hungry. And if you STARVED to death, that just meant an extra cell freed up for a new prisoner. Paul is sending Onesimus back here at RISK to his own LIFE! Not to mention, his emotional health. He says, I’m sending my very heart. My SON. Are you starting to see the gospel analogy here - Paul risking it ALL to send his OWN SON back.
If you don’t see it yet, vv17-19 should clear it up: “So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. 18 If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it”.
Now, you need to understand, if a slave ran away in those days and was caught, he was branded with a big “F” for fugitivas, fugitive, right on his forehead. Often he could be killed without a trial, at his master’s discretion.” At the VERY least here, Philemon ought to DEMAND the Onesimus repay whatever he stole WITH interest!
But Paul says, “Charge that to MY account.”
Friends, do you know what the GOSPEL is? The gospel is the good news that despite your SIN, in your stubborn rebellion against your good MASTER, you have WRONGED God Almighty; despite your decision, as a USELESS servant, to FLEE FROM him instead of LIVING FOR Him like you were created for, despite your owing God EVERYTHING - Paul says, “if Onesimus owes you anything at all” - friends: you and I owe God EVERYTHING - our whole hearts, minds, souls, our LIVES, and yet we give so LITTLE of it back to Him, in our SINFUL self-centeredness, and we’ve incurred a DEBT, and ETERNAL debt, that we could NEVER hope to repay.
And God’s word says that the WAGES of sin, what is now owed US, is DEATH.
But...
You have an intercessor, a reconciler, a SAVIOR who lived the sinless life you couldn’t, in your place, so he’s got the credit line to PAY OFF your debt in FULL, and he says, “Father: If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account… I will repay it”. His name is JESUS. And if you repent of your sins, and trust in him for the eternal forgiveness of your sins YOU WILL BE SAVED.
Paul experienced that kind of forgiveness from Jesus, that’s what empowered him to do the unthinkable in sending Onesimus back, simply because it was the right thing to do.
Philemon had experienced that kind of forgiveness; that’s why Paul was confident that he would do the unthinkable and forgive this formerly useless, crooked slave, and now receive him as a BROTHER.
Let me ask you: have YOU experienced that kind of forgiveness? If you have, what kind of formerly unthinkable actions has the gospel empowered YOU to take?
We had Saul and Rachel Rooker over for dinner last night. Saul was telling us about growing up in Afghanistan in the late 90s and early 2000s because his parents were missionaries there. That by God’s providence, they had returned home to the states for a few months to give birth to Saul’s baby sister when the Taliban started rounding Americans up after 9/11. But then you know what they did after the baby was delivered? They went back to Afghanistan. Why? Because they knew that millions of Afghans were dying - even MORE after the U.S. invasion - without knowing Christ, and they couldn’t stand to sit idly by, safely back in America.
Because the GOSPEL changes everything.
Maybe Jesus won’t call you to go risk your life in Afghanistan. But let’s just stick with the theme of Paul’s letter: forgiveness. Who has the gospel unthinkably empowered YOU to forgive? Your cheating ex-husband? Your drug-addicted mom who abandoned you to foster care? Your heartless boss who fired you unjustly? Your sexual abuser?
The gospel has the power to do the unthinkable.
#6 - It changes Our PEOPLE. (vv23-24)
I’m running short on time, but we’ve already talked about our new FAMILY. Again, commentators point out that Paul is name-dropping here for the purpose of pressuring Philemon: “Epaphras… Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke”, they’re all WATCHING, to see if you’re gonna do the right thing and forgive Onesimus. But what if Paul’s just genuinely encouraging him: “Philemon, we MISS you, man. We can’t WAIT to get back and all hang out together again. Cuz you’re my people. You’re always in my heart.”
The gospel calls us into community with fellow brothers and sisters. What a beautiful GIFT of Christian fellowship Christ has left us.
Finally, #7 - The gospel changes Our SPIRIT. (v25)
V25: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”
How do you fundamentally change your entire IDENTITY?
Change your LOVES?
Change how you RELATE to others, IN love, not seeking influence through power?
Change your USEFULNESS, and PURPOSE in life?
Change your ACTIONS, do the unthinkable in sacrificial love?
The answer is: you DON’T. The only way ANY of that happens, is if God first changes your SPIRIT. Takes out your heart of stone, and gives you a NEW heart of flesh.
Let me end with this: do we know how the story ENDS? Did Philemon forgive Onesimus? Whatever became of him?
Pastor Kent Hughes notes: “Many believe that Philemon, in deference to Paul’s expressed desire to have Onesimus back, returned him to Paul in Rome, where he further developed into a great man of God… Fifty years later when Ignatius, one of the great Christian martyrs, was being transported from Antioch to Rome to be executed, he wrote letters to certain churches. In writing to Ephesus he praised their Bishop Onesimus, even making the same Pauline pun on his name! It appears likely that Onesimus, the runaway slave, had become, with the passing of years, the great Bishop of Ephesus” (384).
Friends: the gospel changes EVERYTHING.
It changes persecutors OF Christ into prisoners FOR Christ.
It changes wealthy, powerful slave-owners into humble, deferential, obedient spiritual disciples of UN-powerful people stuck IN prisons.
And it changes worthless slaves into bishops and brothers.
Even more incredibly, it changes slaves of sin into children of the Living God.
That’s what Jesus wants to do for YOU today; will you let Him?