When Religion and Real Life Collide-Doug Crum

Sunday's sermon presented by Doug Crum 04/19/26


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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement. Because of you, brother, many have been refreshed in their hearts of the saints. Wow, that is just a really awesome passage. It comes from a little letter that we hardly even notice. It's written to a guy named Philemon, and it's written by an apostle by the name of Paul. It's a personal letter, but it's not a private one. But man, it's so heartfelt. Wouldn't you love to have a letter written by Paul to you and it talks about your faith and how it's active and how he's seen it lived out in your life? What a powerful little book. But can you imagine what it would take for this kind, this poetic, this encouraging passage to turn out to be very challenging and personal and even consequential. Well, we're about to find out as we look into this. But before we go any further, I want to pause for just a second, and I want to talk to you about a guy by the name of Jack Lane. You may or may not be familiar with him. He was a fitness expert back in the 70s and the 80s, and he did something that was actually really impressive. Jack Lane swim from the Queensway Bridge to the Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor. That may not mean a whole lot to you, but to just give you an idea in distance, that is one and a half miles of swimming. How many of you guys are impressed with Jack Lillane? One and a half miles. I can drive that. I can walk that. There is no way that I can swim one and a half miles. He did that back in 1987. Oh, and by the way, Jack did that with his hands handcuffed. Now that seems pretty impressive. Not only did he swim one and a half miles with his hands handcuffed, his feet were also shackled together while he swam one and a half miles. How about this? Jack Lilane was born in 1917. Which means that by the time he had his hands handcuffed and his feet shackled together and he swam one and a half miles, he was 70 years old. That's what he chose to do on his birthday. This guy is crazy. Oh, and there's one more thing about this. Tied to him were seventy rowboats. And each one of those rowboats had a person in them. Jack Lelane, at 70 years old, with his hands handcuffed and shackles around his ankles, he swam one and a half miles, literally tugging 70 rowboats with people in them. Now that is really, really impressive. And it's also crazy. I can't imagine doing that. But what makes this story so impressive is we get more and more of the details. Now we look at the letter of Philemon. It's unusual in that it doesn't have chapters. Years after the Bible was written, several hundred years after the Bible was written, people decided, hey, wouldn't it be better if we added chapters? They got to Philemon and said, this thing is so small, we don't even need to give it more than one chapter. It's just a few verses long. And in fact, what we're going to do in just a minute is we're going to read through, believe it or not, we're going to read an entire book of the Bible right here in just a few minutes. I know you're excited, but there's a few more questions I want to ask before we jump into the text. What would happen if this wasn't just a beautiful letter written, that there's something deeper and something more difficult that Paul was going to get to? What if, as this letter was being read, the room was filled with tension and indignation and an unexpected visitor? And here's a big question for us today. Can we love people when they're wrong? Can love exist in the presence of wrong, of injustice, of broken promises and absence and betrayal? This is what this tiny little book of Philemon is all about. So I want to start over again, and this morning I want to read through Philemon the entire letter all in one sitting. So get ready for this. Here we go. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our dear friend and fellow worker, to Aphia, our sister, and Arcippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your home. That's a little confusing. I want to pause for just a second, but I want you to know that when he's talking about these people, he starts off to Philemon, and it just so happens that there's a church that meets at this place, and this place happens to be Philemon's house. So you got this down, right? Okay, he's writing a letter to Philemon, and Philemon has a church that meets in his house. And by the way, that place where Philemon lives is a little town called Colossae. You've probably heard of it before. We'll talk more about that in just a minute. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing that we have in Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints. Again, man, Philemon must just be beaming as he's hearing these words. Therefore, this is a big therefore. Although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love. I then, as Paul, an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. We have to stop again for just a second because we got to get the context of what's going on. Okay, so Paul, he's in prison. He's gonna write a handful of letters that we now refer to as the prison epistles. Epistles just mean letters. He wrote four of them, all right? Uh Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and then this little bitty one to Philemon. Right? So here's where it's gonna get really, really, really weird. Okay? So he writes this letter that we call Colossians, and while he writes it, he's also gonna write a second one to the man who's uh where the church is meeting in his house. His name is Philemon. Okay, so you got you're with me here. He's ultimately gonna hand these two letters to a guy by the name of Titicus. Titicus is going to bring the letters to Philemon's house because that's where the church meets. Right? Now, here we're gonna start to get this side issue. Okay, this is where it's gonna get really weird. Okay, Philemon happens to have a servant in his house, a slave. Again, we talked about this several weeks ago. This would have been different in the form of slavery that we are more familiar with, uh, that plagued our country uh centuries ago. Right now, this is more talking about someone in the context of they need um funds, maybe they're in debt, maybe they need uh to get some extra money, and so they will basically be contractually obligated to serve someone. Right? And so this is the context in which this has taken place. Perhaps, perhaps, Onesimus owes a little money and he has no way to pay for it, right? And so rather than being thrown in jail, a guy by the name of Philemon says, Hey, I will hire you, I will contract you, you will come and you will work for me, I'm gonna pay off your debt so you don't go to prison, and now you're gonna work for me, and that will pay off what I paid for you. So that perhaps could have been the context in which this happens. But here's where it gets really weird. At some point, Onesimus decides that he's gonna leave. He's gonna run away. He's gonna run away, and indicating by the letter, there is reason to believe that before he left, he might have taken some things that belonged to Paul. I'm sorry, to Philemon. So Philemon is a church leader. The church meets in his house in Colossae. And his servant has abandoned him, he's left, he's cheated him, he may have robbed him, and now he's gone. Now, we have to remember that we're not dealing with mega churches back in the first century. We're talking about very small churches, we're counting in just with a few hands the number of people who might have been there, maybe perhaps a couple of dozen. This would not have been, they did not meet in an auditorium like this. Imagine how many people you can fit in your room of your house. There's a very small group of people. Onesimus has run away. And scholars believe that Paul in prison is in Rome, not a few miles away. So Onesimus has been missing for a really long time. Can you imagine as people show up to Philemon's house for worship on a Sunday morning? Hey Philemon, how's it going? Oh, I'm a little stressed. I can't find my servant. He was supposed to help set things out for our meal today, and he's nowhere to be found. And then week after week after week, hey, where's Onesimus? I don't know, he's gone. And my wife has some jewelry that's missing. We think he took it. So now it's getting more and more awkward. And all of a sudden, I don't know when this happened, but I want to imagine that it happened on a Sunday morning. There's a knock at the door. And Philemon or somebody goes to open the door, and standing there is Tichicus. He's holding a couple of letters, and kind of behind him you can see somebody else. They're welcomed in. They walk in, and the person from behind kind of steps out, and who is it? It's Onesimus. And all of a sudden, everybody goes, Oh man. That's, I don't know exactly what they said, but I mean they were in church, so, but man, it had to be really weird. What in the world is gonna happen next? The first thing that would have happened is that the letter written addressed to the church in Colossae, what we call Colossians, would have been written. A beautiful letter. And then it's set aside, and now with still the anxiety there and the tension and people looking back and forth and back and forth. What's gonna happen next? Are we gonna call the authorities? Are we gonna see a stoning? Is he gonna be thrown in jail? What's gonna happen next? And all of a sudden, there's a second letter that's pulled out, and it's written from Paul directly to Philemon, and it's about the guy and the awkwardness that is now in the room. And Paul is now going to say some pretty bold things. He starts off, and I don't know if he's buttering him up, but he says, Man, you've been doing such a great work, and all that you've been doing, man, I'm so proud of you and the way you're showing your faith. And he says, But hey, there's something else that we need to talk about. And I could I could demand this of you, but rather I'm gonna appeal out of love. And so when we pick back up in verse 10, it says, I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. He wasn't his biological son. But Onesimus stumbled upon or maybe sought out Paul after he had fled from Philemon's house. We'll talk about that more next week. He says, formerly he was useless to you. This is a play on words in the Greek, because Onesimus actually means useful, right? And it says, formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become onisimus, useful both to you and to me. I am sending him who is my very heart back to you. I would like to keep him so that he could take your place in helping me while I'm in chains for the gospel. But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do will be spontaneous and not forced. Perhaps the reason he was separated you for a little while was that you might have him back for good. No longer a slave, but better than a slave as a dear brother. I'm not even finishing that verse because that is awful. How dare Paul get into Philemon's business? I mean, that is meddling. That's even worse than meddling. He's now throwing out like this spiritual reason why he should be nice to Onesimus. Onesimus ran away. Onesimus likely stole something, and now he comes back. And Paul says, hey, welcome him back. And by the way, I know you paid for him as a slave, but don't take him back as a slave. He's your brother now. The audacity of Paul to suggest that your spirituality and what you think about God and how you your doctrine and your theology somehow gets mixed in with the way that you live life. Keep those two separate. There are certain things that we're supposed to do in church on Sunday, but don't tell me how I'm gonna manage my business. Don't tell me how I should treat my sister. Don't tell me that I should forgive my dad for what he did. Or my husband, my ex-husband for running out. That's completely different, Paul. And this little letter to Philemon, Paul is going to mix religion and real life. Let me pick back up here. He says, but even dear, both as a man and a brother in the Lord. So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has done any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back. Not to mention that you owe me your very self. Paul is saying, look, hey, you put it on my tab, but don't forget, if we're keeping score, I think I'm a little bit ahead. I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you and the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask. And I love this. Oh, and one more thing. Prepare a guest room for me. Because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. And so do Mark, uh, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And here we have this really tiny letter that sets off this atomic reaction when it's read in front of Philemon and the whole church and this guy named Onesimus. And what are we left to do with this? What's Philemon's right? Well, as I mentioned earlier, he has the right to punish him, including to imprison him. He could argue that he has an obligation to punish Onesimus. Because if he doesn't, what's going to happen next? It's just that he be punished. Because Onesimus leaves, he comes back, and now he's a brother? What are all the other servants going to do? What are all the other slaves going to do? Hey, that's a great idea. Let's leave, and then we come back, we can be brothers too. This is awesome. Maybe Philemon's thinking, we can't do that. Justice has to be served, punishment has to be meted out. Maybe. Through his embarrassment and his anger and his frustration. Maybe he wants to take it out on Philemon right then. So not only is it his right, not only is it his obligation, it's his privilege to pay back the one who hurt him and hurt his family. But it all changed, at least we hope it did, on that first day of the week, when a small church circled together to worship. There was a knock at the door. Tychicus steps in, and behind him is Onesimus. And then we all get to find out what is Philemon's faith really all about. What should Philemon do? If you were one of his friends, if you were aware of the situation, the running away, the theft, what did we do? What should he do? Should he have him thrown in jail? Should he forgive him? Should he show him mercy? Does he dare welcome him back? This morning I want you to know that it's really not about what Philemon does. It's about what you do. How do you treat those who have hurt you, those who have wronged you? The book of Philemon doesn't end as Onesimus walks into their church doors. It wants to ask what happens when somebody walks into our church doors. You see, your faith isn't always private, but it is always personal. Your faith can't just be something that you think about on a regular basis. What you sing about on Sunday should affect how you live your life on Tuesday. You're not following Jesus if you only look to see where he is once a week. Your finances, your media consumption, your words, your thoughts, your attitude, they all should be formed and informed by your relationship and devotion to Jesus. For some of you, being a Christian impacts every aspect of your life. For some of you, perhaps, it's just some place that you go to on a Sunday. Philemon begs the question what happens when we disagree? What happens when we disagree with the people outside of these walls? And what happens when we disagree with the people inside these walls? But Doug, you don't understand. You don't know what they did to me. Do you know what they think? Have you heard their doctrine? Have you seen the way that they worship? Their theology is so messed up, I can't have anything to do with those people. They wronged me, they did something I don't agree with. They must be punished. And I don't have to forgive, and I shouldn't forgive. Because if I forgive them for what they did, then think about all the other people who might follow suit. Paul doesn't want to talk about how it's going to affect other people far down the road. He wants to talk about us right here and right now. This morning, Jesus is knocking at the door. And he's bringing a message. He wants to come in. He wants to live in your heart, and he wants to bring heaven down to earth, and he wants to do it in you and through you. He promised his spirit to reside in you, and the result of that is fruit that comes out of that in the way you live your life every single day. Stop pretending that faith is only played out sitting in a pew or a chair on a Sunday morning. The way you live your life, and the way you treat others, and the way that you choose mercy over justice, that is a part of how we show Jesus, and that is true worship. Doesn't matter if you come on Sunday and sing with your hands straight up or sitting in your pocket or stuffed in your pockets. This is not what real worship is. Real worship happens when you can show Jesus in hard situations. Jesus is knocking. He wants in. Answer the door. Let him lift you up, and let your words and your actions and your attitude lift him up. Let's all do that this morning as we stand and sing.