Letter to Philemon part 2: The intercessor
Have you ever been in a hopeless situation, unable to get out of it, unless someone helped you?
I have, in my last year at university I was horrible student. I didn’t show up for classes. And dragged my feet through the hospital internship. I was told that if I didn’t get my act together I would fail, and have to do the year over. I was moved to do my internship in a different hospital. I met my new instructor and,old her about my bad attitude .About me wanting to change it, and become a better student. My instructor there taught me more in 3 months than I had learned in 3 years. She told my teacher that my attitude had improved drastically, and that I was a hard worker. If it hadn’t been for that woman, I would have left university and never finished my degree.
Last week we looked at forgiveness and slavery, in Paul’s letter to Philemon. I talked about how hard it can be to forgive those who hurt us, because we don’t really want to forgive. We want revenge, and the only way we can forgive someone is to turn to God and ask for His help. We don’t want to forgive because we are, in fact, slaves: slaves to sin. Our default setting seems to be slave to sin. We are like Onesimus – we have run away from our true Master and chosen a worse one! We have chosen sin.
The theme of today’s sermon in intercession.
( TO intercede is to settle an argument between two or more people. It is to speak to someone, in order to defend or help another person. So to intercede is to stick your neck out for someone, with a real possibility that your head will be head blown off!)
Just like Onesimus we need someone to intercede for us.
We need someone to represent us before God and ask for His forgiveness, to ask for us to be brought back under His mastery.
And as we spoke about last week, if we belong to Jesus, though our hearts are mastered by sin, through Jesus we’re given the strength to forgive, and turn from the slavery of sin. And we can do like verse 6 tells us to: to put into action the generosity that comes from our faith.
One of the ways we do that is to stand up for those with no rights – just like Jesus does for us. That’s the major theme of Philemon, and so what we will look at today is.
1. The intercession of Paul…
2. The intercession of Jesus…
1.Paul intercedes on the Behalf of Onesimus.
Paul writes this letter to intercede on the behalf of Onesimus, Philemon’s runaway slave.
10 I appeal to you to show kindness to my child, Onesimus. I became his father in the faith while here in prison
Verses 17-19: 17 So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. 18 If he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to me. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it. And I won’t mention that you owe me your very soul!
This is only a starter, when it comes to the letter to Philemon.
Did you know that roughly 90 % of the letter to Philemon is intercession? 18 out 25 verses in the letter to Philemon, has an interceding quality.
Paul phrases his letter cleverly, and instead of demanding Philemon’s submission for the sake of Christ, and the authority of Paul. He request a favour, from his friend.
Though the are friends Paul understood that a slave that steal, and run away from his master is a useless slave. And therefor sympathize with Philemon on this, he continues the letter making it clear to Philemon, that Onesimus is no longer useless. But in fact so useful that Paul would prefer Onesimus to remain with him in Rome. He continues his letter telling Philemon that Onesimus is now more than Philemon’s slave. He is a Christian, a beloved brother of Paul and Philemon. Even more so Onesimus is now a part of God’s people. So Philemon must love him, not because Philemon is ordered to do so by Paul. But have a look at verses 4-5:
4 I always thank my God when I pray for you, Philemon, 5 because I keep hearing about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all of God’s people.
Philemon’s love for God’s people is evident, and now he must love Onesimus, who have become a Christian, one of God’s people.
So far Paul has gone quite easy on Philemon, he has told him of Onesimus becoming a Christian. How he now is very useful to the both of them. Onesimus has become a beloved brother to Paul and Philemon.
But this is where gloves come off, In verses 17 – 19 Paul basically says to Philemon, If you consider yourself a Christian, and if you’re my friend. You will receive Onesimus as you would receive me.
If Onesimus has done anything to you, or owes you anything. I ask you my friend: Please charge that to me. I will repay you. Not to mention that you owe me your very soul, I was the one who led you to the Lord! You were once, as lost and deprived as Onesimus remember? Pretty powerful stuff isn’t it?
Reading verses 1-2 we understand that the letter is a Public letter, and Paul also intends the church that meet in Philemon’s home to hear it. Should Philemon In spite of Paul’s argument no matter how elegant and logical it was, fail to submit to his request.
Then Archippus and the Colossian church would prove to be Paul’s representatives in Colossae. And they would apply the “pressure” needed to help Philemon do the right thing. As a church they also need to look out for each other’s godliness, and as you can imagine. Though Philemon might have needed a nudge in the right direction, he also needed support from his church. Because to not punish a runaway slave, when the law permitted it was unheard of. I can just imagine the way people talked about Philemon in Colossae:
Did you hear about Philemon? he didn’t punish an unruly slave because of a letter he received from a Jew named Paul. He must have lost his mind!
He might be have been the laughing stock of Colossae, so Paul knew that he would need the support from his fellow Christians.
Paul’s intercession on the behalf of Onesimus might be difficult to understand in today’s society. Especially since we don’t have slaves, and most countries don’t have as severe punishments as they did back then.
But let’s say you had been to Rema 1000, and while you were there you saw a chocolate. You really wanted this chocolate, but knew you couldn’t afford it. You only had enough money for eggs, milk and bread, so you slip the chocolate into your pocket and pretend like nothing. When getting to the till, taking out your money the chocolate falls out of your pocket. The lady at the till call security, and you are held back until the police arrives to question you.
The whole thing ends up in court where the Judge and the owner of Rema 1000 wants to make an example of you. You sit there while they try to accuse you of everything under the sun, in addition to stealing a chocolate bar. They say “he is a part of an organized crime-ring”.” While you sit there rendered speechless, with your head cradled in your hands thinking I’m in trouble. You hear a voice coming from beside you saying: “ Objection! This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard! Yes he stole willingly, but he’s not a gang member. He stole because he wanted chocolate, and that was a stupid thing to do. But there’s no reason to trial him as a part of a crime ring” You look up and there beside you is a man in long black cape. He is your lawyer, speaking and interceding on your behalf.
This is what Paul did for Onesimus, he acted as his lawyer. He spoke and interceded on his behalf. Telling Philemon that Onesimus was a changed man, who was no longer the useless slave, but trustworthy Christian.
It must have been wonderful to have a friend like Paul. Imagine a friend who willingly paid, your debts, and interceded with anyone, wanting to you punished you for your actual crimes! The good things is that we have an intercessor like that, we have Jesus!
If we’re in Christ, He is our intercessor.
Have a look at verse 6:
“And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ.”
That is what Paul writes in verse 6 of his letter to Philemon. Understanding and experiencing all the good things we have in Christ, what does that mean?
After reading the letter to Philemon, what feels like a hundred times, I realized that we are Onesimus! Upon realizing this. Paul’s letter of intercession became much bigger than a friend looking for a favour. To me it became the Gospel about Jesus Christ compressed onto a page or so. We see Paul taking on a Christ like role and interceding for Onesimus his beloved brother, offering to make right the wrongs he has made, and to pay off his debts. By doing so, he talks Philemon out of carrying out his lawful right. To punish his servant for running away from his responsibilities, and stealing from him. Onesimus deserved punishment. But Paul but intercedes, why did Paul do this? Because Jesus had done it for him first, Paul only showed Onesimus a fraction of the love and mercy Jesus had already shown him. Paul used to be a zealot Jew, persecuting the Christians in Jerusalem. In acts, we can read that he was present at the stoning of Stephen the first Christian martyr.
He took men and women out of their homes throwing them in to prison for being Christians. He went to the synagogues to get letters of approval to chase down and arrest Christians in Damascus, he was threatening and eager to kill the Christians (acts 9:1). It was while persecuting Christians Paul met Jesus, and had his life changed completely. He became one of the most noted and important people in Christianity. God forgave him: the murder and persecution of His people. So it’s no wonder Paul sticks his neck out for Onesimus. Paul has felt the generosity of Christ, and therefor he can show Onesimus the same generosity.
Just like Onesimus we’re in trouble! We are so guilty that it’s not even funny. Luckily, for you and me, I don’t know what you have done, and you don’t know what I have done. But we all know that we haven’t loved God perfectly, because we’re not able to keep God’s commandments. If we’re not keeping God’s commandments, we’re not keeping the commandment’s Jesus gave us.
When an expert in religious law asked Jesus what was the greatest commandment, He replied. “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
So we are in trouble because! We have sinned against God, and awoken His righteous anger. We don’t measure up to the bare minimum of God’s expectations of us. We don’t love Him perfectly, we run away from Him saying: No God it’s my life, and I want to live it my way. It isn’t sin it’s my choice. We even try to steal His Glory, so that we can glorify ourselves! “Big” Preachers baptizing people in their own name, or people charging sick and desperate people hundreds of kroners to pray for them.
We are Onesimus. We have betrayed our master. We have run away, pretending to live our own life. Free as our own master – but we’re not free. We’re a slave to our own sinful desires. We need an intercessor. We need a Paul. And that is exactly whom we have:
He whom we wronged, God. He loves us so much, that He even gave us a way out. After all we have done to Him, and He knew from the start what we were like.
He sent us His own son, Jesus. So that He could intercede on our behalf. Jesus was born fully human and fully God, He lived a life experiencing the same joy, sorrow and other things we feel, including temptation. Jesus lived a sinless life, which means: He didn’t sin once, He loved God His Father perfectly. Fulfilling the law, living a perfect life. Then Jesus died a perfect death on the cross, where He carried all our sin and punishment. In Roman times the punishment for a runaway slave was crucifixion. We, like Onesiums, stand guilty, and the sentence is death by crucifixion. We deserve the complete and eternal separation from God.
But Jesus God’s son took it all on Him. So now when we sin, when we disobey God and awaken his fury. Jesus is sitting beside God saying: That is Christian, he is far from perfect in fact, and he is quite the sinner. Nevertheless, he is in Me, and I have died for his sins. Therefore, he is no longer a sinner but one of Your children. We have the best intercessor, In the words of v19 Jesus says: “Father charge it to me. 19 I, [Jesus], write this with my own hand: I will repay it.
Imagine that you’re Onesimus, you’ve ran away from you master. Stole from him, and dishonoured him. You come to Paul, you cry on his shoulder telling him everything: How you ran away and stole more money than you’ll ever be able to pay back.
You expect total and utter condemnation, but what you receive is mercy. Paul tells you that he knows Philemon, and just like you, he led Philemon to the Lord. He tells you he is going to write him a letter, and that he will settle you debt with Philemon. Can you imagine the joy you would feel, free of an impossible debt and forgiven. Through the works of one man!
That is how we should feel every day. In the same way Paul interceded on the behalf of Onesimus, pronouncing him no longer useless. But in fact extremely useful, and a beloved brother. Jesus is now interceding on our behalf, pronouncing us as no longer sinners but clean. Because of His death on the cross, if we are in Christ. We are pronounced God’s children, and no longer, strangers sentenced to an eternity separated from God.
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