The Story of Redemption

00:01 If you have your copies of the Scriptures with you this morning, I trust that you do. I invite you to turn to the book of Philemon. I'd like to share with you a beautiful story this morning of reconciliation, and one that parallels our redemption, the story of redemption. A number of years ago, 00:23 the state of Mississippi discovered it had a problem. European bankers raised the issue of default on a $7 million debt. What makes the case so unusual is that the debt dated back to 1841. One banker said that if it were to be paid off with interest, 00:42 it would take not $7 million, but $50 million. And with low per capita income, Mississippi was not in a position to pay that off. The 140-some-year-old problem seemed like ancient history to many in Mississippi. 00:57 But to the European bankers, someone had said, "European bankers never forget." And you know how creditors can be. They never forget. And what we have this morning in the book of Philemon is about a debt that was owed that was not forgotten, 01:18 but that was forgiven. And it was paid for by someone else. And so I'd like for us to read through the book of Philemon, all 25, not chapters, but verses. "Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our beloved friend and fellow laborer, to the beloved Apphia, 01:37 Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 01:45 I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. 02:03 For we have great joy and consolation in your love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love's sake, I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. 02:24 I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. I am sending him back. You therefore receive him that is my own heart, whom I wished to keep with me, 02:44 that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. But without your consent, I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion as it were, but voluntary. For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave, 03:04 but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me and how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. But if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account. I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay, 03:25 not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides. Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. But meanwhile, also prepare a guest room for me. 03:45 For I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you. As do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow laborers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. 04:02 Amen." I'd like to draw some things out of this passage this morning that I think are significant. 04:08 Not only do we have here a message and a book of 25 verses that illustrate brotherhood and love, not only is it a message about how the early church dealt with slavery, not only is it a message about servants and employers or brotherhoods or friendships, but it is a great picture of salvation and redemption. 04:31 It is a great picture of the truths of substitution and imputation, having a substitute and having sin credited to a debt, credited to the account of another. We see the gospel story being replayed in human relationships in this passage of Scripture. 04:49 I want to introduce three major players in the text. Number one is the benevolent master, who has become the offended master. His name is Philemon. His name means beloved and taken from a word meaning a kiss. So likely, Philemon was a highly relational individual. 05:11 He was a benevolent man. He was a beloved friend. He was dedicated to the cause of Christ. He was a committed believer in the city of Colossi. Likely, it was his son that was this pastor of the church that met in his home. 05:29 He was probably a Gentile convert from Paul's ministry. So not only was he a friend of Paul, but he really owed Paul his spiritual life. Probably during Paul's ministry at Ephesus, Philemon became a wealthy landowner who also owned slaves. And there's really no commentary here about slavery in this text, 05:51 other than the fact that we know that in the city of Rome, there were about 120 million people, and about 60 million of those were slaves. And so about half the population, if that was representative of the Roman Empire, then about half the population of the Roman Empire was slaves. 06:09 And so we're not looking at a gospel here that caused social upheaval. But we are looking at a gospel message which considered slave and slave owner to be brothers, to be brothers in Christ if they both knew the Lord. So he was a helper of the saints. 06:29 Verse 7, "We have great joy and consolation in your love. Our hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. 06:38 The sharing of your faith has been effective, the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ." And verse 11, verse 5, "Hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints." So Onesimus was a man of God. He was a man who gave alms to the poor people, to poor Christians. 06:59 He was a man who refreshed the saints and highly committed to the cause of Christ. In fact, church tradition states that Philemon, this is later, of course, Philemon, his wife, and his son and Onesimus were all martyred by stoning by Androclees. At this stage, 07:19 his servant has done him wrong. And that brings into the second major player in this drama. And that is the man Onesimus, the unprofitable servant. The unprofitable servant. Interestingly enough, the name Onesimus means profitable. 07:39 But you see here that he has become unprofitable in verse 11, but was about ready to be made profitable again. He was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me. And I can imagine that when Onesimus was born into the household of Philemon, 08:01 that the best expectations that Philemon had of this young boy were to be met. He was probably a good-looking child. He was probably robust and strong and smart. And everything that Philemon thought could be invested in a servant, 08:22 this was the one. But he had stolen from Philemon and had run away. He had not only stolen probably some riches or wealth, maybe he was a trusted steward and had access to some of the inner workings of Philemon's household and business, 08:43 but he also stole from Philemon in lost work time and lost wages and profit that he was used to having from his servants. And he headed for the city, headed for the city to get lost in the crowd. 08:59 And somewhere along the line, we're not told, we're not told how the Apostle Paul met up with Onesimus in the city. But I can imagine some sort of crisis brought them together. Now, reading between the lines and surmising, doing some sanctified imagining, 09:19 you can probably imagine that Onesimus knew about Paul and maybe even knew Paul from the interaction of being a part of Philemon's household and Philemon's church and hearing Philemon talk about his faith and talk about the Apostle Paul. 09:37 And it's likely that he knew that Paul was in prison in Rome. And maybe by this time, he was under house arrest. But at any rate, he was in chains. He was in chains. And so some kind of crisis we can imagine must have hit Onesimus. 09:57 Maybe he ran out of money. Maybe he got stolen. His money was stolen. Maybe he had no more resources. Maybe he was arrested himself and maybe Paul put in a good word for him. We're really not told because there are many unfaithful and unprofitable servants who run away, 10:16 and their experience may be different. Maybe it was a problem with his conscience having stolen, and the light that he had from his interaction with the gospel previous to this may have gripped his conscience. Maybe it was loneliness. Maybe it was coincidence. 10:35 We've all had coincidences where we say, "Wow, what a life-changing coincidence that was," if there is such a thing for a believer. Maybe he was hungry. Maybe he was hungry, or maybe he met a group of Christians who he name-dropped. "Oh, yeah, I know Paul." "Oh, you know Paul? 10:54 Well, Paul's over here in our house arrest in our neighborhood. Go visit him." Or, "Paul's asking for you. He heard about him." We don't know what it was. But whatever it was, he was genuinely saved under Paul's ministry, genuinely saved under Paul the sole winner, and became a profitable servant to Paul. 11:15 Paul would have loved to have had him to continue to help minister to him. But he decided to send him back because he didn't want to assume and presume on behalf of Onesimus of Philemon's generosity. He became like a son to Paul. 11:37 And he gained Paul's confidence to carry the Colossian letter, the letter to the Colossian church with Tychicus and his recommendation to the church. And Colossians 4:9, "With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother who is one of you, they shall make known unto you all things which are done." And so he became a trusted servant. 11:59 Paul trusted him with the letter, the oracles of God, the letter to go back to the church with Philemon and read to the church there. However, Philemon would have been well within his right to kill him as an unprofitable thieving servant. 12:21 He would have been well within his right to have him executed upon his arrival. And so this letter is Paul's appeal, "Receive him. Receive him back. Take him back. He's your son in the faith. He's my son in the faith. He's profitable. He deserves a second chance, 12:42 or he should have a second chance, even if he doesn't deserve it." And that leads us then to the third major player, and that is Paul himself. And so you have the offended, benevolent master. You have the profitable servant who's become unprofitable. And then you have the qualified mediator, 13:04 qualified mediator, one who had a relationship with both parties who could stand and appeal to Philemon and stand and appeal to Onesimus. And so he could bring them together and restore the relationship. 13:22 The desired restoration of the relationship due to the fact that, verse 10, he is Paul's begotten son in the faith. 13:31 Verse 11, "Ministry and service has been profitable to Paul and to Philemon." Verse 16, "Onesimus is now not only a servant but a brother." And verse 19, "After all, Philemon, 13:47 you really owe it to me because you owe me your life anyway." Verse 19, "Even not to mention to you," and then he mentions it, "not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides. Your very faith was a result of my communication of the gospel to you." So Paul lays this out. 14:09 But I can imagine Paul thinking about Philemon and this debt. I mean, after all, if he just forgives the debt, how many other servants are going to do the same thing without coming to Christ and assume the same results? 14:28 And how can he both forgive and deal with the debt? And so Paul acknowledges this. And he says in verse 18, "But if he has wronged you or owes you anything, put that on my account. I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. 14:50 I'm not using a scribe. I'm not telling somebody else to write this. I'm writing it with my own hand. I'm signing my own name. And I will repay." And verse 17, "If you count me as a partner, receive him just like you would receive me. 15:11 And I'll take care of the debt, of the outstanding debt." And so here you have the offended, benevolent master, the profitable servant who's become unprofitable, and the qualified mediator willing to take on the debt. I hope by now and think by now that you're probably seeing the bigger picture. 15:32 The bigger picture here is this is a picture of redemption. You have God, the benevolent offended master, the benevolent offended master, God so benevolent, and yet he's been offended by his creation. 15:51 He was hospitable in inviting Adam and Eve into the garden. He's been generous, giving us food and clothes and so many things to be thankful for, common graces that even the world gets to experience, much less the Christian. He's a beloved Father. 16:11 He wants to be known to us. He wants to be in a relationship with us. He wants to be in a position where he can pour out his blessings upon his children. The problem is he's been violated by man's rebellion. He's been violated by our disobedience. His holiness has been violated. 16:30 His worship has been withheld. He's been stolen from. We took not only his world, which he gave to us to take care of as stewards, and we pawned it off to the enemy for a piece of fruit. 16:45 He would have every right to enact the full extent of the law, to execute us. We cannot even come back into his presence without going past the cherubim at the garden with the flaming swords. We are doomed. 17:05 We're without hope, without God. But he's still good, and he's still benevolent. The problem is this debt that has to be paid for so that he can be both just and the justifier. And how do you do that when you're a holy, holy God? 17:26 Well, you have man. We stand in the role of Onesimus, the profitable servants which all of God's creative potential went into creating man and woman. We are the pinnacle of his creation, I believe. I mean, we are the ones who were made in his image to be image bearers. 17:48 We are the ones who the best, the best of the best that he had went into creating us. We are the ones who he gave dominion over and he gave stewardship to and gave all the resources that he could possibly give were invested in us, made from the best that God had. 18:08 And yet we ran away from our master. We have robbed him of his possessions and of his glory. And not only that, it plunged the entire human race into depravity, brought death upon every man. And I think we have to be careful that we don't minimize the sinfulness of mankind. You see, 18:28 man calls his sin an accident, maybe an accident. 18:31 God calls it a calls it sin. Man may call it, or he calls it an abomination. Man may call his sin a blunder. God says, "You're spiritually blind." It's blindness. Man may call it a defect. "Well, we just have this little defect. God can get us at the bent and dent store. 18:52 We just got a little bent and dent." God says, "You've got a deadly disease, a disease of sin." Man may call it a trifle. God calls it a tragedy. Man may think he just made an error, an error in judgment. God calls it enmity. Man may call it a fascination. We have a fascination with sin. 19:13 God says, "You have a fatality. Your sin has destroyed you." Man calls it infirmity, just a weakness. God calls it iniquity. Man may think about enjoying the luxury of sin. God calls it leprosy, spiritual leprosy. Man just taking his liberty, just taking my liberty, 19:32 God says, "You're lawless." Man says, "Well, we made a mistake." God says, "You are guilty of a malady. You have an incurable madness. You don't make sense. You don't think logically." Man says, "I have a weakness." God says, "It's willful rebellion." And man says, "Well, 19:51 I'm just sick." And though there are a lot of similarities to sin, sickness with the sickness of the body, the problem with the sickness is the sickness of sin. So somewhere along the line, we got to fess up. 20:05 We got to come to the realization of this offense that stands in the way between God and man. What is it that brings us back? Well, it varies for various persons. For Cain, what broke him, not to the point of repentance but to the point of realizing his need, 20:26 was Abel's blood crying out from the ground to God. What broke the Israelites was their oppression in Egypt. What continued to break them was the oppression of the enemies, the Philistines, the Moabites, the Ammonites. And they'd cry out to God, and he'd raise up another judge. And then they'd go into sin, and he'd cry out to God, crisis after crisis after crisis. 20:46 What broke Noah's day was the thought of man's heart's only evil continually. So Noah built the ark to the saving of his house. Lot's righteous soul was vexed day and night. 20:59 Weariness of sacrifices over and over created a crisis of how can we ever get beyond this to a place of fellowship with the Father? Rachel weeping over her children, crying and grieving over the brutality of murdered babies brought about a crisis. And somewhere along the line, 21:18 the crisis that we have had has changed our lives because we brought it to a qualified mediator, Jesus, Jesus Christ, the suffering intercessor, the qualified mediator while he was in prison. You get the picture. 21:36 You see the point here that Paul was in chains and begot Onesimus with the gospel while he was in chains. And we begotten by the Lord Jesus Christ while he was suffering as a common criminal. He begot us in spirit as sons and daughters of his and of the Most High God. 21:56 He now considers us useful in his kingdom. He sees us as far more than servants but as sons and as friends and as partners in ministry who says to the Father, "If you have received me, then receive them. If you've received me, 22:16 treat them, Father, the same way that you treat me because they were unprofitable to you, but now they're profitable, and they're profitable to me. And we're in partnership, God. And I've got one foot on God's side and one foot on man's side. And, God, I can bring them together for you and reconcile you. And after all, 22:38 Father, if they have done anything to steal from you, if they have wronged you, put that on my account. Put it on my account." Verse 18, "If he has wronged you or owes anything, put it on my account." And the word here is the Greek word elogeo, 22:59 which means to charge to one's account. "God, here's my spiritual MasterCard. I will pay it all, all of it. Here is my spiritual account. 23:15 Put their sin on me and put my righteousness on them." And it's a completely legal exchange. You see, in the Old Testament, we won't take the time this morning to look at it. But in the Old Testament, on the Day of Atonement, in Leviticus chapter 16, 23:35 Day of Atonement, 23:36 there was the command that after Aaron had purged his own sins and he had offered a bullock and ram for his own sin and to atone for the altar and to atone for the items of the altar and all of that, then he was to take two goats and cast lots for those goats. 23:57 And one goat was to be slain, and blood was to be sprinkled. And the other goat was the scapegoat. And the scapegoat, Aaron was to stand over him, put his head or his hands on his head, the head of the goat, and confess the sins of the people. 24:18 And then he was to have someone lead that scapegoat way out into the wilderness where there was no way for that goat to find its way back home. And out in the wilderness, it was to die. 24:33 And the scripture makes it clear that there was a legal transference of the sins of the people onto the goat. And that sinful goat then was to be dismissed and to die of starvation. It's a legal transaction where the goat, 24:56 one dead, one alive dying, were to take the place of the sinful nation. And Jesus, having a relationship with both parties, Son of God, Son of man, suffered outside the gate, 25:17 Hebrews says, "For the body of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate, without the gate, so that he could bear our sins, 25:36 who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." What a blessing. What a blessing. 25:56 That legal transaction where Paul, as a picture of Jesus, said, "I'll take care of the debt." So there's nothing standing between the offended and the offender. But a pardon must be received. 26:16 A pardon must be received. You can't just issue a pardon and have it good unless it's received. In the year 1830, a man by the name of George Wilson killed a government employee who caught him in the act of robbing the mail. Well, mail fraud must have been a big deal back then too in 1830. He was tried and sentenced to be hanged. 26:37 However, President Andrew Jackson got him a pardon, sent him a pardon. But Wilson did a strange thing. He did not accept the pardon. And no one knew what to do because here's a pardon, but he won't take it. So do you hang him or do you let him go? 26:58 Supreme Court Justice Marshall said this in the court's opinion. He said, "A pardon is a slip of paper, a value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon. 27:18 George Wilson must be hanged." And he was because he refused the pardon. A pardon is not a pardon until it is received. And so it is with Onesimus. You got to go back. You got to repent. You got to face the facts. 27:39 You got to face the music. You got to face the Master. And you do so with a pardon. Story is told of a young musician in the Royal Band in Hanover, England. He loved to march in the band. He loved to march at the head of the band. He was a remarkable and superior musician. 27:58 However, when war broke out and he had to be in the trenches, he defected. And the wages of defection of the military was death. The penalty was death, but he was never caught. And he changed his name and went under a new name but became famous again. 28:19 Became a great organist, a great astronomer. He constructed a new telescope. He discovered a new planet. He was the praise of the world. But the long arm of the law caught up with him. And one day, he got a summons from the Royal Castle at Windsor. 28:42 And King George of Hanover had discovered who he was. The royal envelope invited him to come to the palace, but it also contained a pardon. He said, "You may now come, and we can talk. And you shall come up and live at Windsor and be Sir William Herschel." But you see, 29:03 that debt had to be taken care of, had to be forgiven. It had to be received before forgiveness could be issued. Forgiveness is the same way when it comes from God. The issue of the pardon, the pardon has been given. God has forgiven us insomuch that he said, 29:24 "Father, forgive them for they know what they do." And potentially, forgiveness was issued for the entire world. But the entire world is not saved because they do not receive the pardon. They do not accept it. They do not believe. It's ours. It's ours if it's available or it is available if we will receive it. 29:45 A little boy came to Washington Monument one day. And the guy who was standing there, one of those soldiers that was standing there guarding the Washington Monument, the little boy came up to him and said, "I want to buy it." "You want to buy it? How much money do you have?" "Well, I have a quarter." "Well, it's going to cost you more than a quarter." "Well, 30:05 I got a couple extra pennies." "Well, it's going to cost you more than that." And the guard looked at the little boy and said, "You need to understand three things. First, 34 cents is not enough. In fact, 34 million wouldn't buy it. Second, the one at Washington Monument is not for sale. 30:24 And third, if you are an American, you already own it. So it is with our pardon. So it is with our pardon. It's not for sale. You can't buy it. If you had all the money on earth, you couldn't buy forgiveness. But if you're a child of God and you're a living, 30:45 breathing person, you already have it. Take it. It's yours. 30:52 Be free from the debt of sin." And then Apostle Paul said, "Meanwhile, prepare a room for me, the guest room, benevolent Master. For I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you. 31:12 I'm going to come check up on you, Philemon. I'm going to make sure that this deal is done. And I'll pay it when I come. Get ready because there's a place for me in your heart and in your house." Similar to what Jesus did when he purchased our salvation. 31:35 And he went back to the Father's house to certify it, to certify the election, as it were. We're hearing a lot about certifying the election. Got to make sure it's real. 31:48 Got to make sure that it's authentic, that it's legal, that the transactions are are are authoritative before it gets certified. And then those certifications get sent to Washington for a final certification. And so it is when Jesus certified our salvation, 32:08 our redemption by going to the Father and, in a sense, according to Hebrews, poured out his own blood before the Father and said, "This should seal the deal." So what we have here in Philemon is more than just a nice little story about how people should get along with each other. 32:30 But it's a picture of redemption and sin and forgiveness. Now, does that get played out in how we relate to each other? Absolutely. Absolutely. Because the horizontal is a reflection of the vertical. And so what we have going on this way is what we extend going out this way. 32:52 Let's pray. 32:53 Father, thank you for this beautiful lesson here in scripture to point us to pardon, to reconciliation, to restoration, to knowing that our barrier between 33:12 us and God has been removed. And we have free access now into the presence of God, our benevolent, holy, good, loving Father in heaven. 33:32 I pray that if there be someone here this morning that has never accepted the pardon, that they would reach out today and take it by receiving Jesus Christ and his provision, by trusting in him, by accepting him into their life, 33:51 and by crying out for forgiveness from their sin. And we pray that we might enjoy the sweet fellowship that we have in Christ. In his name, we pray. Amen.