Philemon part 1

07 / 17 / 14

The Walking Un-Dead

Good Morning Church.

I hope this week has been wonderful for you.

As you know, over the last couple of months, we have been

doing a lot in the way of guest speakers, and a lot in the
way of single, isolated sermons.

Starting this week, I want to change that up just a bit, and

beginning today, I’m going to start a three part sermon
series.

This will be a series out of a book in the New Testament

called Philemon.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, isn’t that book only one
chapter? That’s a lot of talking for just 25 verses.

But I think sometimes it is important to, as the old saying

goes, “stop and smell the roses,” to really take our time to
sit, and think, and talk about what we read in this short
book.

At the beginning of the summer, I began reading through

the Gospel of John as something to read on my own and to
help supplement my study of the Gospel of Matthew for
Wednesday night class.

I would read a little bit every morning as part of my routine

for getting ready for the day.

But after I was done with John’s Gospel, I decided to

keeping reading and work my way through the book of Acts.
One of my favorite parts of the book of Acts is in the very
beginning of the story with the events of Pentecost.

I have heard it said before that Pentecost is the church’s

birthday, and I think there is some truth to that.

That was the day that the Spirit of God descends on a small
group of Jesus followers who then get to go out and share
the message of Jesus.

And so what started out as a rag-tag group of believers

becomes the catalyst that God will use to help change the
world for the next 2,000 or so years.

Yet, what I don’t want to do is think of it only as the

church’s birthday.

I don’t want to find myself in a place where I think about it

nostalgically and say to myself, “Isn’t it great that
something like that happened back then?”

I don’t want to forget that events of Pentecost are a

reminder of our calling.

The reason that we are given the spirit of God is so that we

can be given the power of the Spirit to actually go out and
live the kind of life that God calls us to live.

To live out the love and mercy and strength of Jesus in the
world.

And not just OUR world, not just our neighborhood or our
social circles.

The writer of the Book of Acts makes it clear that people

from all corners of the world are present for the birth of the
church.
It is a telling of God’s story to the entire world.

Pray with me briefly.

“Almighty God, at Pentecost you opened the way of eternal

life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your
Holy Spirit:

Please sow this gift throughout the world by the preaching

of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth;

Father, we pray that your Spirit falling on us would not just

be something that we only think about as only happening in
the Bible, and that the events of Pentecost would be more
than memory and reflection.

We know that as believers we have that same Holy Spirit to

empower us to change the world, a world that you have
called us to love and bless today.

We ask for your blessing as we explore a book that I hope

will convict us to go out into the world in new and refreshing
ways.

In the name of Jesus, we ask that you fall on us, your

people.”

And the Church sad, ‘amen.’

I want to start our time together by reading the text.

As I said earlier, Philemon is just 25 verses long.

So you can say Philemon, chapter 1, verse 1.

Or you can simply say Philemon verse 1.

1 
Paul, a prisoner  of Christ Jesus, and Timothy  our brother,
To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker— 

2 
also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier—
and to the church that meets in your home:

3 
Grace and peace to you all  from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ.

4 
I always thank my God  as I remember you in my prayers, 

5 
because I hear about your love for all his holy people  and
your faith in the Lord Jesus. 

6 
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. 

7 
Your love has given me great joy and
encouragement,  because you, brother, have refreshed  the
hearts of the Lord’s people.

I think it is helpful, and sometimes very insightful, to pay

attention to what is going on in the world around you.

I think if we pay attention to society, culture, and the world

at large it can be very revealing on occasion.
I’ve had some conversations with members of our church
family about what sort of music they like, what kind of
movies they watch.

But recently I was discussing t.v. shows with people and I

have found several people who like the show The Walking
Dead.

For those of you who haven’t seen the show, it is about what
happens in society when zombies take over the world.

Cities collapse, governments fall, society comes apart.

The show is, to put it simply, asking the question what does
it mean to be human, when almost all structure and security
has fallen away.

And this premise for a show has struck a chord within our
society. People are relating to this show and watching it in
record numbers.

In fact, the season premier this past October set the record
for the most watched hour of cable television in history.

Ever.

To the tune of more than 16 million people watching that

show.

What most people find so striking about the show, however,

is not the zombies.

What most people like about the show, is the human drama,
the human interaction.

They are watching to see what people do when the situation

seems hopeless.
In fact, even the name of the show, The Walking Dead, isn’t
about the zombies.

The guy who created the show, Robert Kirkman, has stated
that the title is about the survivors.

Those who have nothing left to live for except themselves.

This theme, I think, is somewhat familiar to us.

It’s been common in literature, film, and television for years.

You can find yourself living in a world, where if you don’t

change, if you don’t take note of what’s going on, if you
don’t do something and make some better choices, you are
dead already and don’t even know it.

And I hear that and I think about those kinds of stories

being told outside the church, and I wonder, if maybe we
don’t need to pay attention to those stories inside the
Church.

Because increasingly, religious people, Christian people in

particular, are realizing that there is, in a sense, a lot of the
walking dead in the world when it comes to religion.

Whether religious groups, cliques, or organizations.

This is probably not news to most of you but lets just stop
and take note of it.

And if it is new to you, pay close attention, but when it

comes to religious life in America today what people are
saying is that there are a whole lot of lifeless people walking
around.
There are people, that if they don’t change, if they don’t
start taking note of the direction of their lives, if they don’t
start making better choices, they are dead already, and
don’t even know it.

Let me give you a couple of examples of this picture in

American culture.

The first is just sort of a numerical picture of religious

deadness, or religious apathy, amongst us today.

If you do any sort of research on this subject, you’ll find that

there have been hundreds of studies that tell us the same
thing.

Bottom line: church attendance is rapidly declining.

I think most of us know, but you don’t know that, recognize

that very quickly we are becoming the minority.

Since 1990, and especially in the last 10 to 15 years, there

has been a huge decrease in regular attendance and
participations in gatherings like ours today.

Even the numbers of people who describe themselves as

“not religious” have skyrocketed.

It isn’t just that people are leaving churches.

People are leaving faith in a higher power of any kind.

I’m not saying this to be an alarmist, I say this only to point

out this picture that is coming through in our society today.

In the midst of our country growing, and increasing greatly

in population, in the midst of abundant life, there is also
deadness.
I give you those numbers for those of us who need to see
cold, hard facts. I, myself, am not a numbers guy.

There is, beneath the surface, more than just the numerical
evidence to the increasing deadness.

There is also lifestyle deadness.

A gentleman by the name of Ronald Sider recently wrote a

book titled The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience.

In his book he describes that study after study after study

has revealed that the lives of Christians very rarely look
different from the lives of those they we are trying to reach.

In fact, here is a quote from Mr. Sider’s book.

“The findings in numerous national polls are simply

shocking. Gallop and Barna hand us survey after survey
demonstrating that evangelical Christians are as likely to
embrace lifestyles every bit as hedonistic, pleasure seeking,
materialistic, self-centered, and sexually immoral as the
world in general.”

Bottom line, I can give you a thousand surveys that tell you
that there isn’t a whole lot of difference between the
lifestyles of people who profess to believe in Jesus and the
people they are trying to reach.

Let me give you just one example out of any number of

these categories that we can talk about.

We know, that in following the life and teachings of Jesus,

that part of the call of being his disciple means that we are
generous to the poor and to the needy.

We are called to be a people that by our very nature are

giving.
As God gave us the gift of his son, so we should give gifts
back to the world to help heal it.

There have been extensive studies in giving and generosity,

going back all the way to 1968.

Mr. Sider, in his book, discusses this a bit.

Historically, the Church has never tithed.

Only 6% of evangelical Christians tithe.

If you haven’t read it yet in your Bible, let me tell you, that
from beginning to end, Old Testament and New Testament,
the consistent calling of just the benchmark, the starting
point, of tithes and offerings, is giving 10% of what you get
to the needs of the immediate spiritual community you
belong to and for the needs of the poor in your
neighborhood.

That’s just the starting line, and as a whole, we aren’t even

doing that.

But if you go back to the late 1960’s, it isn’t just that we are
doing the minimum, its declining.

Remember, we started in 1968 at 6%.

Now, today, those numbers are down close to around 3 and

a half%.

Here is what is staggering about this to me, we find that in

that same period of time the average income of the same
demographic, evangelical Christians, has sky-rocketed.

The short version: we are making more than we ever have

and we are giving less than we did before.
Again, I’m not a big numbers guy, so I have to have things
connect and make real these figures.

So think about it this way with me. If just American

Christians, if just Americans, who claim to follow the
teachings of Jesus, tithed, again, just Americans tithed,
there would be an additional $143 Billion dollars to use in
help spreading the Gospel, a message of love that God has
for the world.

$143 Billion dollars for food, clothes, shelter, and care for
those hurting and broken and lost.

To make that even a little bit more tangible, sociologists

have crunched the numbers, looked at the data and
concluded that with between $60 – 70 Billion dollars, you
could largely take care of the basic health care and
educational needs of the world’s poverty stricken.

Now I know, that Jesus said “The poor will always be with
you.” That is not, however, an escape or a trump card for us
to do nothing.

With $60 – 70 Billion dollars, we could largely take care of

the world’s poor.

To say it yet another way, if American Christians would

tithe, we would still have $70-80 Billion dollars left over
AFTER taking care of the poor, to share with them the good
news of God’s love.

There is a little bit of disconnect between the call of Jesus

and the actions of his followers. There is a bit of “walking
deadness” to the faith of American Christians.

And some may say that there are churches that are growing,
churches that are moving and bucking this trend.
Yes, but deadness comes out in different ways than low
attendance.

I was speaking with a professor of mine, who had attended

and spoke at a preaching conference in Texas.

During the Question and Answer session of this conference,

many of the ministers in the Dallas area belonged to large,
what we would call, mega-church congregations.

They were trying to figure out what to do with a

congregation in which the most common gift given to a
graduating high school senior is plastic surgery.

The most common type of plastic surgery for those seniors,

a majority of which were girls? Breast implants.

These are people in churches who are sending their sons

and daughters off to college, and telling them that if they
are prettier, they will be happier and more successful.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against cosmetic surgery as a

whole.

In some cases, I would even say it is necessary, but in a

situation where someone feels their worth is tied so deeply
to their appearance, it becomes a problem.

The Gospel of Jesus calls us to see our worth as a person

because God made us in his image and he longs to be in
deep relationship with us, and not because other people tell
us that we should look a certain way.

Is there some disconnect, even in some of the biggest and

fastest growing churches in America?
There is a sense in which there is, not just in the TV show,
but there is a walking dead aspect to the lives of a great
many people around us, even those that we would call
brothers and sisters in the faith.

Now that’s the bad news.

Here is the good news.

In letters like Philemon, and in others like Paul’s letter to the

Colossians, we see that this is not some brand new affliction
on the world.

The Church has seen this problem before.

And God has dealt with it.

Colossians is a letter written to a church dealing with this

sort of issue. Spiritual deadness of faith.

They were a culture that faced some of these same

contradictions and frustrations and missteps when it comes
to the question, “how do you live the Gospel out in the
world?”

In reading the book of Philemon, it has the same setting of

the book of Colossians.

It’s the same house church, so you can read these two
books together in parallel.

Philemon is a very personal, individual letter that Paul wrote,

while Colossians is written to the church as a whole.

I want to give you a quick background just to get us ready

for the next 3 weeks of studying this book.

Here is the story, here is what’s going on.

Imagine in this 1st century world that there is a guy named
Onesimus.

This is a guy who, in his time and culture, is owned as a

slave by a Christian.

See a little disconnect there?

He is a slave, and his owner is a follower of Christ.

In his time and place, that’s just how things were.

We don’t know all of the details, but one way or another, he

either runs away or perhaps, he was set on some task by his
master and then simply stays gone looking for asylum to
escape his slavery.

Somewhere in him running away or dodging his return, he

happens to run into a guy named Paul.

We’ll find out later in this letter that these two end up
having a deep friendship, and maybe this shouldn’t surprise
us.

Because when they meet, Paul is in jail.

Maybe Paul understands what it is like to be imprisoned and

enslaved when he doesn’t deserve it.

This is the only letter that we have from Paul that he doesn’t
start off by saying, “From Paul, an apostle” or “Paul, a
servant of Jesus.”

Instead, he says, “Paul, a prisoner.”

He lets Philemon know from the very beginning, this is

where he is writing from.
This is where the heart of Paul is in this moment, he is a
prisoner, he is in jail.

And in this, I think, he finds a heart connection with

Onesimus.

Paul then does, what Paul does best.

Paul tells Onesimus the story of a man who can set him free
in every way, the story of a man who wouldn’t stay dead.

Paul shares with Onesimus the gospel and Onesimus

becomes a follower of Jesus.

This new found freedom comes, however, with a new found

dilemma.

In this moment, we have a political, legal, and relational

problem.

Onesimus has committed a crime.

In fact, in certain settings, it is a capitol crime.

He could be crucified for what he has done, for running away

as a slave.

Paul is now committing a crime if he is taking care of this

runaway slave.

It seems clear to me that he is.

Did you know that Paul could be charged if he harbors him

in anyway?

He could be charged for every day’s pay that Philemon loses

if he is harboring this runaway slave.
He has a political issue, a legal issue, a cultural issue.
We forget this sometimes, so lets remind ourselves of Paul’s
circumstances.

At writing some of his letters, Paul is in jail. Under the

authority of the very people that he is trying to undermine.

When Paul says, “Jesus is lord” he is in jail under the rule of

people who say that “Caesar is lord.”

When he is dealing with situations that involve people being

held captive and he wants to set people free, he is in jail
with the people who are benefiting from institutions like
slavery.

Have you ever thought about circumstances like this?

If you are in jail, and you want to write a letter, you cannot
just write whatever you want.

They are going to look at what you write.

Have you ever thought about how much of the New

Testament was written from prison?

I thin about how Paul probably could not write exactly what
he wanted to say. He wrote it subtly.

And you will see that in this book.

Paul writes in ways that could get out past the guards.

Paul has some issues when he is sitting in the jail cell, what
do you do in this world of darkness and death?

This first thing I want to look at is how interesting it is that

he doesn’t come out with guns blazing.
He doesn’t come out blasting Philemon, telling him about
how dead his faith is.

Paul doesn’t start with death, in fact, he begins with signs of

life.

He begins by building off of the life that already exists in

Philemon’s life and community.

There are signs of life there.

Paul builds on this and points it out.

Did you notice in verse 4, “I always thank my God as I

remember you in my prayers because I hear about your love
for all his people.”

I’m hearing that you have love, I’m hearing about your faith,
while I am in prison in Rome, about 1,000 miles away.

He is hearing, not about terrible things, or inconsistent

things.

Instead, he starts by saying, I know you love people, and I

know that you have faith in Jesus.

Isn’t interesting to think about the place that Paul heard

about this guy’s faith?

Do you think he heard about Philemon’s faith from his own

runaway slave?

Of course we would want to runaway from slavery as well,

right? It’s a terrible thing to own people like objects.

But maybe he knows how much worse it could be for him.

Maybe he recognizes that his master is a good guy.
Paul says, “I have heard about your faith.”

It isn’t just distant and impersonal. Paul goes on to say in

verse 7 that the love of Philemon has refreshed him as well.

He hasn’t just heard about it, he has experienced it in very

real ways.

We don’t know exactly what he is talking about. But

somehow, 1,000 miles away, Philemon has blessed Paul too.

Paul says that even in a world of darkness and deadness, a

walking dead world, that love is something to build on.

I want to say that to this spiritual community too.

For all of the evil and negative and death-dealing things

going on in the world today, in this family, there are those
very same signs of life.

And I tell you that we can build off of that some love and life
as Paul did.

What ever is going out outside of our walls, whether political

upheaval, natural disasters, family failures, or social
struggles, we can work with that, we can build off of that
and create life.

Now, we know that no one is perfect.

Paul moves on and goes on to say to Philemon that for all of

the good things that he has heard and for all of the blessings
that he has been for other people, he is at a crossroads in
his life.
Paul tells Philemon that he has a decision to make, because
if he stays in the same place that he is at, he will become
one of the walking dead, and will end up in places of death.
But if we make choices and decisions to follow what God has
called us to, and we search to find what the Spirit of God is
up to in the world today, then we will move on from death to
life.

I think what Paul is doing with Philemon is saying that it is

great that he has heard so many good things about him, but
I want to move on to bigger and better things.

Paul does like he does most of his letters, thanking God for
all the good things concerning who he is writing to and then
he goes on to pray for someone.

He thanks God for all the good things he has heard about
Philemon and prays for him as well, saying in verse 6, “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.”

This is Paul’s prayer, that our shared experience of faith

might become operational.

Paul tells him, I don’t want you to just be hanging out being
a good guy, I want you to do something.

I want your faith to be effective.

I want your faith to be operative.

I want your faith to work in some way.

In other words, its very tempting to say, I’ve heard about all
the good stuff your doing, and that’s great, I know you have
faith, and that great to, but faith doesn’t stop there.

It isn’t real faith if it isn’t doing something anymore.

Paul says that he is praying, not just to celebrate what God
has done in the past, I’m praying that your faith today will
be effective in what is in front of you today.

This is, after all, a guy who has done great things for the
faith, but he doesn’t realize that he owns a human being
that is now a brother in Christ.

I think Paul’s prayer is telling Philemon that you need to

wake up because your faith actually has to do something
here and now.

I think this says something to us as well.

I think Paul’s prayer for us is the same. Hey, I’ve heard you
have done great things in the past, you’ve helped when
people were hurting, you’ve stepped in when people needed
assistance, but the faith keeps on working.

Having faith and following Jesus has to be operational and

active.

It is so easy to get into a routine, to attend church, to smile,

and ask how people are, but to have a faith that isn’t active,
to have a faith that is dead.

Paul tell us that when our faith is active, alive, and

engaging, that those are the moments when we start realize
how great it is.

That is when we realize how good the things that God has
called us to do are.

You will never understand or experience the fullness of your

own faith until you give it away and share it with someone
else.

Did you know that?

You will never experience the full life of your own faith just
living out the dead end routine.

I remember the first mission trip I ever went on.

I remember a very hot, humid day doing construction work

in a bug-infested area making and stacking bricks.

Yet, I remember thinking that I knew I was doing what a

Christian should.

I had talked about my faith, I could quote bible verses, but I

had never done anything so physical and engaging before.

I think Paul would tell us that if we aren’t operating,

engaging, and doing something outside of us, then we don’t
even really know how good it is.

This is what he prays for Philemon, and what he begs for

concerning all of us.

That our faith will be effective.

This is my hope for the next couple of weeks as we look at

this book, even as dark as the world is, filled with hate,
pride, greed, and death, one person really can make a
difference.

You really can make a difference in the world.

If your faith is doing something in even just one other

person’s life, it makes a difference.

Not just to them, but to all sorts of people around them.

So what can God do, not just with one person, but with a
whole room full of people who are alive and engaging in
their faith?
So here is my request for the next couple of weeks.
I want you to pray and ask God a question.

Go somewhere quiet, get alone, and ask God this question:

Where has he brought freedom into your life and made you
alive?

Paul was once enslaved to an old religious system, but Jesus

freed him and restored him to life.

Philemon was enslaved to a culture and society that owned

humans, treating them as property, yet Paul converts him
and brings him to the God who gives life was there was none
before.

These people experienced freedom, experienced life.

Where have we experienced the freedom and life of the

gospel of Jesus and who might need to have us share that
very same freedom and life with them?

Who is right around us, staggering around like a zombie with

no life in their eyes that needs to be awoken to the life that
Jesus offers us?

A life of active engagement with others around us.

That is what I want us to think about for the next couple

weeks.

Pray with me one more time.

“God, we ask of you that you would not let us simply receive
your spirit and your gifts.

Let us not be people who have expressed our faith and love
in the past, but help us to be life giving to those around us
today.

Let us be your hands and feet by your love and your power.”