The Faith We Share [leads us to]

And as you're making your way to Fi Lehman in

your bibles, I would like you to consider this morning

the sharing of your faith. Consider the sharing of your

faith and how that's going. Is the sharing of your

faith in a strong place? Now, my guess is that

when I put that question to you, most everybody automatically

thinks that I'm asking about your evangelism. That I'm trying

to get at your level of faithfulness and sharing the

Gospel with those who might not yet know and follow Jesus.

And for sure, that's a worthy matter for us to consider.

And yet, and yet it's not what we're going to

focus on here this morning, because because even though Paul,

in his letter to his friend Phi Lehman, uses that

very phrase that the sharing of your faith, he's in

fact talking about something much more internal the church family relationships.

When he uses that phrase.

He's actually using one of those more popular, I guess,

Greek words that you might have run into before in

our Christian circles here, the word koynanea.

Does that sound familiar? Have you ever heard that word?

Use?

The word koinnanea.

It's it's the word we sometimes roughly translates as fellowship

where intimate mutuality and intensive participation in relationship is in view,

and in our case, participation in faith in the Lord Jesus.

It's a sharing of our faith in Him together that

shows in how we treat one another. I believe it's

the phrase that in fact serves as a kind of

centerpiece really for this first part of the letter that

we'll look at together, but really perhaps even for the

full extent of the letter too. It's the life Paul

and the Apostles sought to model for us, and what

men like Fi Lehman wanted to live out as well.

And then we're further exhorted to walk in. So let's

read the letter now in its entirety, though we will

be going through all of it, and the reading we'll

be focused on verses one through seven this morning as

we just take a deep dive into things. And then

Lord willing, we'll enjoy a sort of part two of

the letter and cover the rest of it several weeks

from now when I'm scheduled to be in the pulpit again.

So again, here Philemon, starting in verse one, you can

follow along.

With me as I read.

Paul a Prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

to Philemon our beloved fellow worker, and Afia our sister,

and Archipus, our fellow soldier, and the Church in your house.

Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and

the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always when

I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of

your love and of the faith that you have towards

the Lord Jesus and for all the saints. 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.

For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love,

my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been

refreshed through you. Accordingly, though I am bold enough in

Christ to command you to do what is required, yet

for love's sake, I.

Prefer to appeal to you.

I Paul, an old man and now a prisoner, also

for Christ Jesus. I appeal to you for my child Onesimus,

whose father I became in my imprisonment. Formerly he was

useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to

you and to me.

I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.

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. But I prefer to

do nothing without your consent, in order that your goodness

might not be by compulsion, but of your own accord.

For this perhaps is why he was parted from you

for a while, that you might have him back forever,

no longer as a bond servant, but more than a

bond servant, as a beloved brother, especially to me, but

how much more to you, both in the flesh and

in the Lord. So if you consider me your partner,

receive him as you would receive me.

If he has.

Wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that

to my account. I Paul write this with my own hand.

I will repay it, to say nothing of your owing me,

even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some bendish

fit from you in the Lord refresh my heart in Christ.

Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that

you will do even more than I say. 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 a paphorus, my fellow prisoner in Christ.

Jesus sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demus,

and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord

Jesus Christ be with your spirit. This is God's word

for us this morning. Well, what a letter, right, and

what a persuasion there that we hear from Paul. It's

all very personal in substance about a subject, however, that

had probably become more public in nature. As best we

can tell, as we put some pieces together in scripture

from some various passages. Phileman was a Christian man in

the city of Colossie who hosted that church there, the

very Colossian church where you know about from another letter

its namesake for us in our Bibles, the Letter to

the Colossians. And this man Philemon. He had a bond servant, Onesimus,

who ran away, perhaps even doing so in a thieving

kind of manner, and somehow he met the apostle Paul,

prisoned imprisoned in Rome there.

Some thousand miles away.

He became a follower of Jesus, and now he understands

he needs to return to Phileman, his master and now

also brother in the Lord. And Paul is helping that

reunification along by writing to this believing household and even

to some extent the community that meets there. So I

think verses one through seven that will be looking at

specifically this morning. They serve as a kind of foundation

for Paul's big, intensely persuasive request that he makes of

phi Lehman, namely or saying, receive Onesimus back with warmth

and forgiveness.

As a Christian brother.

And what he wants to do in these introductory remarks

is greatly encourage his friend and his partner in ministry.

It seems from everything we can gather that phi Lehman

already intentionally shared his faith with his spiritual family the

church there in his home.

There was a ton to appreciate.

It's a kind of exemplary model really for us to

follow as we read this, as we see how the

faith that they all shared in that community is also

the faith that we share here with one another in ours.

So it's a model for us to think about, and

it should lead us to observe this model in such

a way that we would start to yearn to express

our affection to express our affection with one another. The

faith that we share leads us to express our affection

for each other. So look at the way in which

even the greetings that so often we read these letters

in the New Testament, that we might often just breeze

past those initial words there, Notice that they are this

warm extension of love. Look at verses one through three again,

says Paul, a prisoner for Christ, Jesus and Timothy our brother,

two Pi Lehman our beloved fellow worker, and Afia our sister,

and Arkipas our fellow soldier, and the church in your house,

Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and

the Lord Jesus Christ. The personal descriptions there that we

read it, they're they're so familial in nature and gospel

rich all at the same time.

Right, you heard them words like.

Brother, like beloved, fellow worker, sister, fellow soldier, probably a

term they're referring to the various ministry partnership that they

had together. And now this is all in written form

for us, right, but you can appreciate as you look

at these words, there's a kind of almost loving embrace

that you feel in these descriptions. The very words paint

that kind of a picture for us, don't they? So

clearly it's it's not simply a committee meeting that they

show up that they're they're a part of once a month,

so long as they pay their dues to the club.

It doesn't have that feel, does it. If we take

further pause on these initial sentences, we can make further observations, like, firstly,

the apostle Paul, how does he present himself but as

a prisoner?

Why?

Well, because of his bold and unhindered faith in Christ Jesus.

That's why he was in prison in Rome. Then we're

told explicitly that a specific local church is in view.

This is some random group of people gathered together. This

is a body of believers, the ones that meet in

Fi Lehman's house. And then finally, it's not the reviewing

of minutes from the last meeting that somebody throws out

on the table, But there's rather this statement of blessing

that Paul pronounces on his friends.

Did you hear his word there?

He says, I want you to experience the grace and

the peace that comes from God, our Father and the

Lord Jesus Christ. Does that sound like some lifeless committee

meeting to you. Oh no, this is God's living people

have been brought together now now eloquent letter writing. Maybe

it's not so much in vogue today, right, might not

be our primary mode of communication that we very often observe.

But is this how we at least think about.

Are church community?

Is this how we think about one another, specifically right

here at Crossway and very soon at Grascia Verdad, and

at Providence? And furthermore than, is it what we observe

in this scripture? Is it reflected on how we regularly

engage one another as we rub shoulders with each other,

regardless of what ministry team we're on, what small group

we're in, which worship service we attend, or which row

of seats we might prefer. As a look out there,

it's like I know where to find some of you, because,

like me, creatures of habit. Right for starters, let's just

go really basic.

How's your face? How's your face?

Is the look on your face one of being approachable?

Or are you one who is at least giving some

eye contact in the comings and the going? You know,

maybe especially as you're you're rushing in here from outside,

trying to get here on time and then leaving maybe

to other things.

Are we giving one another our eyeballs? Now? All kinds

of grace for one another in these things? Right?

So please don't make plastering on a Sunday morning smile

some weird isolated goal that you now try to work toward. Okay,

I know some of you Rule followers out there, because

I am one as well. All right, we can do

things like that. The that's not the point here at all.

We don't want to think of it in that way.

But let's do consider these things for a moment, because

here's the deal. The Almighty God who has welcomed us

into his family, the one we now call Father because

we've been brought near through the atoning death of the

Supreme God Man Jesus Christ, who furthermore sent the Spirit

to dwell in us. This tryun God has made all

of us, once corrupted and still a little crazy people

of faith, into one holy family called the Church. He

has rescued us, and he's brought us together. So whether

you happen to be more like some of our crew here,

who can literally just make you feel, upon a first

meeting like you're her new best friend, simply because you

have a pulse there's one extreme right, or or if

you're more prone to pray on every drive to church

on Sunday mornings, God have mercy on your introverted servant

who is about to enter the realm of other humans. Okay,

either way, all along that spectrum. If Jesus, if Jesus

is your king this morning, and God is your father,

his people are your people to love and to look

after the people who need your your expressions of affection

with both your countenance and your words that build up

and remind one another that that we're together as brother sister,

has beloved fellow workers, as fellow soldiers. This is the church,

and and this this should be our affectionate way with

one another. So, family, can we commit ourselves to making

progress in this just bits of progress, one day at

a time. Start by giving one another your eyeballs, right,

we can start there. Use words that express care and

serve to build one another up, because the faith that

we share with each other should lead us to express

the kind of affection that we could otherwise easily miss.

In opening words of this obscure but beautiful letter from

the first century people, yes removed from us by many years,

but probably much.

Like us in the most fundamental ways too.

But there's more for us here in these these opening words,

these first seven verses. So Paul's already been demonstrating for

us how a shared faith leads us to warm express

of affection. But here's where he starts to really press

in on philemen prayerfully appreciating all that he knows has

grown in his friend, hopeful also that there would be

yet more to appreciate as he leans into him a

little bit. I think what we're to understand as we

look at verses four through six here next, is that

this very sharing of faith we've started to look at

it also leads us to we'll say, experience fullness. It

leads us to experience fullness. We can come to experience

a kind of unique fullness when we prioritize the sharing

of our faith in Christian community. Now almost rhetorical question here,

But who sometimes struggles with feeling a bit empty? Anybody

else feel a bit wrung out here or there? Sometimes

just pretty well dulled and just emotionally drooped. Yeah, I've

been there, have been there, even some this weekend. You know,

I don't even need that long of a memory to

get to that place. I've experienced that as well. So

let's look again at what Paul wrote to Fileman next.

In verses four through six, let your eyes fall on

it again, he.

Says, I think my God always when I remember you

in my.

Prayers, because I hear of your love and of the

faith that you have towards the Lord Jesus and for

all the saints. And I pray that the sharing of

your faith that coinnan Ea, may become effective for the

full knowledge of every good thing that is in us,

for the sake of Christ. So the scripture, I think,

is just so good for us here. I mean, all

scripture is good for us, right, But these verse so

much to say to us here on multiple levels, to

help redirect us and aid us in grasping how and

where a certain kind of fullness is to be found. Now,

for sure, it's a dense bit of text that we

have in these couple sentences, and Bible translators they've wrestled

over how to best convey them to us in English.

So let's just look closely and try to grab some

of the emphases here.

Okay.

In these verses first, what's exceedingly clear right there at

the beginning is that Paul was thankful to his God.

He was thankful to his God. He had heard.

Wonderful things about Philemon's faith and love that spilled out

over the body of believers who met in his house. Apparently,

Phileman and his family were the kind of people who

were They were happy hosts doing good in the name

of Jesus to the Colossian Church. I wonder have you

ever been in homes that reflect some of that? Where

you just you know, you're welcome when you're there, You're

invited into the life of what's going on, and the

owners live in a way that.

Make Jesus look great, both.

In your eyes and in the eyes of anybody else

who might be watching you. Ever experienced that you've been

in homes of people like that? It seems that Phileman

was probably much that kind of guy. Maybe even Onesimus

now who didn't know how to appreciate it before he was,

he was now able to see just that as he

talked with Paul, testifying with new eyes from a new heart,

speaking of the godly and chi irritable way of his

master he had run from so whatever the case, news

had traveled far to Rome again over a thousand miles

away from Colossie, and it resulted in prayers of thanks

to God that Paul had It reminds us to let

gratitude flow from our hearts also. But secondly, in addition

to this thankfulness, this is a really amazing thing about

the kind of of fullness that God grants that I

think we need to observe. Here Fileman's best next step.

For the further lifting up of his heart.

It wasn't going to be a great vacation, as sweet

as those can be, or some family get away to

the Mediterranean.

That sounds nice as well, But it was going.

To be through a tougher and a richer sharing of

his faith that would be expressed through the welcoming back

of a trader turned brother. This fullness was going to

come about through reconciliation. See Paul is leading into something

here in this little paragraph of prayerful praises and commendations.

His words were doubtless sincere we should take them at

face value. But even if we just take a quick

glance down to verse eight, let your eyes fall there,

we understand him to be making a connection of what

he's doing here with his upcoming request see the start

of verse eight. It says accordingly. Accordingly he says, in

other words, Phileman, you've been killing it for Jesus with

your church family, brother, and in accord with that attitude

and way, I'm about to give you a next step

to take. And it's going to be a doozy. I

think that's what's happening here. See the apostle. He wants

a certain experience for Philemon here, not merely in an

outcome for Onesimus, even though that's important. Track what he

says here in this this sort of dense jungle of

words in verse six, he wants the sharing, the sharing

of this common faith to be effective for something, for

the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us,

for the sake of Christ. It seems that what he's

getting at is that the glories of Jesus can be

known in a yet more profound way in the mind

and the heart of this man when he gives himself

to this next expression of coynania, This, this further act

of faith filled fellowshipping. This was about accomplishing something exceedingly

grand in philemen a new kind of fullness of knowing

the Lord through a tough obedience he'd soon be called to.

Now because of Jesus, he had the good stuff in him,

right of Christian love and all its expression. God had

worked the change in fi Lehman, but he would get

to know to experience God's good work in him to

a new depth.

Through a next hard step of faithfulness that he'd be

called to take.

So, Church family, let's consider this. It's a hard teaching

in some ways as we think about the flesh and

blood examples that we might have to walk in that

would be likewise difficult. But we've got to quit hunting

for fullness or fulfillment in places it wasn't meant to

be found, escaping the harder relationships, maybe drowning out our

sorrows over them through any manner of indulgences, putting all

kinds of walls up to avoid the uncomfortable or the awkward,

or even just really quickly doing the right thing so

that we can be done with it and move on.

These practices are not in step with discovering the fullness

of the Christian life.

God means.

God means to enrich us through the deepened sharing of

our faith as we learn to live in a reconciled

way with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. In

obedience that is indeed so stretching, often so difficult, and

yet produces a profound filling up in Jesus.

That he would have for us.

And really, what follows in this passage, namely verse seven,

our last verse for this morning, it's very much connected

to what has already been stated, I think, but I

do believe it provides us a bit of a further

opportunity for reflection along this same these these fullness and

fulfillment ideas that we've started chewing on, as we look

at this faith that we share with one another. The

final sentence of this section leads us to what I'll

call for us. It leads us to examine our happiness.

It leads us to examine our happiness. Look again at

our final verse verse seven, he writes, for I have

derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother,

because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

You follow what kind of a joy and comfort he's

speaking of there.

He's got this joy.

And comfort because he's heard about the refreshment that's coming

to others. I thought about this a little bit, and

it's a it's maybe a stranger kind of joy and

comfort that we would normally think of. But really, as

I just considered my own kind of pastoral experience, some

of the sweetest moments that I've known here often have

little to do with what I already actively have my.

Hands in the middle of.

Sometimes the sweetest moments are in just seeing and hearing

about the way that one person or or set of

people in this church, the way that they're loving others

in such a manner that refreshment comes to the recipients.

Of that love.

Not to be sure, I have the same tendencies as

anyone else to just get irritated over the problems, because

there are some, to get irritated over those, and to

let those difficulties overshadow all the good and glorious things

that are happening among the believers of this body. I

have to fight against that and be reminded of the

good that God is doing, because when my eyes are open,

and maybe when I'm even praying and encourage a little

bit more like Paul is in this letter, when that

is happening I'll see the way in which that particular

small group perhaps welcomes in and shows grace and lovingly

endures with an out of sorts finding his way and

needing refreshment member of that group. When my eyes are

open to that, it's then that I often experience the

joy and comfort with Paul speaks of as simply a

news receiver, one who hears a good report of Christians

refreshing one another. Again, I can be terribly slow to

get there, stopping to appreciate those things. But we're asking

the Word for help this morning, right, Let's ask him

for help in that also to make progress there. And

let's ask him also then for a treasuring of the

kind of relationally rich sharing of faith that's spoken of here,

so that we can really know, to really know a

glorious happiness like this more frequently and with greater depth.

We can keep looking for joy and for comfort in

all of those places that they promise the moon and

they deliver the off ball. Right, do you ever experience

some of those had to walk that path? Or we

can spend our available moments tuning our hearts, tuning our

hearts to what God says we were made for the

all consuming love for Him and for neighbor that's built

one brick at a time, but one quiet mourning, perhaps

at a time with the Lord in his word that

readies us to love others well, followed by five thousand

more of those same quiet mornings. Or how about one

word of encouragement for a weary young parent, followed by

a thousand other little similar exchanges over decades.

Should God grant us.

Them with one another, or one choice to so humble

yourself for the sake of a reconciled relationship in the

body where maybe even you personally weren't the greater offender,

at least in your eyes, followed by more of an

experience of fullness in Christ, who is at work in

you over a lifetime, as you share your faith in

this community of saints that sound like good bricks to

build one on another, don't they. It's going to be

a view in all of this, Oh we're so desperate

for help. It's going to be a view toward the

lordship of Jesus. Really in this life that's going to

lead you, that's going to lead any of us to

growth in these ways. There's a hard call on our

lives here we heed the lordship of Jesus, his good lordship.

And a quick scan through the passage here reminds us

of Christ's central place and kingly authority in the lives

of these early Christians. Let your eyes rest on the

text again, verses one through seven. We see things like

prisoner for Christ, grace and peace from from Christ, faith

toward the Lord Jesus, and for the sake.

Of Christ.

These are phrases we read there, speaking to his lordship,

just as.

He was reigning then over those lives. Just guess what

he reigns today over these, over our lives here in

this room. Fi Lehman was about to be faced with

that decision of how extensive his cooperation with the reigning

king would be. And again it's going to be no

different for us today as we walk out these doors

and then go throughout our weeks.

Also, will we be glad? Will we be glad for

his kingship, for his reigning right here in this heart,

over this mind, will we be glad for that kingship?

You know, if you don't even accept his reign at

all right now, as you're sitting here among us, just

know that doesn't have to continue you can acknowledge that

sin of rebellion and put your trust in Him and

in his good And for the rest of us here,

probably the majority of us, and including those are going

to be baptized today, keep remembering that He has already

in his power worked good He's worked the good stuff

in you, changing you, calling you to the right and

rich expression of those things, so that you can enjoy

the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us.

For the sake of Christ,