WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.080 Now, where I'm from, north of Seattle, our typical greeting, our greeting exchange is 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:11.839 very similar to the typical greeting exchange of Scotland. 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:14.839 So you would say, how are you? 00:00:14.839 --> 00:00:18.320 And I say, I'm fine. 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:20.600 I'm fine. 00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:23.039 Are we fine? 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:29.480 This morning someone used the phrase in the morning service, the pandemic blues. 00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:33.039 I've got a bit of a pandemic blues, to be honest with you. 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:34.520 I'm tired. 00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:41.039 Drury weather, short days of daylight, lots of darkness, rain, cold. 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:42.600 I'm tired. 00:00:42.600 --> 00:00:47.519 I suspect you're tired as well. 00:00:47.519 --> 00:00:54.240 And when we've got the pandemic blues, what we really want is to be refreshed. 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:59.480 I wonder what comes into your mind when you think about being refreshed, a weekend on 00:00:59.480 --> 00:01:07.439 a beach in Spain, or sunny days and hill walks in the highlands, or a nice hotel room with 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:10.840 Netflix and room service. 00:01:10.840 --> 00:01:11.840 Those are all good. 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:16.439 And they can be very refreshing, but Paul's idea of refreshment is something entirely 00:01:16.439 --> 00:01:17.439 different. 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:22.680 Now, Paul's writing this from prison, not a comfortable situation. 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:25.920 He's got worse than a case of the pandemic blues. 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:31.920 But what he longs for in being refreshed isn't beaches or hotel rooms, it's not even his 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:33.200 freedom. 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:36.840 It's Philemon's obedience. 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:43.840 He says, refresh my heart and the Lord by doing what he's asked him to do. 00:01:43.840 --> 00:01:49.640 And at the beginning of the letter, he said that Philemon's gospel-shaped manner of life 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:54.560 has actually refreshed the hearts of all the saints in his church community. 00:01:54.560 --> 00:02:04.359 There's something about Christian obedience that actually refreshes us and our whole community. 00:02:04.359 --> 00:02:05.359 Why is that? 00:02:05.359 --> 00:02:10.479 Well, it's because of a catastrophe. 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:13.520 Catastrophe is a Greek word that we've brought into English. 00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:17.280 It's two Greek words combined that mean down and turn. 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:19.439 It's a downturn. 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:25.560 A catastrophe is a sudden downturn of events that leaves your life totally changed forever. 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:28.680 There's no going back to the way things were before the catastrophe. 00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:32.479 It has a ripple effect on your life. 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:37.439 Years ago, I knew a man who was in a catastrophic car collision and he became a paraplegic for 00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:40.000 the rest of his days. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:45.439 His life couldn't be the same after that catastrophe. 00:02:45.439 --> 00:02:53.800 For many of you, this pandemic has been a catastrophe and you may have lost loved ones 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:58.719 like stolen from you and life just won't be the same. 00:02:58.719 --> 00:03:04.759 Any loss of a loved one is a catastrophe and it leaves a hole that means your life is shaped 00:03:04.759 --> 00:03:08.560 differently from now on. 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:13.439 Now the reason for this letter, right? 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:15.319 The reason for the letter is in verse 17. 00:03:15.319 --> 00:03:19.519 It calls writing to Philemon to say, except him as you would accept me. 00:03:19.519 --> 00:03:23.639 Receive Philemon your runaway slave as if he were an apostle of Christ. 00:03:23.639 --> 00:03:28.719 But the reason behind the reason is a catastrophe. 00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:33.159 Not the catastrophe of a runaway slave, not a catastrophe of perhaps him fixing the books 00:03:33.159 --> 00:03:41.319 or stealing something from Philemon, but the catastrophe of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. 00:03:41.319 --> 00:03:49.400 J.R.R. Tolkien, my favorite author by so far, he actually came up with a new word to 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:51.199 describe the crucifixion of Jesus. 00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:54.120 He called it the eukatastrophe. 00:03:54.120 --> 00:04:01.079 That's just catastrophe with the Greek prefix EU put before it and that means good, the 00:04:01.079 --> 00:04:06.519 good catastrophe, the good downturn. 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:13.400 Is the crucifixion of Jesus, the gospel, the good news that Jesus died for you in your 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:21.879 place for your sins so that you might live to God is the good catastrophe. 00:04:21.879 --> 00:04:26.560 It was the most tragic event in human history, but it was the most glorious event in human 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:35.840 history and the world and all of our lives can absolutely never be the same. 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:40.959 So we're going to look tonight at how the gospel, this good catastrophe demands something 00:04:40.959 --> 00:04:41.959 of us. 00:04:41.959 --> 00:04:46.199 It demands that our life be shaped differently now. 00:04:46.199 --> 00:04:50.239 Because the gospel happened, our lives must take a new gospel shape. 00:04:50.239 --> 00:04:55.439 That's why Paul's asking for Philemon's obedience. 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:57.120 What does he want him to do? 00:04:57.120 --> 00:05:01.039 As I said, verse 17 is really the center of this letter. 00:05:01.039 --> 00:05:02.039 It's the whole point. 00:05:02.039 --> 00:05:04.439 It's the impetus for Paul writing this. 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:10.839 He says, receive him as you would receive me. 00:05:10.839 --> 00:05:18.519 Paul wants to be refreshed by Philemon's obedience to this request. 00:05:18.519 --> 00:05:23.439 Before we can get into discussing this refreshing obedience, then we need to deal with the gospel 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:25.159 with this good catastrophe. 00:05:25.159 --> 00:05:31.680 Paul's making a gospel-shaped request for gospel-driven obedience. 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:33.120 So here are the three points. 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:35.000 I don't know how to preach a sermon. 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:39.000 It's not a three-point sermon I'm discovering, but it makes it easy for me. 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:40.639 Here's three points then. 00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:45.480 Number one, Jesus is building a family that the world can't explain. 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:49.399 Number two, family obedience isn't optional. 00:05:49.399 --> 00:05:53.439 And number three, Jesus is more committed to your obedience than you are. 00:05:53.439 --> 00:06:02.600 So number one, Jesus is building a family that the world cannot explain. 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:05.439 Receive him as you would receive me. 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:10.920 That doesn't make any sense without the gospel. 00:06:10.920 --> 00:06:16.400 What could possibly form a community, a family, where a slave and a thief is received with 00:06:16.400 --> 00:06:25.560 the same honor and dignity as a messenger sent from the risen Christ? 00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:30.240 The world has no way to explain that. 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:38.840 Without Christ, the world's and our natural, sinful bent is toward social hierarchy, toward 00:06:38.840 --> 00:06:44.480 the rich and powerful getting honor and the weak and poor and oppressed getting shame. 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:49.759 Darwin's theory of natural selection, the survival of the fittest, is the sinful posture 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:55.840 of all of our hearts without Christ toward everyone else, survival of the fittest. 00:06:55.840 --> 00:06:59.199 It's cutthroat. 00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:06.800 But Jesus is building a family so completely counter-cultural to that cutthroat survival 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:11.879 of the fittest, worldly culture that we all know so well. 00:07:11.879 --> 00:07:17.319 The gospel is the good news that Jesus died in your place for your sins so that we can 00:07:17.319 --> 00:07:22.439 have life to God together. 00:07:22.439 --> 00:07:29.199 As we've all sinned and were only bought, were redeemed from that slavery to sin by 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:36.399 the blood of Christ, then in the family of God, there's no room for classism or racism 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:40.680 or favoritism or I'm better than you ism. 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:46.639 The blood of Christ is the great equalizer of humanity. 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:51.199 That's why in Galatians Paul can say, there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave 00:07:51.199 --> 00:08:00.000 nor free, there's no male and no female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.639 Through the gospel then, Jesus is building a family that the world can't explain, a 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:10.439 family marked by showing each other radical honor, a family marked by dignifying each 00:08:10.439 --> 00:08:15.360 other as children of the king of the universe, a family marked by lifting up our brothers 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:24.240 and sisters by encouragement, by forgiveness, grace. 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:28.920 In verse 16 Paul says to Philemon, now you can have an usmous back, not as a slave but 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:33.680 as a brother, both in the flesh and in the Lord. 00:08:33.680 --> 00:08:36.200 Don't overlook that language of family. 00:08:36.200 --> 00:08:39.200 It's easy to, especially in the south and the states where I've spent the last four 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:44.399 or five years, you walk into church and everyone's, hey brother, everyone's brother, right, or 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:46.120 sister. 00:08:46.120 --> 00:08:48.919 It's not bad at all, it's a good thing actually. 00:08:48.919 --> 00:08:52.159 But it's easy to make it almost flippant, isn't it? 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:56.059 We read over the language of brother and sister in the New Testament. 00:08:56.059 --> 00:09:01.559 But Paul's actually saying this family tie, this brotherhood, it doesn't just extend to 00:09:01.559 --> 00:09:05.199 the privileged and the noble and the rich, etc. 00:09:05.199 --> 00:09:06.199 That's counter-cultural. 00:09:06.199 --> 00:09:08.500 The world knows nothing of that. 00:09:08.500 --> 00:09:12.519 The poor, the weak, the unprivileged, the working class, the oppressed, in Christ, we 00:09:12.519 --> 00:09:16.759 are all more truly than your brothers and sisters. 00:09:16.759 --> 00:09:19.279 We're brothers and sisters in Christ. 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:20.279 That's amazing. 00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:25.799 But not only that, this new family that Jesus is building is an eternal family. 00:09:25.799 --> 00:09:26.960 It's a forever family. 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:29.399 Look at verse 15. 00:09:29.399 --> 00:09:33.960 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:34.960 forever. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:42.399 No longer as a bond servant but more than a bond servant as a beloved brother. 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:47.279 Through the gospel, Jesus is building a family that the world can't explain. 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:49.639 But you might say, okay, hold on. 00:09:49.639 --> 00:09:53.159 I haven't actually seen Paul deal with the gospel in Philemon. 00:09:53.159 --> 00:09:56.199 We see its kind of effects, but is the gospel in there? 00:09:56.199 --> 00:09:57.199 It is. 00:09:57.199 --> 00:09:58.199 Look at verse 3. 00:09:58.199 --> 00:09:59.519 I love this. 00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:07.319 Verse 3, grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:10:07.319 --> 00:10:10.720 Every email I think I've received in the last nine months has started with something like, 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:15.560 you know, hi John, hope you're doing well in these unprecedented times. 00:10:15.560 --> 00:10:17.680 That's not what Paul's doing. 00:10:17.680 --> 00:10:21.120 When he says grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, that's 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:24.320 not just a customary greeting. 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:25.840 It's the gospel. 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:31.120 It's the foundation for everything Paul's about to say. 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:34.440 Let's just look at it for a minute, kind of phrase by phrase. 00:10:34.440 --> 00:10:37.040 Grace to you from God. 00:10:37.040 --> 00:10:39.519 God himself loves you. 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:43.759 When he gave you the gift of salvation by sending his son to pay the price for your 00:10:43.759 --> 00:10:48.679 sins, grace and peace. 00:10:48.679 --> 00:10:50.319 What do we get from the free gift? 00:10:50.319 --> 00:10:52.960 We get the very peace of God. 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:58.279 Jesus reconciled us sinners to the holy God whom we have offended. 00:10:58.279 --> 00:11:03.960 But not only do we get peace with God, we, because of that great equalizer of humanity 00:11:03.960 --> 00:11:09.920 that is the blood of Jesus, we get peace with each other now too. 00:11:09.920 --> 00:11:13.440 So grace and peace to you from God our Father. 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:17.800 No longer is he merely the deity whom we have offended. 00:11:17.800 --> 00:11:24.720 We've been given the spirit of adoption in Christ and are counted as sons and daughters 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:25.840 of God. 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:33.060 We get to call him Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:11:33.059 --> 00:11:36.239 We don't just get a big brother in Jesus though we do get that. 00:11:36.239 --> 00:11:38.079 We get a Lord. 00:11:38.079 --> 00:11:41.239 We get a master. 00:11:41.239 --> 00:11:44.559 We get an anointed eternal King. 00:11:44.559 --> 00:11:46.399 And that is the gospel. 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:50.279 Paul opens his letter with that remarkable greeting because it's the basis for everything 00:11:50.279 --> 00:11:52.359 that he's about to say. 00:11:52.359 --> 00:11:59.879 And just like this church, the church that met in Philemon's house only existed because 00:11:59.879 --> 00:12:02.039 of that gospel. 00:12:02.039 --> 00:12:10.439 The gospel was the good catastrophe that gave birth to the church as it were. 00:12:10.439 --> 00:12:16.439 So if you're a Christian, grace and peace is your objective reality. 00:12:16.439 --> 00:12:20.919 Whether you feel that or not, as a Christian, grace and peace is your objective reality. 00:12:20.919 --> 00:12:22.759 In Christ we have grace. 00:12:22.759 --> 00:12:26.919 In Christ we have peace with God and we can have peace with others. 00:12:26.919 --> 00:12:31.079 But how does that grace and peace? 00:12:31.080 --> 00:12:39.160 How does that objective reality enter into our experience subjectively? 00:12:39.160 --> 00:12:43.800 We'll only experience grace and peace with God and with each other and in our hearts 00:12:43.800 --> 00:12:49.920 when our lives conform to the shape of the gospel through obedience to Christ. 00:12:49.920 --> 00:12:52.120 That's how it works. 00:12:52.120 --> 00:12:56.400 Without gospel obedience, we won't experience grace. 00:12:56.400 --> 00:12:58.500 It'll feel like toil. 00:12:58.500 --> 00:13:01.600 Without gospel obedience, we won't experience peace. 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:06.000 It'll leave us weary. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:10.519 This gospel, this grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is the 00:13:10.519 --> 00:13:16.120 means of Jesus building a family that the world can't explain. 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:19.240 What a privilege to be a part of that family, isn't it? 00:13:19.240 --> 00:13:24.639 Now, point number two, family obedience isn't optional. 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:30.039 Now, when it comes to Christian obedience, I think we can all tend toward two ends of 00:13:30.039 --> 00:13:31.039 a spectrum. 00:13:31.039 --> 00:13:35.480 On the one end we say, here's my duty. 00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:37.679 Even though I don't feel like it, I'm just going to do the right thing because it's 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:42.319 the right thing to do but I don't want to, but I'm going to. 00:13:42.319 --> 00:13:46.759 On the other end of the spectrum we say, well, real love is really from the heart and so 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:54.960 I'm not going to do the thing that is good until I really can feel it from the heart. 00:13:54.960 --> 00:13:57.840 We all know both ends of these spectrum. 00:13:57.840 --> 00:13:59.080 Think about reading your Bible. 00:13:59.080 --> 00:14:00.439 We all know it's the right thing to do. 00:14:00.439 --> 00:14:04.200 We need to spend time with God through His word. 00:14:04.200 --> 00:14:08.840 Sometimes we do it like a duty and it's just ticking a box and our heart's not in it. 00:14:08.840 --> 00:14:12.279 Sometimes we might say, well, I don't want to do it until my heart's really in it and 00:14:12.279 --> 00:14:14.840 we don't do it. 00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:21.680 Now, hear this, that's me on almost a daily basis is one end of that spectrum or the other. 00:14:21.680 --> 00:14:22.680 I struggle with this. 00:14:22.680 --> 00:14:26.840 It's a real struggle for us but this is sub-Christian. 00:14:26.840 --> 00:14:31.920 Both of those ends of the spectrum are sub-Christian. 00:14:31.920 --> 00:14:34.759 There is a gospel third way. 00:14:34.759 --> 00:14:39.200 Thomas Chalmers called it the expulsive power of a greater affection. 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:46.280 When the gospel comes to us in the old language, when we apprehend the mercy of God in Christ 00:14:46.280 --> 00:14:51.600 and when we're overwhelmed by the love of Christ, we do our duty both because our Lord 00:14:51.600 --> 00:14:58.920 commands it and because we delight to obey our Lord and to please Him. 00:14:58.920 --> 00:15:02.440 Paul calls that in Romans 12, transformation. 00:15:02.440 --> 00:15:04.560 It's what the gospel does to us at the heart level. 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:11.519 It transforms us into a gospel-shaped manner of life. 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:14.000 Paul acknowledges this reality in verse 14 in Philemon. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:18.199 He says, I prefer to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might 00:15:18.199 --> 00:15:22.399 not be by compulsion but of your own accord. 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:27.279 Paul is using all of his persuasive skills in this letter and you'll see he goes from 00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:32.799 being less direct to more direct as the letter goes. 00:15:32.799 --> 00:15:37.639 He says, I'm just going to appeal to you but did I mention I'm an old man in prison 00:15:37.639 --> 00:15:43.639 and he's becoming persuasive and by the end he says, confident of your obedience, sincerely 00:15:43.639 --> 00:15:44.759 Paul. 00:15:44.759 --> 00:15:46.199 He gets more direct. 00:15:46.199 --> 00:15:53.120 He's using all of his persuasive skills to compel Philemon's obedience of his own accord. 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:59.120 He wants Philemon to obey from the heart but to actually obey. 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:05.440 In the gospel, Jesus says to us, I require obedience of you and I'm giving you a love 00:16:05.440 --> 00:16:12.399 for me so great that you'll delight in obedience and you'll find it refreshing. 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:16.360 We saw that last week worked out in Derek's sermon, Philemon. 00:16:16.360 --> 00:16:23.120 Paul could say, receive him as you would receive me because in Christ the Father received us 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:26.399 as if we were Christ himself. 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:30.679 Paul could say, if he owes you anything charged that to my account I will pay it because Christ 00:16:30.679 --> 00:16:35.279 has said to the Father as it were, if he or she owes me anything charged that to my account 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:38.600 I have paid it. 00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:41.879 That's how the gospel shapes us. 00:16:41.879 --> 00:16:48.679 In other words, gospel doctrine always leads to gospel culture. 00:16:48.679 --> 00:16:53.639 The truth of Jesus Christ dying in our place for our sins forms and shapes us into the 00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:59.600 kind of people who can extend that kind of grace and love to those around us even when 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:03.039 forgiveness is costly. 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:07.160 What I want us to see is that the gospel does actually require obedience from us. 00:17:07.160 --> 00:17:09.160 It really does. 00:17:09.160 --> 00:17:11.639 Paul ultimately isn't saying to Philemon obey me. 00:17:11.639 --> 00:17:14.480 He's not saying obey Paul ultimately. 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:17.559 What he's saying is obey the gospel. 00:17:17.559 --> 00:17:19.680 Live like the gospel is true, Philemon. 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:26.519 Let the gospel doctrine lead to gospel culture. 00:17:26.519 --> 00:17:28.840 Look with me at verses 8 and 9. 00:17:28.840 --> 00:17:34.920 Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet 00:17:34.920 --> 00:17:39.720 for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you. 00:17:39.720 --> 00:17:41.840 Now there's one little word I want us to pay attention to here. 00:17:41.840 --> 00:17:45.519 It's the word required. 00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:53.240 Keep bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required. 00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:57.639 There is something required of us. 00:17:57.639 --> 00:17:59.879 Gospel doctrine must lead to gospel culture. 00:17:59.879 --> 00:18:02.519 We must live like the gospel is true. 00:18:02.519 --> 00:18:04.680 Otherwise, what was it all for? 00:18:04.680 --> 00:18:09.079 Now we see this in the parable that Jesus told of the unforgiving servant. 00:18:09.079 --> 00:18:10.639 Do you remember that? 00:18:10.640 --> 00:18:16.160 This servant owed his master a great debt and he went and pleaded and the master forgave 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:21.400 this massive debt, unbelievable debt, unpayable. 00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:23.920 The master wiped the slate clean. 00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:29.160 Then that same forgiven servant went and started choking some guy who owed him just a little 00:18:29.160 --> 00:18:31.840 bit of money. 00:18:31.840 --> 00:18:34.240 Do you remember what the master said to this unforgiving servant? 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:40.600 He said, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 00:18:40.599 --> 00:18:47.839 And should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? 00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:50.079 Gospel doctrine must lead to gospel culture. 00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:56.639 If we have been forgiven, we must now forgive. 00:18:56.639 --> 00:19:00.879 We forgive because we're forgiven to say it another way around. 00:19:00.879 --> 00:19:06.839 We humble ourselves for others because the Lord of heaven and earth humbled himself for 00:19:06.839 --> 00:19:07.839 you. 00:19:07.839 --> 00:19:12.839 We honor and dignify others because the most glorious person in the universe honors and 00:19:12.839 --> 00:19:15.839 dignifies us. 00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:23.480 In other words, the family that Jesus is building will only preach Jesus to the watching world 00:19:23.480 --> 00:19:29.000 if we actually live like a forgiven bloodbought family. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:31.959 The gospel requires our obedience. 00:19:31.959 --> 00:19:37.199 Now I need to say here before we move on, we're not saved because of our obedience. 00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:40.400 It's really important, and I hope you don't hear me saying that. 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:44.360 We're saved because of Christ's obedience. 00:19:44.360 --> 00:19:48.600 So when I say the gospel requires our obedience, I don't mean you obey to get saved. 00:19:48.600 --> 00:19:53.720 I mean we obey because we have been saved. 00:19:53.720 --> 00:19:58.880 And that's freeing. 00:19:58.880 --> 00:20:06.480 I wonder, and I don't know, otherwise I'd get more specific, but I wonder what new green 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:13.000 pastures of obedience Christ is calling you to today. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:14.880 Take that step. 00:20:14.880 --> 00:20:21.400 Take that step of obedience, just gazing at the gospel in faith, waiting for that transformation, 00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:22.400 and take the step. 00:20:22.400 --> 00:20:25.400 His grace will be sufficient for you. 00:20:25.400 --> 00:20:30.640 It may be hard, but it will refresh your heart, and it will refresh the heart of the saints 00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:33.960 around you. 00:20:33.960 --> 00:20:38.720 Now at this point, some of you might be squirming, and I know this because when I was preparing 00:20:38.720 --> 00:20:42.720 the sermon, I was squirming a little bit inside. 00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:48.600 Facing the reality that the gospel demands a response of obedience means also facing 00:20:48.600 --> 00:20:54.400 the reality of how disobedient we can be to the gospel. 00:20:54.400 --> 00:21:00.799 If you're feeling unworthy today, if you're hyper aware of your own disobedience, or if 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:05.119 you're feeling discouraged because you want to obey the gospel, you want to grow in holiness, 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:09.559 but you just can't seem to get better, then this is really important. 00:21:09.559 --> 00:21:14.839 Jesus is more committed to your obedience than you are. 00:21:14.839 --> 00:21:17.440 That's our third point. 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:21.599 Jesus is more committed to your growth in holiness than you are. 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:26.519 Jesus is more committed to your sanctification, to your becoming more like Jesus than you 00:21:26.519 --> 00:21:28.359 are. 00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:29.359 How can I say that? 00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:31.959 Well, look at verse 20. 00:21:31.959 --> 00:21:37.119 Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:41.079 Refresh my heart in Christ. 00:21:41.079 --> 00:21:47.119 There's a tiny little preposition used twice there, the word in. 00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:51.879 There's a world of glory in the word in. 00:21:51.879 --> 00:21:53.359 Benefit from you in the Lord. 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:56.159 Refresh my heart in Christ. 00:21:56.160 --> 00:21:59.519 Because our locations are located in Christ. 00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:04.920 We are so united to Christ by the Spirit that it's as if we've had an address change. 00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:11.279 So maybe I used to be John on Blackford Avenue, now I'm John in Christ. 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:17.120 There's something more real about your location in Christ than your physical geographic location 00:22:17.120 --> 00:22:19.960 on earth. 00:22:19.960 --> 00:22:23.000 The Bible, the New Testament is full of this in Christ language. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:25.160 Here's just a flyover. 00:22:25.160 --> 00:22:29.480 If you're a Christian, your life is in Christ. 00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:32.600 Your life is in Christ. 00:22:32.600 --> 00:22:35.560 Paul says that in Colossians. 00:22:35.560 --> 00:22:39.640 In his first letter, Peter says that our hope is in Christ. 00:22:39.640 --> 00:22:42.920 Ephesians 2, Paul says we were newly created in Christ. 00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:46.000 We read that this evening for our call to worship. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:49.680 Romans 8 says we are free in Christ. 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:57.759 Romans 8, 39 says we have and experience the love of God in Christ. 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:02.640 Paul says elsewhere that Christ is the head and we are Christ's body. 00:23:02.640 --> 00:23:04.360 That's how in Christ we are. 00:23:04.360 --> 00:23:06.039 That's how united to Christ we are. 00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:12.480 Is that we form the one person as it were. 00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:18.440 Our obedience is in Christ because we are united to Christ. 00:23:18.440 --> 00:23:25.320 We're so united to Christ that when the Father looks at you, he sees Jesus. 00:23:25.320 --> 00:23:29.039 He doesn't see your sin, he sees Jesus's obedience. 00:23:29.039 --> 00:23:34.360 We're so united to Christ that his obedience is counted as our obedience and our obedience 00:23:34.360 --> 00:23:36.680 is just counted as the glory of God. 00:23:36.680 --> 00:23:40.480 Like that's Christ in you working. 00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:47.920 We're so united to Christ that his good is our good and our good is his good. 00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:53.400 In other words, Jesus is more committed to your obedience than you are because he's more 00:23:53.400 --> 00:23:59.560 committed to your good than you are. 00:23:59.560 --> 00:24:03.200 We tend to be pretty self-destructive as people. 00:24:03.200 --> 00:24:11.240 We do all sorts of things physically and spiritually that are harmful to us and are destructive. 00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:16.920 But Jesus loves us more than we could ever love ourselves. 00:24:16.920 --> 00:24:19.519 Jesus is more committed to our good than we are. 00:24:19.519 --> 00:24:25.440 So friends, if you're discouraged by your own lack of obedience, your own lack of growth 00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:30.720 in the faith, your own lack of spiritual maturity, your lack of holiness, please hear this. 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:34.440 Jesus is determined to see you in heaven. 00:24:34.440 --> 00:24:40.519 He'll get you there. 00:24:40.519 --> 00:24:48.259 As you take that next step in obedience, you may know what that is, then let that truth 00:24:48.259 --> 00:24:51.759 as you take that step sink into your heart. 00:24:51.759 --> 00:24:58.519 Emmanuel, God with us, is more real than we know. 00:24:58.519 --> 00:25:02.720 He's with us. 00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:11.640 If you can't say that you are located in Christ this evening, you can be. 00:25:11.640 --> 00:25:14.319 Just receive what he's done for you. 00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:16.400 The only thing you have to bring is nothing. 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:18.960 You just open your hands, as it were. 00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:23.640 The empty hands of faith are all that we bring to Christ. 00:25:23.640 --> 00:25:28.640 And the truth of the gospel will transform you from the inside out. 00:25:28.640 --> 00:25:35.200 It's that gospel-driven transformation that brings refreshment to your weary bones, and 00:25:35.200 --> 00:25:40.080 it refreshes the community, the whole family of God as well. 00:25:40.080 --> 00:25:45.320 That kind of obeying because we love Jesus so much, obedience is life-giving. 00:25:45.320 --> 00:25:46.400 It's deeply refreshing. 00:25:46.400 --> 00:25:53.380 It's a joy to experience, and it's a joy to see in our brothers and sisters, isn't it? 00:25:53.380 --> 00:25:56.720 So he says, refresh my heart in Christ. 00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:02.640 Well, this is the end of our series, and it's the end of my sermon. 00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:05.360 So we've done four weeks in Philemon. 00:26:05.360 --> 00:26:08.720 The tiny, tiny letter, four weeks is a lot to do on that. 00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:14.440 But I couldn't help but wondering, what happened to Inesimus? 00:26:14.440 --> 00:26:15.440 What happened? 00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:17.839 Did Paul said receive him as he would receive me? 00:26:17.839 --> 00:26:23.079 He implies he wants him to free him and consider him as a brother in Christ and equal in the 00:26:23.079 --> 00:26:24.079 faith. 00:26:24.079 --> 00:26:25.079 What happened, though? 00:26:25.079 --> 00:26:26.079 Did Philemon obey? 00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:33.279 Well, we can't know for certain, but around 115 AD, Ignatius of Antioch, an early church 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:39.319 father, a pastor, a theologian, he actually wrote that Onesimus, this Onesimus was the 00:26:39.319 --> 00:26:47.759 bishop of Ephesus, that Philemon freed him and he succeeded Timothy as bishop and pastor 00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:52.359 of the churches for the Ephesians. 00:26:52.359 --> 00:26:58.439 In fact, some have said that Onesimus was the one, this freed slave was the one who 00:26:58.439 --> 00:27:03.599 actually compiled and collected all of Paul's letters and preserved them for future generations. 00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:04.959 Maybe. 00:27:04.959 --> 00:27:07.399 I really like to hope that that's true. 00:27:07.399 --> 00:27:09.719 I really do. 00:27:09.719 --> 00:27:16.679 But either way, this amazing little letter declares to us the story of our freedom in 00:27:16.680 --> 00:27:24.759 Christ and of his marvelous family-building, community-shaping, world-changing love for 00:27:24.759 --> 00:27:26.920 us. 00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:32.039 So let's pray and thank him for that love now. 00:27:32.039 --> 00:27:44.759 Lord Christ, we are moved, moved by your goodness, moved by your kindness. 00:27:44.759 --> 00:27:52.640 Moved by the privilege of not only calling you our older brother in the faith as it were, 00:27:52.640 --> 00:27:57.200 but our Lord, our King. 00:27:57.200 --> 00:27:59.599 Thank you for including us in your family. 00:27:59.599 --> 00:28:15.679 Amen.