A Study of PHILEMON

Many folks who read this lesson from the blog or email will miss a great deal of context simply because time does not allow me to fill in a lot of the material I will be discussing during our class. If you have questions please let me know I will be glad to answer you via email. Jesse

(DRAFT) Philemon 1:23-25

Goal of the Lesson: The Human need for Friendship

• Attributes of a Good Servant of the LORD Jesus Christ

• Attributes of a Good Name in the Labor of Service

This Lesson will help us: The Heroic call of being a Friend.

• A Servant is One who is Devoted to Christ

• A Servant is One who is Devoted to Spiritual Practice

• A Servant is One who is Devoted to Duty

Think you got troubles? Nehemiah and Emily Hernandez live in Nashville, Tennessee and for their first wedding anniversary they decided to go to the mountains for a few days of celebration. Upon returning home they found that the torrential storms that swept through Tennessee this last spring placed their home in a flood that reached the roof top. They lost everything of their first year of marriage except for the two suitcases of clothing, Nehemiah's Bible and Emily's car, Nehemiah's was lost in the flood.

In times of trouble you need a friend. A friend can help in times of loss, sickness, grief and fear. Fires, floods, earthquakes and war take family and possessions from us and as we often say. “Before their time!” But, in God's timetable of life nothing is out of time, before time or in the loss of time. Everything with God is; “Right on Time”

Having your Bible with you is really like having Jesus with you as a friend. This is why our bibles are so important to us. You know your favorite bible, it is the one that is beat up, pages torn, highlighted is places that God spoke to you in times past. Also, some of your closest possessions of letters, notes, memories and tears are found within your bibles pages. In your bible you see Jesus as He is to you.

Pick up another bible and there is a sense of distance between you and your friend. Oh! Jesus speaks to you but it is sort of like talking with Him on the phone, or email or even some other form of communication. In times of trouble, in times of peace, in times of fellowship and in times like these, we need a Friend, one who sticks closer than a brother. We need Jesus and Jesus is the Bible. Proverbs 17:17 Jesus is our friend for life and our brothers and sisters who are in the flesh are often full of adversity.

If we were to think about it we could come up with a two columned list. One column could be titled: Things we cannot keep. And the other: Things we cannot lose.

In Luke 12:16-21 Jesus tells of a man who in his lifetime accumulated a vast fortune, but suddenly the man died. He packed away treasure on the earth only to find that these treasures are earthbound. His death separated him from his accumulated treasures permanently. Also, we are taught from scripture that; friendship with the world is posturing oneself against God. James 4:1-6

So then we find that in perilous times we can never lose the presence of God, did you hear this. WE CAN NEVER LOSE THE PRESENCE OF GOD. Isaiah 41:10. So all of list one, the earthbound things will be lost, but that which is eternal will be laid up in heaven forever, for us. Matthew 6:32-33.

During the Vietnam War, many U.S. Military people were taken prisoner. After spending months in isolation from the world some of these men began to write on roles of toilet paper scripture that they had memorized as a child, or young adult. Soon as the verses were collected and put together they were able to write the entire New Testament. Yes, the work of a man's hands. But the hands were moved by the power of the Holy Spirit and the friendship of Jesus Christ.

So what does all of this have to do with our lesson this morning?

Philemon 1:23 Where ever we are in life, in peace or in hardship there is a man or woman who is a fellow partner with you in Christ Jesus. If you are in prison, impoverished, broken hearted or in prosperity God has provided at least one partner who is with you or nearby.

As long as I have my bible, I have a friend, but I want one with flesh and bones, you know someone I can talk to and pour out my troubles on, someone who will listen and help, or at the very least will talk back to me. Let me ask you this question! In the New Testament, does not Jesus have all of these attributes?

1 John 1:1-4 This section of scripture really brings home to me that not only can I speak to the LORD, fellowship with the LORD, handle the Word of Life as the apostles did, but I can also experience the fulness of joy as the apostle John explains. The flesh and blood folks like Epaphrus who is a partner with you will be there too.

All of this is simply to say that it is Jesus first, then those that follow Him will be there because He will have sent them to you, or they were there all the time.

Philemon 1:24 So again, in times of trouble or in times of prosperity the season may seem long and lonely, but it is the LORD who is working a work in you. To mold you and shape you into a person who is useable for the Master. Isaiah 64:8; 66:1-2. As you move through the avenues of life and as you become like Paul the aged, Philemon 1:9 you will find that you've not been alone.

Jesus has always been there with you and in your sharing with others whom God has placed in your way as He did with Paul, fellow labors like Philemon, Apphia, Archippus and Onesimus and others with names of John Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke. Names that have become dear to you.

Philemon 1:25 It is all by the grace of God, unfortunately many of us today misuse the grace of God, we only talk of grace as it relates to the Good News. Ephesians 2:8-9. Grace goes beyond salvation to help us live in the abundance of what God has in store for us in Christ. Ephesians 2:10. God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are in each of us, so is God's grace, it is in our spirit, out working the fellowship and the labor of love that all of us so earnestly long for to see in others, but we must also express this same grace ourselves.

You know the song: You are the Potter, I am the clay, mold me and make me after thy will.