to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets at your house:to the beloved Apphia, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the assembly in your house:And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in thy house:and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow-soldier, and to the church in thy house:
3 sermons cite this verse
open as we make our way through this book and look at various verses in it. As I mentioned, people of God, we are returning to our one-chapter books of the Bible series, these books of the Bible that are easily overlooked, hard to find in our Bibles, sometimes obscure, books that we are not too familiar with, small books, and yet books that are inspired by God and therefore have a God ordained important message for us. We began a couple of weeks ago with Obadiah, just 21 verses. Philemon, a little longer, at 25 verses. And yet one author describes Philemon this way, it is a mini epistle, right? Compare it to Galatians or Ephesians or Philippians or, Titus, 1 and 2 Timothy. It is a mini book. Obadiah was a prophecy. Philemon is a personal letter. Obadiah, a high-level book. It's about the nations, about Edom, Israel, their relationship, and the sovereignty, justice, and promise of God in regards to them. Philemon is not about nations. It's about two individual Christians and how God's grace is to be operative in the relationships between believers. The title of the sermon today is Reconciling Grace because Philemon is about how the gospel and the grace of God helps us in sticky, strained relationships that we sometimes find ourselves in with other believers. It happens, doesn't it? Even in the church, we're not always getting along. And what do we do when those relationships, our relationships with other Christians are pulled and tugged apart? Well, the book of Philemon helps us give an answer …
… And Philemon said, honey, we've got to restrain ourselves until we read this letter. To Aphia, our sister, and to Archippus, our fellow soldier. I take it that Archie was their son. And to the church that meets in your home. And then Philemon reads down the letter until he comes to what we have as verse 10. And he says, I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. I can imagine Philemon saying, Onesimus, I think Paul thinks you've become a Christian. I didn't think anybody could pull the wool over Paul's eyes. until I know he knows what you've done. I'm not much impressed by these quick conversions. Formally, he was useless to you. That's saying the least. But now he has become useful both to you and to me. The name Anesimus means useful. And so Paul's playing on the name. He said, before he wasn't Anesimus to you, but now he is Anesimus. Now he's useful to you and me. …
"The Church in your house." Philemon 1:2. SOME interpreters have supposed that a small congregation met for worship in a room in Philemon's house and there is a tradition that such was the case for some considerable time. The Churches established by Paul were, at their commencement, for the most part small. Obliged—for the sake of peace and to avoid persecution—to meet in out of-the-way places where they were not likely to be seen by foes, the retired house of some well-known friend, perhaps that of the minister, if it had a room conveniently large, would be the natural place for Believers to gather together in those early Churches. Philemon, therefore, might literally have had a Church in his house and a congregation might have gathered there. It strikes me that there would be a great deal of good done if persons who have large rooms in their houses would endeavor to get together little congregations. There are many, even of our poorer friends, who live in neighborhoods of London destitute of the means of Grace, who might promote a great blessing if they occasionally opened their houses for a Prayer Meeting or religious assembly. We need no consecrated places for the worship of God— "Wherever we seek Him, He is found, And everyplace is hallowed ground." Certainly our text does not give any countenance to the calling of certain buildings "Churches." Buildings for worship, whether erected by Episcopalians or Dissenters, are frequently called "Churches." If I ask for "the church" in any town, I am forthwith directed to an edifice, probably with a spire or a steeple, which the inhabitants call "the church." Why, they might as well point me to a signpost when I asked for a man—a building cannot be a Church! A Church is an assembly of faithful men and it cannot be anything else. I cannot see how such a piece of architecture as we now call "a church" could very well have been in Philemon's house—it must have been a large house if it had such a thing in it for an ornament. The fact is, it is a misnomer, a misuse of language, and we must mind that we do not get into it. For my own part, I like the good old-fashioned name of "Meeting House" as well as any. It is a place where the people of God meet and although "Meeting House" does not sound very smart, nor fine, nor fashionable—and that is everything, nowadays, with many people—yet it is far better than misusing language as it is misused when bricks, stones and mortar receive a tittle belonging exclusively to godly men and women! …