it’s who you know

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Jefferson Vann

SDC12755 Philemon 23-25.  Paul concludes his letter to Philemon with a short list of associates who were probably well-known by the believers in Colossae, or at least by Philemon himself.

  1. Epaphras had been a messenger for Paul, bringing his letters to Colossae, and bringing news about them to Paul. He was probably the founder of the churches in Colossae, and since Paul called him a “fellow prisoner,” he may have been arrested for his efforts.
  2. Aristarchus and Demas are companions of Paul, and fellow workers.
  3. Mark and Luke are most known today for the fact that the Holy Spirit prompted them to write histories of the life of Christ and the spread of the gospel in the early church.

You can tell a lot about a person by considering who his friends are.  Philemon kept good company.  These were people who were serious about their faith, and were willing to suffer for the proclamation of the gospel.

LORD, give us friends who are committed to you, and to your church.  May we honor you by what we know, and by who we know.

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taking back the prodigal

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Jefferson Vann

SDC12754 Philemon 8-22.  Onesimus had not been kidnapped and sold as a slave to Philemon.  He was a bondservant.  He had found himself in a poor state financially, probably having incurred a debt he could not repay.  He needed the help of Philemon to get out of that debt.  So he had appealed to Philemon to take him on as a bondservant.  If I read verse 16 correctly, there was some familial relationship between the two men.  They were brothers “in the flesh” – perhaps distant relations.  So, Philemon did the right thing.  He took Onesimus into his household as a servant.

The reward Philemon got for his benevolence was treachery.  Onesimus stole money and ran away.  While living as a fugitive, he met Paul and came to faith in Christ.  Paul could have told Onesimus to just forget about his past, but he envisioned a different solution.  He wanted to return Onesimus to reconcile with Philemon, and thought that Philemon could then use Onesimus as a partner in his ministry to Paul.  His appeal was a gamble, because Philemon could have had Onesimus arrested as well.  Then he would have gone to prison as well.

The challenge that Philemon faced is a difficult one.  Once you have been betrayed, how can you trust again?  Paul is asking Philemon to take the prodigal back and make him a trusted partner in ministry.  For Philemon to do this, he had to have faith in the transforming power of the gospel.  He had to believe that the Holy Spirit is the God of the second chance.

LORD, heal our hurts.  Help us to trust people again, because we trust in your power to make a difference in their lives.

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growing in our areas of strength

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Jefferson Vann

SDC12754 Philemon 4-7.  The Holy Spirit’s counsel through the scriptures reaches down and touches us, encouraging growth in every facet of our lives, not just our weaknesses.  Philemon was well-known for two things:

  1. He had great faith in the LORD and was constantly sharing that faith with others.
  2. He had great love for others and was constantly refreshing the hearts of the saints.

Now, it was time for the Holy Spirit to go to work, stretching and strengthening Philemon in precisely those areas of spiritual health that he was known for.  His faith in Christ, the Reconciler, was the foundation for his existence.  Now Paul was going to ask him to apply that faith in an area of his life that he had not imagined it would apply: his relationship with Onesimus.

Also, Philemon had always been ready to meet the needs of any brother as soon as he discovered that need.  Now Paul was going to introduce him to a new brother: Onesimus, whom he knew in the past only as a useless runaway slave who could not be trusted.

God’s righteousness is infinite.  When the light of his glory and grace shines on our lives, even those rooms of our house which we keep tidy and set apart for only company to see are revealed to be less than adequate.  Paul’s letter to his friend was a challenge to let the Holy Spirit have access to transform him  — again.

LORD, our lives are yours.  We present to you our strengths as well as our weaknesses.  Stretch us and change us as you see fit.

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deeply committed, deeply hurt

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Jefferson Vann

SDC12752 Philemon 1-3.  Philemon was a good man.  He was not just a pew-sitter in Colossae.  He hosted a fellowship in his own house.  Paul described him as a “beloved fellow worker.”  The picture we get from Paul’s words in this letter is that Philemon was deeply committed to Christ and to the gospel.  Something bad happened to him.  His slave, Onesimus, whom he trusted, stole from him and ran away.  Some time later, Onesimus encountered Paul and became a Christian like his former master.  Now he wants to do the right thing and return and reconcile with Philemon.

Paul intercedes.  The book of Philemon is Paul’s letter which he sends to accompany Onesimus.  Paul was concerned for his friend, Philemon.  He writes out of respect for Philemon’s ministry, and understands how it feels to be abandoned by people you had trusted. 

Perhaps someone you had trusted has let you down, and you don’t know if you could ever forgive them.  The LORD knows how it feels to be deeply hurt.  He cares for you.  He knows that you feel sensitive, and that you don’t want to be vulnerable again.  But the question for Philemon and for all of us who have been deeply hurt is whether we dare open our hearts long enough for the LORD to minister his grace. Reconciliation is his work.

LORD, we have been hurt.   We trust you to heal us gently.

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mission: send, support, serve

Posted on June 11, 2011 by Jefferson Vann

SDC12751 Titus 3:12-15.  Paul’s final instructions to Titus give a job description for the church and explain how each local church can continue to be involved in the mission of reaching the lost world for Jesus Christ.

  1. He instructs Titus that he will soon be replaced by another missionary in Paul’s team (12).  This was probably to give Titus the opportunity to personally report to Paul.  He had been sent on a mission.  It was now time to evaluate the success of that mission.

Missions is about sending people to serve among other people.  We send people to accomplish a task.  We send them because Jesus has appointed them that they should go and bear fruit (John 15:16).  Unless they go, there will be no fruit.

2.   He instructs Titus to support Zenas and Apollos in their missions work as well.  Perhaps these two were planning a visit to Crete to raise support for their work.  Paul tells Titus to “see that they lack nothing” (13).

Financially supporting missions work is an opportunity for churches to use their resources to touch the lives of people outside their community.

3.  He also instructs Titus to keep training the believers in Crete to do good works.  He especially mentions helping in “cases of urgent need” (14). 

Lovingly serving others by taking care of them in their times of need is also an opportunity for churches to be “fruitful” in mission.

LORD, make us a missions church, who send, support, and serve others so that your will is done.

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mission: avoid distraction

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Jefferson Vann

SDC12750 Titus 3:8b-11.   Paul instructs Titus to proclaim the gospel of justification by grace (5) and to also insist that the church devote themselves to good works (1, 8, 14).  The good works are in response to the Holy Spirit’s washing and renewal (5), and will draw people to the gospel message by showing its relevance and power.  In this section, Paul identifies the things that will distract the church from both the gospel message, and the good works that authenticate it. They are:

  1. foolish controversies,
  2. genealogies,
  3. dissensions,
  4. quarrels about the law,
  5. people who stir up division.

Anything that distracts the church from proclaiming the gospel or living it out in their community could be added to the list.  The mission of the church is to proclaim the message of what Christ did for us until he comes gain for us.  Meanwhile, we are to validate and demonstrate that gospel by lives so exemplary that the lost sit up and take notice.

What gets in the way of that mission is the tendency to get sidetracked on issues that may even have merit, but compared to proclaiming the gospel they are foolishness.

LORD, as we press on to proclaim your salvation and demonstrate it by our godly lives, help us to avoid any commitments that are not really fruitful for your kingdom.

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mission: insist on good works

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Jefferson Vann

SDC12735 Titus 3:1-8a.  Paul is the champion of salvation by grace, apart from works.  He teaches that in this text when he says that God “saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy” (5).  Yet Paul had taught Titus that his role as supervising missionary in Crete was to teach and model sound doctrine, and that the result should be a community transformed by grace with works that appropriately “adorn the doctrine” (2:10).  So, Titus had the responsibility to get the church “ready for every good work” (1).  It was not enough for the church to simply promote belief in God.  Titus had to insist that they “devote themselves to good works (8,14). 

The reason is that the same God who has justified us by his grace is also washing and renewing us by the influence of his Holy Spirit (5).  The justification by faith ensures that we will inherit eternal life when Christ comes back for us (7).  Regeneration and renewal (what elsewhere is called sanctification) ensures that we will draw others from our context to this same Savior, so that they can have the same hope.  A community of believers who are being washed and renewed…

  1. … is not disobedient, but submits to and obeys authorities,
  2. … is not enslaved to passions and pleasures, but is ready for every good work,
  3. … is not ruled by malice and envy toward each other, but is gentle and courteous.

This is the kind of community that is going to make a difference.

LORD, help us to draw people to yourself.  By our changed lives, may we adorn the doctrine so that those who are watching us know that it is the truth.

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mission: model a transformed community

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Jefferson Vann

 SDC12732 Titus 2.  God’s grace has appeared to all people, and has brought salvation (11).  It has appeared in the person of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works (13-14).  The salvation he brings is not simply legal justification, but moral transformation.

Titus is to serve as a model for that transformed community.  His works and teachings are to be so exemplary that they shame his opponents (8).  The sound doctrine he teaches should transform the lives of the whole community so that…

  1. …the older men become “sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness (2),
  2. … the older women become “reverent in behavior” and “teach what is good” (3),
  3. … they train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands (6),
  4. …the slaves become submissive to their own masters, well pleasing, and show all good faith (9-10).

Paul charges Titus to declare “these things” (15) – that is, not only the gospel part about what Christ has done for us, but also the transformation part about what grace does in us.  he is to “exhort and rebuke” when the church fails to model the transformation to their community context.

LORD, transform us by your grace that we might live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, as we wait for your appearing.

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mission: facilitate order

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Jefferson Vann

SDC12724 Titus 1:5-16.  The Cretans were not known for their honesty and trustworthiness.  They were likely to fall for false teachings, and Paul warned Titus that the island had “many who are insubordinate,  empty talkers and deceivers” (10).  Titus was tasked with facilitating a system where the right kind of people had authority – the kind of people who could be trusted because they…

  1. … were faithful to their families and had demonstrated the ability to keep them from getting out of control (6),
  2. … were able to control their own passions and desires (7),
  3. … were capable of forming and maintaining good relationships with others in the community (8),
  4. … were capable of learning and holding to sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it (9).

Any mission seeking to spread the gospel in a particular area should wisely consider what the weaknesses are among the people in that target area.  Paul’s mission strategy was not to accommodate those weakness, but to facilitate order by strengthening the church where it might fall prey to the sinful inclinations of its local community context.  So, in Crete, where people’s word could not be trusted, Paul commanded Titus to appoint only the trustworthy into positions of authority. 

The church should breathe back into the community where Satan’s kingdom has killed it.  We should infest our context with godliness.

LORD, help us to overcome the disorder that we have repented of.  Help us to facilitate order in the chaos around us.

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mission: preach the faith

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Jefferson Vann

SDC12723 Titus 1:1-4.  Paul had placed Titus in Crete for the reason that Timothy had been stationed in Ephesus.  Titus was a missionary, tasked with the establishment of the newly planted churches.  Titus was a disciple of Paul – or, as Paul puts it, a “true child in a common faith.” It was left to Titus to preach that faith in Crete, and to train and appoint others who would carry on that preaching.  Some of the elements of that message are seen in this salutation:

  1. It is the faith of God’s elect.  Every believer puts his faith in Christ because God opens his eyes to who Christ is, and what he has done for him.
  2. It is the true faith.  Titus must be careful to weed out falsehood because faith without truth is not enough.
  3. It is a faith which accords with godliness.  What people believe about Christ should make them more Christ-like.
  4. It is a faith in an eternal promise.  Paul refers to a promise made at one time in the past, but which is now revealed when believers preach the gospel.  That promise was that everyone who believes in Christ will inherit eternal life.

[The Greek word for  eternal  is found twice in verse 2.  It means the same thing both times.  It does not mean a process that goes on forever.  It means an event, the results of which will last forever.  Just as God made a promise in eternity past (“before the ages began”)  so he will one day make good on that promise and grant immortality to the faithful.  The promise was an event in time.  The resurrection unto eternal life will be an event in time.  It will result in lives that are eternal.  The second death in hell will also be an event in time – the judgment day.  It will result in deaths that are eternal.]

LORD, may we preach the faith that proclaims the truth about your eternal promise.

Posted in church, destruction in hell, eternal life, faith, gospel, resurrection, witness | Tagged | 1 Comment