 open your Bibles to Philemon and I know the bulletin says verses 4 through 7 but I think we'll get through verse 6. Let me read verse 6. How I pray that your fellowship in the faith might effectively produce knowledge of every good thing in you through Christ. Amen. I don't know what you took away from this morning sermon. Maybe that Pastor Mark was a little angry but I'm just kidding. But it's very providential at times when you're studying the Word and sort of the morning service and the evening service kind of dovetail. Pastor Mark sermon, sort of what was impressed upon me is the importance of being with God's people and emulating God's people to have that common fellowship and communion with the people of God and to hold on to that precious fellowship that we have. And here in verse 6, that is exactly what Paul prays for Philemon. This is exactly what he prays for Philemon. So if we were to ask what is the content of Paul's prayer for Philemon, Paul gives thanks to God for Philemon's love and faith in verses 4 through 5. But here we have the content of his prayer. And this prayer, what it teaches us as he prays for Philemon, he intercedes for Philemon. This prayer teaches us how fellowship with the saints effectually produces knowledge of every good thing, the Christ given graces that we need to be forgiving people. That is what the focus of Paul's prayer is. If you were to read five different versions of this particular text, verse 6, you'd read five different interpretations. It's the hardest verse in Philemon to translate. Let me read a few versions to you. So if you have an ESV, the ESV reads this way. 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. You'd get the idea there possibly that he may be talking about evangelism, that the sharing of your faith. Let me read from the New King James. Same verse, verse 6. That the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. What's missing in verse 6? Prayer, praying. It's connected directly to verse 5. As if he's connecting, this verse 6 is connected to verse 5 and the content of Paul's thanksgiving then spreads or sort of it pours into verse 6. And the concept or the idea of praying is not included in verse 6 in the New King James version. Let me read a couple others. Let's see. The NASB and I'll stop here. And I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. A bit different also from the other two that we read and different from the way that I translated the passage. What's the point of all this? Of noting these differences in translations? Well, when you're studying your Bible, what you want to do is you want to, I want to go to a text and sometimes it's a verse. Generally it's a verse when I'm preaching a sermon, but sometimes longer. And you want to draw out the doctrine, right? What does God say to His people in this particular verse? What is God saying here? So I want to get the doctrine. So then I can correct, I can prove, I can train in righteousness if you're thinking of a Second Timothy. So as you begin to study a text, one of the things that you have to do is figure out, well, what is the author saying? And sometimes you'll take a look at some different translations to see, well, what's the author up to here? And you'll see these variations. There are no textual issues. Well, there's one, but it's not important. And all the versions kind of communicate the same. And the issue is not with the word prayer. That's not a textual issue. It has to do with what Paul is referring to here. So look at verse six with me or listen really to verse six with me. How I pray. That's how I begin. How I pray. The verb pray is implied from verse four, where Paul states that he thanks God. He says in verse four that he gives thanks to his God always when he makes mention of Philemon in his prayer. And then he says giving thanks. And in verse four and five, he tells you what he gives thanks for. He gives thanks for his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his love for all the saints. Praying that verse, verse, so this will be the, I promise as best as I possibly can promise you, that this will be the last verse that I'm going to do this with in Philemon, because it's just a difficult verse to try to understand because there are some important terms that Paul uses here that we'll look at, but also because it's sort of, it prepares us to get into the content of the letter where he's appealing to Philemon to forgive, to be reconciled with Onesimus. And last week we saw the characteristics of a man, of a Christian who has a forgiving spirit who is willing to be reconciled with others. And that is, has faith in Christ, has love for the brothers. And here now we see how Paul prays for someone who is going to have to reconcile with his brother. What is it that he asks God specifically for Philemon? So that when we're in a situation where we need to be reconciled with someone, with another Christian, we know how to pray for them. We know what to ask God for. And we can generally pray for the church that this would be manifested in each and every one of us. Okay. And then that's going to set us up then to understand the book of Philemon better and be able to apply its truth more accurately. Okay. So grammar stuff. Okay. Paul begins this verse, verse six, with an adverb. And that particular adverb, the way that it works is generally it's going to refer back to something, right? And generally what it's going to do, it's going to try to refer back to some verbal idea. And the main verbal idea here is prayer. It's prayer. That is what Paul is talking about. He's talking about his prayer to God. And the particular adverb, usually what it does is when it's used with what's called this adjunctive, what it points to is the content of a particular prayer. And that's what Paul is giving us here. Paul is giving us the content of his prayer for Philemon. So the verb pray then is implied, it's brought down. So what do you do in your translation? You bring it down. That's why the ESV and the NASB and the NIV and the NET and the Holmen Christian Standard Bible, they supply the verb in verb four for you, pray. The verb pray is implied from verse four where Paul makes a statement. He's going to introduce now the content of Paul's prayer, Paul's prayer. And then he says, and commentators are divided on which way to go now because of the next term. And the term is the way that I've translated is how I pray that your fellowship, the word is koinonia, koinonia, the word, but it's a noun. And in the New King James, and even in the ESV, it's kind of translated like a participle, sharing. But that's not, the verb is the noun is never used that way. It's never translated that way. It's always translated. Fellowship participate, it's translated three ways actually. I'll give you the references here. So koinonia has three uses. It can mean participation to be associated by shared, to be associated with someone by shared experience, participation. That's 1 Corinthians 10, 16. Fellowship to be associated by a shared life together with someone. And those two seem, at least when I read those two, to overlap some, and I'll give you a reference. 1 Corinthians 1, 9. And then the third way that it's used is in context of giving, to be associated by contributions or gifts. And that's in Romans 15, 26. Options one and two here in this particular context seem to make the most sense. And giving is not what Paul has in view. It's not what Paul has in view. So I would take koinonia to mean either fellowship or participation. So I pray that your fellowship or your participation, and I see those as overlapping semantically. My mother-in-law keeps calling me. I don't know why she's calling me. She's probably watching the sermon, get over with the grammar part. The second, so participation or fellowship. Then is that your fellowship in or participation in the faith or the way that the NA, the ESV has it is. I pray that the sharing of your faith, the sharing of your faith, what there, the idea is, and the ESV koinonia is sort of like a participle. And the object of the participle is faith. I'm sharing my faith with people. But that's not what he has in mind here. That would be a subjective genitive. Philemon's faith in Christ or God, he shares that with other people. But if you take koinonia in its common usage, which is participation and fellowship, that makes no sense. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. I think that the way that you should take faith is as an objective genitive. And what I mean by that is it's referring to, so let me read my translation, that your fellowship in the faith. And by an objective genitive, what I mean is that it becomes the object of the verbal idea in fellowship. So Philemon participates with believers objectively in a common faith. What is it that he shares with them? Faith in Christ. It's more than faith in Christ. But it can be summarized that way because it's a body of truth. He has fellowship. He participates together with believers in a common faith. They all have a common faith together. And that is what Paul prays for. Well, he says, he prays that this common faith that he has would do something. He says, how I pray that your fellowship in the faith might, the key idea is mutual participation in a common faith. And having a shared faith is something that we should not turn our noses up to or we should bark at or say, well, that's not important. The important thing is that we're together. No, for the people of God, it is absolutely imperative that what unites us, what brings us together is not best practices. We like to have a group on Tuesday. We like to have church at in the morning and we like to come in the evening. We like to baptize believer. No, well, I would say yes, because I'm going to read a text here that would point us in that direction in Ephesians four, four through six, listen to what Paul says. There is one body, one spirit, just as you were all called to one hope that you belong, one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is overall and through all and in all for believers, we cannot discount the value of the faith that we share together. Listen to the way that Jesus puts it. And here this is a prayer of Christ in John 17. In John 17, John 17, he says, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself. That they also may be sanctified in the truth. How is it that Jesus is, well, Jesus is praying here that we would have fellowship with God, that we would have communion with God, that we would be one with God and one with his people. And what is the basis of that fellowship? The truth, the word of God. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. You see how it's not this subjective thing. It's an objective truth. It's doctrine that's preached that men believe and they come together, they unify into one body based upon those truths that are believed. That they may all be one just as you, Father, are in me and I in you. That they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. How does the church declare to the world without speaking that God has sent Christ into the world? I'm talking about not evangelizing or preaching the gospel. That's not what I'm talking about. If you have that in your mind, you must, we must not know each other. That's not what I'm talking about. By the unity that we have, by the love that we have for one another. Yes, we do it openly by preaching the word. But besides preaching the word, how do we demonstrate to the world that God sent Christ into the world that the testimony that the Bible gives of the person and work of Christ is valid by the unity that we have one with another in the truth of the gospel. Our unity as believers is founded upon our like precious faith, a bond that will accompany us into eternity. Nothing can break this bond and it is unbreakable because Christ prayed that we would have this kind of participation with one another and with the very Trinity. This should be the goal of every church and of every believer to have this mutual fellowship, this life together that we share. And the Old Testament, particularly the Psalms, is right. It's full with this truth. Turn to Psalm 133. Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head running down the beard on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his road. It is like the dew of Herman, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing life forever. Psalm 133 is a celebration of communion, of fellowship, of life together with believers. And the psalmist celebrates this unity by using two similes. Look at them with me. The first is in verse two and it's the ordination oil on the beard of Aaron and his descendants. What's the purpose of that ordination oil? What did that ordination oil do? In Exodus 30, verses 30 through 31, let me read those verses to you. You shall anoint Aaron and his sons with this oil and consecrate them that they may serve me as priests. And you shall say to the people of Israel, this shall be my holy anointing oil throughout your generations. This oil consecrated the priests for their priestly duties. And what the psalmist is saying is that the unity, the fellowship, the common faith that believers have is similar to this oil. When the priest is anointed, Israel is holy unto the Lord. Participation, fellowship, communion with one another produces holiness in God's people. That's the point. Now he uses a second simile. And in verse 33, excuse me, verse three, he says, it is like the dew of Herman which falls on the mountains of Zion in arid lands, dry lands, dew from snow-capped mountains, travels, and it falls down on the soil. And what does it produce? Crops, fruitfulness. The point is that this dew makes the land fruitful. What does unity and fellowship, communion, a common faith among believers produce? He's telling us fruitfulness. That's what those similes point to. You see, the point that Paul is making in praying for Philemon that, or he brings up here, what he brings up is this shared communion, this life together with the believers that is, this life is actually brought together, or they are brought together into a life by their faith. It produces something in the life of believers. Different examples we see, it's a testimony to the world in John. And of course, it's what Jesus Christ prayed for. It's what the apostle preached in the book of Ephesians, and there are many different examples too in the book of Ephesians how it unites men and women who were not even in fellowship with each other. This is exactly the point that Paul is making in his very next statement. He prays for Philemon that the participation that he has in common with all believers might effectively produce the knowledge of every good thing in us through Christ. He's saying he wants this common faith, this life shared together, this participation that Philemon has with all of the brothers, and now even with Onesimus who's coming. He wants this. He prays that it might effectively produce. You see, this is a, well, Paul is praying that Philemon's fellowship in the faith might work. He's saying I want this communion and this fellowship that you have together with believers to produce something. I don't just want it to be inactive. I want it to be fruitful. On a weekly basis, we pray for y'all this way. For some, we pray for y'all on a daily basis. We pray that your faith might work, that your faith might be effective unless you run in vain. You ask, why, why, why do you pray for us? Well, the same reason Paul prayed for Philemon. Listen to the words of the author to the book of Hebrews. This is why we pray. I'm certain this is why Paul prayed for it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away to be, to restore them again to repentance since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. That is why Paul is praying for Philemon because as I quoted the Lord Jesus last week, the man or the woman who is unwilling to forgive will not be forgiven by God. And he is praying now that this common faith that Philemon has might work, that it might produce fruit, that it might yield something. He's confident of this because he's hearing of Philemon's reputation. He's hearing about him more than likely from Onesimus. He's hearing about him from Apathras and maybe from others who are visiting him. But he wants this common faith that they share in the Lord Jesus Christ to bear fruit. You see the appeal here? We should appeal to men this way. When people in the church start to go crazy, don't we share a like precious faith? What's wrong with you? Is your faith not producing fruit? Are you not thinking right about what you're confessing with regard to Christ Jesus? This confession should bind us together. It should cause us to be united, to be one. What does Paul want the fellowship of your faith to produce? Of course, fruit. The fellowship of your faith may become effective in promoting deeper knowledge, not hidden, secret, special, none of that, but deeper knowledge. He wants it to produce knowledge. It's the same idea that he references to in Colossians 1-9 and in Colossians 3-10. Here, as in those verses, what he's talking about, he wants Philemon to have a greater understanding and experience. The fellowship of your faith may become effective for greater perception of every good thing and that same fellowship may be an occurrence or an event that impresses the knowledge of every good thing upon the believer. So, this is what he wants. Philemon has a like precious faith with the Colossians, and what he prays for is that that knowledge that I share a common faith with the brothers and sisters here, he wants that knowledge to deepen. He wants Philemon, he wants me, he wants all of you, I want all of you. He wants that knowledge to deepen, and he wants the fellowship that we share together to also be a source of deepening that knowledge. So, I have peace with God, and if you're a Christian, we have faith in Christ, we all have peace with God. And he wants that when we're talking and we're praying and we're spending time together, knowing that you have peace with God and I have peace with God, he wants it to deepen my appreciation for that peace with God, and he wants me to rejoice in that. But also in the interaction that we have, that we would not have had if we were not in Christ, he wants me to understand, oh, I have peace with God, I have peace with this brother, I have peace with this sister, and we have peace with God together. In the Bible, experiencing is a way of coming to greater knowledge, more so than just hearing or seeing. I'm like a charismatic, so don't worry. I'm going to give you some examples here. Look at the book of Job. In here, it's a full and frontal assault of God upon Job. It's in Job 42. In Job 42, look at verse one. I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hives councils without knowledge that Job is quoting God when God challenged him a few chapters back. Therefore, because of this challenge, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know here and I will speak. I will question you and you make it known to me. Now those are God's words, his challenge to Job. Verse five, this is how Job would respond. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. He had a very strong, very real encounter with God and it changed his perception of who God was. It radically transformed him and all he could do was shut his mouth and repent. This is something that I don't think many tend to value. In our fellowship with one another, if we are fellowshiping in a godly, God honoring way, conscience of the like precious faith that we have, we can come by means of our communion with one another. We can come to a greater knowledge of the gifts and blessings God has given us in Christ because those gifts and blessings are meant to be shared among God's people. We share those gifts. They're not all for me. I don't keep my gifts. I don't hoard my gifts. My gifts were given to me by God so that I might share them with his people and they might taste and see that the Lord is good by means of the fruit he produces in my own life and I might taste and see that the Lord is good by the fruit he produces in the life of others. So Job, now look at, so he is confronted with God and he has this experience that although he had heard of the Lord, now that he had this powerful encounter with God, it changes his perception. Things are changed for Job. He is not the same and his view and the image of God in his mind and in his heart is not the same anymore. It's different. This happens also in the church. Look at the Book of Acts. In the Book of Acts, in chapter 2, verse 42, Luke writes, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, doctrine, life together. To the breaking of bread and prayers and the prayers and awe, fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. As always, I'll add the caveat, right? We know that the Book of Acts is descriptive and it describes for us a particular age in church history where the Spirit was working by means of the apostles to affirm the testimony of the gospel in ways that the Spirit does not work today. We all know that. But let's keep reading. And all who believed worked together and had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. This common fellowship that they had and look, it wasn't, let's just go hang out together and go to the mall. No, it was around the apostles' teaching. It was for edification. It was for prayer. It was for maturing of the saints. They didn't just come together to go watch Deadpool, right? They didn't do that. That's not what they did. They came together to center themselves around the preaching and the teaching and the practice of the apostles. And what did that cause? It caused fruit. It caused life. That when the church or the believers there, when they experienced that fellowship, they were matured and we see how the church explodes and then numbers were added. Many were being converted. Why? Because of the fellowship that they had together. Because of the sharing or the participation they had in the same faith. And Paul is praying. Paul is praying that this experience that Philemon has in his understanding the faith, in his knowledge of those truths and in his experiencing those truths among God's people would cause him to grow in his knowledge of every good thing in us. Or really it's every good thing in you and that's plural. And that's in Philemon and the church at Colossae. Every good thing in you. So we go witnessing and knock on somebody's doors. Good person. No, there's no good person. There's nothing good in us, right? Well, you got to kind of balance that. Because Paul is very clear here that there is something good in us. But it's not because of us. It's through Christ and we'll get there in a second. But can you recount all of the good things in you through Christ? Can you do that? Ephesians 222. God himself dwells in us. Because of Christ, God dwells in me. Ephesians 317. Christ himself. Catoi Kettles. He inhabits as a home the hearts of believers. First Corinthians 316. The Holy Spirit indwells us. Ezekiel 1119. We have new hearts. James 4 6. We have grace. Philippians 129. We have faith. Acts 1118. We have repentance. We have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, Galatians 5 22 through 23. That's 16 things. And there is an infinite number more, infinite number of good things in us through Christ in us. We and think of that plural, or it's really in you in the text. And what Paul is stressing there is the participation that believers have in the gifts of Christ as heirs of God and heirs with Christ. We share in something that we will never share in with our relatives who are blood relatives or not Christians. The gifts and the blessings that God bestows upon his children never rust. They don't wear out. They don't give out. They actually grow and they are intensified as we understand the truths that we believe and as we participate in the truths that we believe together. And then when we're ushered into heaven, that knowledge becomes clearer and our minds are able to rejoice and be satisfied in the good things and then the fellowship becomes purer. So you see how this once you become a believer, this particular prayer that Paul is praying for Philemon never stops increasing. In this life, it'll have ups and downs and bumps and bruises, but it's a prayer that continues to expand and grow. You think of all of the good things that Christ has purchased for us. All of these are gifts of his grace and they're ours not because of anything we've done, but they're ours through Christ. For as one author puts it, Paul is speaking here through Christ in his last phrase there, through Christ. Paul is speaking of the instrumentality of Christ in producing every good thing that is in us. And this seems to accord more easily with Paul's thinking in general. Philemon's participation in the faith that is his fellowship in the community of Christ is to be made effective in his knowledge of every good thing that belongs to believers through Christ. This will then form the basis upon which Paul will appeal to Philemon to release Onissimus. They have this common faith. So now you think of the man or the woman who is increasing in his knowledge of every good thing that Christ is working in us. And you think of the man or the woman who is actively experiencing all of those gifts and all of those graces, knowing that they're produced in him through Christ. And then another believer who is participating in the same truths and in the same gifts experientially. There's division between them. What would be their desire? Reconciliation. Because as they reconcile, they experience the truth more vividly and experientially. It becomes greater in quality. That is why he prays this for Philemon. And he is in essence saying, I'm sending Onissimus to you. And when he comes and you reconcile, your knowledge of the gospel will deepen and your experience of the gospel will deepen. Because you are participating now without restraint with your brother who has sinned against you, who is repentant, who is willing to reconcile. And you are more like God in your acceptance of him than you were before. That's why it's important for us as believers to understand this truth that we share in a common faith. And that this common faith that we have is very precious to God and it produces much fruit in us. We should grow in our knowledge of this faith and we should grow in our experience of this faith. And you know how we do that? You don't go to LA Fitness. Now, how do we do that? Fellowship. Fellowship. You spend time with the people of God. You share with them in doctrine, in prayers, in tears, in financial goods, in everything that you have. You participate with believers and you will grow in your knowledge of gospel truth and you will grow in the experiential knowledge of gospel truth. That's why those who depart from the church or depart from the faith or discount the people of God, you think they are trampling the blood of the Son of God under their feet because everything that he has purchased for his people is found in the church. And they're saying what the church has to offer, I want none of. They will never experience the grace of God or the fruit of the spirit outside of fellowship with the people of God. And now Philemon, as Paul prays this way and he reveals to Philemon, this is how I'm praying for you, Philemon would know and he would be prepared when Onissimus arrives to forgive because he wants greater as any believer would, greater knowledge of the gospel and a greater experience of the gospel. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much Lord for your word and for the preciousness of the faith that we share together. I pray and I ask you that you would produce fruit in us by our participating one another in our common faith and by our participating, participating in and fellowshiping one another in our common experience of your mercy and grace towards us in Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.