 Okay, the recording has started. Good morning everyone. Welcome to today's session of Testaments Survey, BC10E. Today, we are going to study on the letter to file men. Yes, even before we could begin, good morning said, yeah, even before we could begin, can I request one of us to lead us in prayer? Can I request it? Can you lead us in prayer, please? Thank you. Father, we come to the throne of grace. Lord, thank you for this day. You have given us, Lord. Lord, as we are going to learn from your word, Lord, all the letters, Lord, which were written by your apostles, Lord, which are great teaching to today, Lord, as we will be learning from that letters, Lord, Lord, let that letter should minister us, Lord. And it should create a great impact for that with the future ministry we are going to do for your Lord. It should be impactful and helpful for others, Lord. Lord, the thing we are learning should not be wasted, but it should be used in your kingdom expansion. All glory be given to you, Lord. We thank you for the teacher. We thank you for rest of my class, Miss Lord. In Jesus' name, we pray amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Sid. Thank you. So what do we know about the letter to file it? Anything. It can be anything that you would like to share with us. One chapter. One chapter. Okay. Anyone else? Yes, Brother Lupega, please go ahead. Phelemon is a letter that was written by Apostle Paul when he was in Rome in his house arrest, written for Phelemon to forgive his runaway slave called Onesmas. I think the name Onesmas means useful. Those are some of the things. So he meant that he's sending him. He was useless to him in the past, but he's now sending to him very useful and now not only useful, but he's also going to be a brother. He's a brother, he's a Christian. Yeah. Thank you, Pastor. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Brother Lupega. You just summarized the whole letter in a in few words. Thank you so much. Very helpful. Okay. The book of Filament is a personal letter written by a friend to a friend. And it is one of the shortest letter. As John said, it has only one chapter and it consists of three 34 Greek words, three 34. So the very purpose of this letter is to bring the reconciliation between the two individuals as Lupega shared between master and a slave. So it is a valuable book in that we discover much about the heart of Apostle Paul. We see a man who was to take the example of Jesus who was willing to lay down his life for another. And here he says he was willing to put his life on the line for a slave with no position, power or resource. As we read through the letter, we see the frame, the words that Apostle Paul uses you know, recommending for reconciliation, recommending for forgiveness from Filament to messiness. Paul puts himself in place of a slave and he requests for forgiveness. That's a very beautiful letter when we read it. So what was the very purpose of this letter? When we read through the letter, we see two purposes, one, you know, to commend Filament for his compassion to other believers. Second, we see to commend nasimus to Filament and ask for his complete forgiveness and restoration. As we discussed on the purpose, we also see the unique features of this letter. That is, Filament is the only total private letter in the scripture. So it gives a valuable glimpse into the social life of the apostolic times. And the theme that runs through the letter is Paul's Intercession for a Runaway Slave. Can I request one of us to read some of the key verses from this letter? Verse 16, 17 and 18. Jafina, is your mic working? Jafina, is your mic working? Yes, Pastor. Yes. Jafina, so if you're my, okay, great. Can you please read verse 16, 17 and 18 for us? Can I know the chapter? Yes, in the book of Filament, there's only one chapter. So verse 16, 17 and 18. The book of Filament was 16, 17 and 18. He's no longer like a slave to you. He's more than a slave for he's a beloved brother, especially to me. Now he will mean much more to you both as a man and as a brother in the Lord. So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has changed wrong you, if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to me. Thank you. Thank you, Jafina. Yes, a wonderful letter. Recommending, charge it to me. If he owes you anything, charge it to me. Very well, Paul writes this letter to Filament so that, you know, Filament will be in a place to, you know, reconcile, forgive Onesimus, reconcile with him and accept him. So let's see the backstory that we can put the pieces together and get the details within the letter. So for more than two years, during the third missionary journey, Paul ministered in Asia Minor among the people of Ephesians. So this was a successful period for Apostle among the Gentiles, to minister among the Gentiles. And where he saw many people of Ephesians where received the gospel and they converted their lives were transformed. So among them, among these visitors was Filament. So Paul Paul's teaching minister to Filament was a wealthy Roman citizen and a slave owner from the nearby city of Colossae. We see that in the Book of Filament, in the letter to Filament, Chapter 1, Verse 19. Okay, so Filament was ministered by Apostle Paul and Filament was also known for his faith in Jesus Christ, for his love towards others. And he owned a slave named Onesimus who had at some point when he was working as a slave with Filament, at some point, he runs away from Colossae to Rome in hope that he could disappear into the populace urban environment by taking of taking some of master's goods. Okay, and just to be lost in that big urban city. But then what happened? Instead, he was found. So Onesimus may have run into Ifaphorus, the founder of the church at Colossae and one who could have known him and he would have introduced him to Apostle Paul. So what happened? Let's look at the background of Onesimus. So Onesimus was a slave and he ran away from his master. At some point, came under the influence of the ministry of Paul. And through the work of the Holy Spirit, his life was transformed. And from an unprofitable servant, it is transformed to be of a faithful and a beloved brother in Christ. That is how Paul is addressing Onesimus as. Onesimus also served Paul in some way for a shorter season while Paul was in the prison at Rome. So Onesimus eventually authenticated his conversation with work suitable for repentance. And at Paul's encouragement, he went back to his master to make things right with him. See the first assignment that Paul gives Onesimus, though Onesimus is needed for Paul at the prison to be with him and to be of help. But what was more important for Paul is the reconciliation between filaments and Onesimus, between the master and slave. Though Onesimus owes his master, we see Paul writing a letter recommending filaments to forgive him on behalf of Paul. Paul is putting himself in place. So Paul writes this letter on behalf of Onesimus to help him fulfill his moral obligation to return and to be restored. So Paul wrote this letter to his friend Filament to be gracious to his slave Onesimus, who was once upon a time slave, not now. And to forgive him for the very act that he did that was against him, against the Roman law. So under the Roman law, they could have been a severe punishment for a slave who robbed the master's goods and ran away. It could also cost him death. And here we see Filament was most likely been a church leader in one of the home church. So he was still reporting to Paul. He was in good relationship with Paul. So that's the reason Paul writes a letter to his own church leader recommending him to forgive Onesimus. And Onesimus most likely carried the letter in the company of Techikas who carried the Colossian letter as well. So Paul appeals to Filament not on a legal ground, but on spiritual grounds. Well, in the hope that he would receive him back not only as a slave, but also as a brother in Christ. So more of Paul's recommendation was for Filament to receive Onesimus as a brother in Christ, one who's equal with him in Christ. But Paul put some extra pressure on Filament to do so when we read the letter. So when we read from verse eight to nine and also verse 14, we see that by indicating that he would not command Filament what to do when he could actually do so. But by appealing Filaments reputed good character, faith and love. He says by asking a personal favor from Filament as a partner in Gospel, by offering him to pay any debts owed to Filament by Onesimus. And he also reminding Filament of a relational debts that he owed to Paul and he's asking for a personal sympathy from Filament that while he was in chains and we also see that Paul is making a matter of obedience and he is letting Filament know that he is coming soon and would be planning on staying with Filament in verse 22. We see that I will come back and stay with you. I'll come soon. I'm planning to stay with you. What a message of hope we see in this. And we said this book was written during 62 to 63 or some of the scholars say 64 AD and the central theme of this book is forgiveness and reconciliation. So it has to do with the receiving and offending brother back into a spirit of love. So the very key word in this letter is receive. As we see in the essence of the Gospel, when we read through this book, there is a message. There is an essence of message in this book. What is it? I would like to list it and points so that we can understand and relate it to us. When we read this book, when we see the relationship of Onesimus, who's been a slave, who ran away in the master Filament and Paul's recommendation to Filament to forgive Onesimus, which cost death for him, for the act that he committed, for the sin that he committed. So we can relate that as a sinner to God. The sinner has ran away from God. The law condemned the sinner and gave him no right to appeal. We also see as a sinner could never pay the debt that was owed. The sinner flees to the arms of Jesus. Here we see the picture of the cross, the Jesus step into to pay the debt for us. As a sinner turns from a sin and brings forth the fruit of repentance. We see the sinner receives forgiveness, not on the basis of law, but on the basis of grace. The sinner comes in new creation in Christ who's freed from all bondages now. So we can relate this gospel message into this letter. Though Paul may not be sharing, you know, just like what he did in other places, but here you see the people been shared in action. So what are the main features of the book of Filament? We see that Paul spoke often as a natural of his situation. And we go to each verse, we see that Paul sharing it in this way. I was a prisoner of Christ. Paul, yes, he was aged and he was a prisoner. He was chained. He was in chains. So you say spiritual father in chains. Even in my chain, gospel will not be stopped. And he shares the message of hope even in this season. So Paul wrote this letter personally, perhaps to ensure that others were not brought into private matter. So the letter to Filament is a powerful for many reasons. It is the only letter where Paul does not plainly mention Jesus' death or resurrection. And this is not an oversight. Even though he did not explain or talk more about the cross with words, but he demonstrated it through his action. He always been a living example for us to imitate him. And the later part we see in the history that it is very likely that Onesimus became the Bishop of Ephesias. So in 110 AD, Father Ignatius was writing to the churches of Asia Minor and he mentions that the name of the Bishop of Ephesias was Onesimus. Check this. So this may even explain why the seemingly insignificant letter made it into the New Testament. So in any event, Paul saw something great in the slave. He developed a good character within him. The life of Onesimus became a testimony to many others to what God can do when we give our lives fully to him. So the fact that Filament and Onesimus, you know, the relationship between master and the slave, when they gave each other and they reconciled with each other, God could do much miracles. And Onesimus submitted himself. When he submitted him, can you see how God raised him from strength to strength, glory to glory? We can also relate his story to Joseph. We can also see how God raised this slave to become a leader of a church, become a bishop of a church in Ephesias. So God can do anything to anyone when we don't give up on ourself. All we need to do is just surrender ourself to the mighty hand of God and allow God to work in our life. When we allow God to work in our life, we see how God can transform our life. He can make it beautiful. This is what his word says, that you are no more the old creation. All things are passed away. Behold, you have become a new creation, new creation in Christ. So the fact that Filament and Onesimus are now brothers in Christ makes the master-slave relationship totally irrelevant. Now they are brothers in Christ. They are equal in Christ. This story of Onesimus can also be applied in our own life. We may see we are insignificant, we are sinful or it can be in any other way we can relate ourself to Onesimus. But when we do not give up, when we try to reconcile with every mistake that we did in our past, just for the sake of Christ, you see God can work in our life. God can turn things for us. God can intervene into our life in that big populacity in Colosseum, in Rome. How do you think Onesimus could meet Paul, a leader, which can transform Onesimus' life? He never thought you could be found. His life could be worthwhile or he can come out of this slavery. This is not something, a small thing, okay, in our time. But those days slavery means that you are slave forever. And if a slave commits something wrong, it costs his life. And if you see Onesimus' life when we read this letter, we see God's hand on his life. God orchestrated everything for him for good and made it beautiful. We see Jeremiah 29, 11 into his life. So if God could change Onesimus' life and make it beautiful and give him a plan to prosper and to give him success, the same God is with us. He is mindful of each one of us. Today, we may be in different place, we may be impacting. God can call each one of us to impact the world that we are in. We may come across people, different set, it can be rural, it can be urban. But we have a plan for each one of us. There are times we may play a role of Onesimus to a master, but at the same time, we can also be like Paul, who can talk on behalf of certain people. There are times God can ask us to play a role of filiment, to forgive and reconcile with others. So all these three areas can be part of our life as well. So as we study this letter, let's put ourselves in. Let's allow the Lord to work in our life, to change us inside out. Let's allow the word of God to transform our life. As we read, let's say, Lord, can you do this to me? Can you transform my life? Can you make it beautiful? Yes, I understand that you are mindful of me. As God touched Onesimus, God can touch each of us and raise each of us to be a leader in the place where we are. Because the scripture says the harvest is huge. The laborers are few. This is the same even today. The harvest is huge. When we go out to minister, when we look at the crowd, when we look at the people outside, it is the harvest is huge. We need laborers. We need laborers to reach out to a different set of people. We need to be like Paul. How Paul said, I am the Roman to the Roman, Jew to the Jew, Greek to the Greek. But his intention was to share the gospel of Christ. We also see that whoever met Paul saw Jesus and Paul and their life was transformed. Can we be like Paul? Can our life impact people when we step out? Can they see the love of Jesus in us? There are times Paul stood his ground. He never gave up on people. He won't impact them. He shared the love of Christ. He said they need Jesus. They need to experience the love of God. Sometimes God moves in us like that. Sometimes the circumstance, the situation may be in favor of us to impact, to teach, to preach, to share the love of Christ. But then there are certain times it may not be in favor of us. But then we need to initiate those in those seasons or those times, those situations. We need to press toward it knowing that these people need Christ, need to experience the love of God. When we prayerfully do that, the Holy Spirit who is ministering to us can make a way, can open the door, can move that obstacle and he can make a way to reach out the unreached, to reach the unreached in that place, in that situation. At Mangalore, where we serve, we have different set of people. They are families. They are students. So one of the ministry here we do is reach out the colleges. So we see students in different colleges are very different. The environment is different. The teaching style is different. But then when we recommend that we want to impact them with the love of Christ, there are some people who are open, welcoming, but there are certain doors which takes time. But then we need, we need to knock again and again and again and we know that God will make a way in that area and we can reach certain crowd. When we don't give up, God will make a way. God ministers to people through us, any desires to do that. We can see many onesimus there. So when we don't give up, God can do greater things in and through us. So with that I'll close this letter and open it to the class. If there's anyone who would like to share anything from this letter that impacted your life, is there anything like that that you would like to share and add on? It is a very beautiful letter, isn't it? Is there anyone who would like to share anything from this letter? Silly, Brother Subashish, Brother Lubeika, please feel free. You all can just unmute and share. Yes, please. I can see some of these and raised. Yes, yes, Brother Lubeika, please go ahead. My pastor is an appreciation. When, like I have some books which I read. Hello. Yes, yes, please go ahead. Like I have books that I read. When I look at your notes, they are wonderful because much as in some other books you read, you need 40 or 30 pages to read about a given person or personality or give to this letter, for instance. But when you get the needy greedy of that, so many letters, that so many pages you read, you find that the notes you guys are giving us are condensed, precise, concise and straight to the point and having what it is to understand on a given person. You cannot understand this if you don't make research, but when you make research and get back, you really see that people there are doing their best, so keep it up. You guys are up there with the stars. Thank you. Praise God. Thank you for that feedback, Brother. Thank you. Anyone else would like to add to this letter or you would like to share your experience where you share the love of God or forgiveness of God with others and you saw some of these life been transformed. Anyone? John, Nikki, Paul, Aradhana, Jeffina, anyone from the class? Feel free to just unmute and share. It would be a blessing to each of us in the class. Zellie. One thing I understood from this epistle is we tend to be judgmental, sometimes seeing some people's attitude for the first time and we tend to label that person as like that forever. But I think through this life of Anderson was and the life that he has changed in between Paul is reminding us that the importance of being open to understand as how Jesus sees others, we also can see others. Amen. Amen. Thanks, John. Thanks. Yes. Being judgmental. Yes, that's right. Okay. Okay. I understand. Okay. You're having a noisy background. You're not able to unmute. Okay. Paul, would you like to share or Jeffina? Yes, please. Yeah. I believe forgiveness is a beautiful character that Christ has taught us because when you forgive someone and you give them a chance and you say, I still love you and it's like the relationship grows much more stronger. And as Brother John said, sometimes we are very judgmental. Like we label them and this is who they are. They will never change. And I also felt that sometimes we forgive people, but they don't forgive us back. We may have completely forgiven them, but they don't forgive us and they still hate us or things like that do happens. But Christ forgave us a long, long, long time ago and we didn't accept him for a long time. But just at the right time, people will understand us. That's what I believe on. And forgiveness makes us feel so much better. When we know that Christ forgives us, we couldn't understand that. Like how can he forgive me? And we sometimes, when I first got saved, I thought no one can forgive for the things that I have done, but we are still forgiven. And that changed my life, changed my life and is so much beautiful. And I think if forgiveness can change my life, when I forgive people, that will change their life too. So I always forgive people. I never, ever hold anything back against them. And this is a beautiful letter from Paul. And thank you for teaching me this because I have never looked into this letter on this perspective. And mostly I avoided this letter because it's just one chapter. We don't read it so deeply most of the times. And thank you so much for teaching. I really learned a lot. Please God. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Jafina, for sharing on forgiveness. Yes, it is very important. And that is one of the essence of this letter. Thank you. Anyone else would like to add Sid, Aradhana, Brother Subashish, Lia Lama, anyone would like to share. The learning is much when we share our own experiences, isn't it? Okay. I understand that, okay, we have understood this letter and we got the essence message of this letter. So with that, we can end the session with a word of prayer. Can I request Jafina to end the session with a word of prayer, please? Jafina? Yes, Pastor. Yeah. Can you end the session with a word of prayer? Yes, yes, yes. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to another name of Jesus. We thank you for this beautiful day and for the amazing class that we had. God, thank you for teaching us to forgive people. And thank you so much for forgiving us. We don't deserve it, but you still searched as founders and forgives us and given you life. We can never say enough thank you to you, but we still want to thank you a lot and help us to develop this character within us to forgive people, to love people just like how you did when you were down here on this earth. Just like how you love people, help us to love them and forgive them and help us to live just like you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Thank you so much for today's session. Great week. See you all next Monday. God bless. Thank you.