 Praise the Lord. Shalom everyone. Good morning. Thank you for joining class. Are you able to hear me well? Yes Okay We'll begin with the word of prayer. Can I ask success to lead us in prayer, please? Shall we pray? Father in the mighty name of Jesus The eternal rock of ages want to say thank you for this morning. Thank you, Ullo, for everything I've done for us Thank you for giving us opportunity to learn at your feet Receive all the glory in the name of Jesus Lord, we commit this lecture into your ego and so love. Father, we would be dweller and a yearer of your word in the name of Jesus and we commit our lecture I'll pass them to your ego and so love. Release more wisdom all over. We'll divide wisdom to teach us these days in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Thank you because we are one of God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank you success. Today will be the last class for the semester and also the last class that I will be teaching you because you're our final year students. So It's kind of a most still last class, but they hope we just learn from God's word this morning. So last Friday we we completed studying Paul's letter to Titus and we began studying Paul's personal letter to Philemon. Of all the epistles or letters that Paul had written, Philemon is a very very personal letter and as the book in the Bible Philemon suggests is the name of a person. So Philemon who Paul writes this letter to is somebody who lives in Colosse and has a church that meets in his place, but Paul is not writing to him like he had written to Timothy to Titus regarding how to you know bring in order and structure and you know admin related issues in the church, but here he's writing to Philemon because Philemon's slave Onesimus had run away from Colosse from Philemon's house and he had come to Rome and he meets Paul there, you know, there are various reasons how he would have met Paul some some scholars say maybe he ran out of money and so he would have known Paul because he would have seen Paul at Philemon's house because Paul had visited Philemon and stayed in his house. We know from what he writes in his letter because Philemon was someone who was somebody who refreshed the saints people who come and stayed in his house. He was a very hospitable person. So he would have known Paul, he would have, Onesimus would have known Paul, met him, known him as a very loving and compassionate and gracious person. Some other scholars say that Apaphris was there in Rome, you know, would have noticed Onesimus because he's also from Colosse and he would have brought him to you know where Paul was staying in house arrest in Rome. Now we know that Paul was not a free man but he was at house arrest in Rome which means he had the freedom so to say to have people come over and meet him even though he was under house arrest. So Paul gets to meet Onesimus and he leads Onesimus to the Lord and after Onesimus's salvation experience, Onesimus becomes very useful to Paul but Paul you know knows his illegal responsibilities that he has to send back a slave or runaway slave back to his master even though he'd love to keep on his and he sends back Onesimus to Philemon so he sends him back with this letter and in this letter Paul says that you know he can use his authority as as an apostle as one who can command and order an order slave and punish him but to take him back as you know as a fellow believer as a brother in the Lord because we have a father that is God himself and we are all his sons and daughters and brothers and sisters so take back Onesimus not like a slave but as a brother in the Lord but Paul says I can command you I can order you based on my responsibility my authority as an apostle but I'm not going to do that I'm going to plead on Onesimus's behalf to you Philemon on the behalf of Christian love brotherly love that we shared as brothers in Christ Jesus and also based on our friendship that we shared I am asking you to take back Onesimus and so we studied Philemon which has only one chapter we studied verses 1 to 15 now we look at verses 16 following so can somebody read verse 16 please Philemon chapter 1 verse 16 can somebody read that for us please Philemon chapter 1 verse 16 no longer are slaves but more than a slave a beloved brother especially to me and how much more to you both in the flesh and in the Lord Amen thank you Jeffina so Paul in the preceding verses you know he said he's saying that you know I want to keep back Onesimus but I don't want to do anything without your consent in verse 14 you know and I want you I don't want to make the decision on your behalf because if I make that decision you know it'll be out of compulsion but I wanted to come voluntary from you so that you can receive the reward Philemon so he says you know perhaps Onesimus departed for you from you for a while and maybe that was also for a good purpose God had a purpose so Paul is saying it was 15 that he could see the purpose of God and and in Onesimus running away from Philemon's house and coming to Rome and meeting Paul and you know receiving the Lord Jesus Christ and being useful in the ministry so he's saying that I've seen the purpose of God the hand of God in Onesimus's life and he wants Philemon to also see that purpose as well and once he is able to see the plan and purpose of God then you know he will Philemon will surely receive Onesimus forever not as a slave more as a brother in the sense not punish him or hand him over to the capital punishment for a runaway slave but you know pardon him forgive him and receive him back okay so in that context he says in verse 16 you know no longer as a slave but more than a slave a beloved brother okay especially to me but how much more to you both in the flesh and in the Lord so Paul is reintroducing Onesimus to Philemon so to say and he's saying not as a slave but as a brother yes for you Onesimus is a slave when he ran away but now he's accepted the Lord and he's a believer in Christ Jesus and hence both of you are brothers just like both you know Philemon and Paul are brothers so he's reintroducing Onesimus to Philemon as a brother and not as a slave and Paul is meaning to say that you know if a man is a stranger you know to somebody we can make them as a slave or you know if they come under that category or a servant you know but he says how can you know a brother be made a slave you can't make a brother as a slave so Onesimus is not like a slave he is a slave but he's no longer still a slave in the fullest sense because he's more than a slave he's now a brother in the Lord okay so that is verse 16 we'll move on to verses 17 to 22 so can somebody please read verses 17 to 22 please verse 17 if then you count me as a partner receive him as you would me but if he has wronged you or owes anything put that on my account I Paul I'm writing with my own hand I will repay not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides yes brother let me have joy from you in the Lord refresh my heart in the Lord having confidence in you in your obedience I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say but meanwhile also prepare a guest room for me for I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you Amen thank you Rosalind so verse 17 Paul is telling fireman if then you count me as a partner receive him as you would me so partner basically means in the sense of fellow believer or a brother in the Lord so if you look on me as a man who's united with you in fellowship in other words we can say that then you know he says receive Onesimus as you would receive me Paul when I come to your house okay so receive him means in the like manner in the same way you would receive me so Paul is actually asking fireman to treat Onesimus as if he were Paul him self verse 18 if he has wronged you or owes anything put that on my account we as I mentioned in the introduction that Onesimus had stolen money and that itself is a bigger crime in the crime of him running away so Paul is telling fireman that you know yes Onesimus has stolen some money and in itself it's a capital crime so Paul you know tells fireman that he will you know Paul asks of that the value of what has been stolen be charged into his account that means whatever this is stolen that fireman puts it in Paul's account and he's willing to pay back fireman whatever Onesimus has stolen verse 19 he says I Paul I'm writing with my own hand I will repay not to mention you that you owe me even your own self besides so Paul yes could afford to pay Onesimus's expenses you know because he had stolen that he was able he says he is willing to pay because there was a sense in which fireman also owed Paul his salvation so Paul had been the means of fireman's conversion leading him to the Lord and so you know in that sense fireman is indebted to or indebted to Paul but Paul only gently reminds him of that fact as a reason why he should also deal kindly with Onesimus for Paul's sake he's not saying that hey you know I'll pay back the money to you but you know remember that you know I was the one who led you to salvation and you know you owe me I don't think Paul is looking at it in in that sense but what he's trying to say is gently reminding him that you know the fact that you know the reason why he should take back Onesimus or be gracious to him and forgive him of the money that he has stolen which is a capital crime in itself the reason is that you know fireman is indebted to Paul because he has led him to the Lord so we can't take this worse and interpret it out of context and say you know all those people who we lead to salvation you know we can we have authority over their lives over their jobs over their finances where they go what they do you know keep a control over all of that and if we need money just call them and ask them and they have to give it to us they entitled to us no that is wrong that is not biblical and Paul is not meaning that here so we can't take this worse out of context and and say hey Paul said this to fireman so those people I lead to Christ are also dedicated to me and I have authority over their lives and you know and hence I can ask them whatever I want and they are obligated to do me the favors and you know and I have control over their lives no that's wrong and we know that many sadly many pastors do that that is not what is biblical what scripture teaches us and we don't see that even being modeled by Jesus when he lived here on the so and neither do we see that from Paul because even Paul as an apostle you know could have dependent on the churches that he has established because you know he he has led them to the Lord he has established the churches and so he can receive from them but we know that Paul himself was a tent maker it was a businessman and he did not depend on people for his finances he did not bother them did not trouble them you know so a good model that Paul has said so we can't say that you know he he meant that here to fireman no he just gently reminding him of the fact why he should treat Onesimus kindly for Paul's sake is because he you know Paul led him to Christ to salvation okay any questions so far till verse 19 any doubts anyone likes to share anything any thoughts okay anyone wants to say anything find this our last class so some of you can speak up as well be nice verse 20 Paul says yes brother let me have joy from you and the Lord refresh my heart in the Lord is joy is more literally profit so it translates in the ancient Greek word as uh and oninimi is the root word from which the name Onesimus comes from so Paul is again you know playing on words here like he did in the previous verses so the the name Onesimus you know he uses this name here to play on words to communicate a request he says let me have Onesimus back from you in the Lord that means oninimi is joy or literally profit you know so he's saying let me have Onesimus you know back from you in the Lord then he says refresh my heart in the Lord earlier in this letter we know that Paul said that fireman was a man who refreshed the hearts of the saints was seven we read that we studied it now he's specifically told fireman how he could refresh Paul's heart and he could refresh Paul's heart by knowing Onesimus to stay with Paul okay because Onesimus had become very useful for Paul in the ministry and even while he was in house arrest it true verse 21 having confidence in your obedience and right to you knowing that you will do even more than I say so Paul is saying have having confidence in your obedience so Paul is summarizing his request he says I write to you with confidence or I write to you because I have confidence in you so we see that Paul's letter is you know basically full of requests and appeal just a minute please yeah it's full of requests and appeal and also full of hope you know because fireman was not somebody was a harsh man or a bad man or someone who was rude and strict and hence Paul had every reason and also he was a good believer in the Lord and so Paul had every reason to expect that you know fireman would fulfill his Christian duties and responsibilities even more than what Paul expects or requested or has asked of him verse 22 says but meanwhile also prepare a guest room for me for I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you so Paul plans to visit Colosse after he's you know after his house arrested throne after he's a free man so he says you know you know prepare a guest room in your house because I will come and stay with you this shows the close relationship that Paul and fireman shared also Paul knew that fireman was somebody who was hospitable you know and hospitality always awaited Paul whenever he went to fireman's home okay so that's another lesson that we can learn you know fireman not only had was a rich man who had you know who enjoyed the riches but he used the riches that God had given him to extend his kingdom so you had a church that was meeting in his house and also he refreshed the the saints or the believers who were traveling we need to know that in in Paul's time the Christians were severely persecuted so they were in danger of living in hotels or in inns because their life was a threat so they usually used to stay in the homes of other fellow believers and having a home open for the saints believers who traveling would be such a great you know help for the saints or the believers who were traveling and you know passing by Colossae to just stay at fireman's house so we see that fireman uses his godly riches the resources the the blessings that he's given to him to extend God's kingdom so we can learn this from fireman as well that you know even as God has blessed us he has blessed us so that we can be a blessing to others you know it's more blessed to give than to receive Jesus said you know if you saw you know you will reap in abundance if you saw in abundance you will reap in abundance so it's not because we want to reap in abundance or you know or we want to receive more but you know a person who has tasted salvation who has experienced the love of God who has experienced or like Ephesians one says you know the goodness of God the the blessings of God has been lavished on us you know if you are people who have experienced salvation maybe people who are always blessing others with whatever God has blessed us with whether it is skills talents wisdom knowledge riches or whatever God has given to us okay so he is confident that fireman would you know have him stay at Paul would have Paul stay at his house so he says you know prepare a guest room for me and he says I trust that your prayers I shall be granted to you so Paul wanted fireman to pray for him that he would be a free man and that so here we see that you know Paul asking him to pray is not just a formality sorry Paul believed that it was it would be through the prayer of the saints and the believers like Philemon that you know he would be able to be a free man and he could travel again and meet his fellow believers in the Lord and then we move on to Paul's last words to Philemon in verses 23 to 25 before we move on to verses 23 to 25 anyone has any questions any doubts anything I like to share okay if there are no questions or doubts okay thank you jeffina we'll move on to verses 23 to 25 so can one of you please read verses 23 to 25 please verse 23 epaphorus my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus greets you as do Mark Aristarchus Demis Luke my fellow laborers the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit amen amen thank you Rosalind so verse 23 he talks about epaphorus as a fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus and he says epaphorus greets you which means epaphorus is with Paul in Rome you know and epaphorus is known to the churches at Colosse because he once lived there and even possibly people scholars say that it was the place of his birth Colosse and Paul says he refers to epaphorus as fellow prisoner not that he was also in house arrest along with Paul no it just basically is a descriptive term for a believer or a Christian and it's reinforced by in Christ Jesus so it just basically can read as epaphorus my fellow believer sends you greetings and he he also you know he sends greetings from Mark Aristarchus Demis and Luke Mark is John Mark you know who had joined Paul and Barnum is on their first missionary journey and we know what happened towards the end of that first missionary journey for some reason John Mark did not want to continue with Barnabas and Paul and Paul did not take that very nicely he was very upset so Barnabas when he wanted to take him along if Barnabas and John Mark are related wanted to take him along with him on the second missionary journey Paul you know sharply refused and there was a quite a heated disagreement between Paul and Barnabas and we know that Paul took Silas and went on second missionary journey and Barnabas and John Mark you know embarked on their second missionary journey but I think later on Paul realized that John Mark is not the one that you know the kind of person he had envisioned or maybe John Mark would have changed and so we see that he's again now associated with Paul in the ministry and with Paul at Rome ministering to others so yes there can be a fallout with people people can change or we are ideas about them or our misconceptions about them can change but once we change you know we need to accept them back work together you know and do everything that is in our capacity to work in peace with one another because that is what honors the Lord what honors the Lord is unity there's perfect unity and oneness in the Godhead and that is what Jesus also prays about in John chapter 17 is high priestly prayer and say father let them be one as we are one so unity is very very important for the Godhead for God and that is what he looks for and so as people who are in the ministry people were part of a church people were part of the body of Christ we need to do everything that is in our you know in our capacity to maintain peace to maintain unity and to maintain oneness because that is what honors the Lord pleases the Lord and of course you know not saying overlook things but do things in the way that honors the Lord and the Lord will give us wisdom he's the one who vindicates he's the one who will knows who is a troublemaker sometimes he can even just remove them away from the ministry but all we need to do is you know maintain that unity and that peace and without peace we know that you know the they cannot be the anointing that flows in a powerful way the move of the Holy Spirit because that can be a hindrance from God to work in in the body of Christ okay so moving on to Alice Tachis Alice Tachis was one of Paul's most faithful travel companions and Luke calls him a Macedonian from Thessalonica he's one of the two who was you know also seized by the mob during the uproar in Ephesus and now he is with Paul while in Rome while Paul was in house arrest and then Demis I don't know if Demis rings a bell in your minds or you remember Demis you know Paul mentions about him to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 10 Demis was somebody who loved the world remember says you know Paul writes to Timothy and says Demis be careful of Demis because he loved this world and has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica okay so we know that Demis was the same person who was in ministry had continued his you know association with Paul till his last imprisonment at Rome after which you know he left him for what is supposed to be the love of the world so it's sad that somebody who's running their race well you know but falls away to the love of this world or the things of this world has drawn them away so you know yes it's it's good to know that we are safe that you know that we have received salvation that we have received forgiveness of our sins but we can't take that for granted you know that is not like a one-time certificate that we can hold on to you know for example if you want to enter a country yes you need to have a visa and sometimes they stamp a 10-year visa period but you know it doesn't mean that you can just you know you you're just passed by a security check and all of those things you have to go through security check and they tell you again how many months you can live in that country so the same way you know we can't take our salvation as one it's a one-time thing yes but we can't take that as for granted we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling each day each minute and you know we need to continually read God's word meditate on God's word be part of a fellowship pray and you know maintain that intimacy that relationship with God otherwise like theme is you know we can be drawn away to the things of this world and we can go away from our faith so Luke is the next person he mentions Luke is somebody who joined Paul during his second missionary journey when he boarded a ship in Taurus he stayed with Paul till the end of his life and Paul calls him as our dear friend Luke the doctor and in second Timothy we read that only Luke is with me so which means that Luke is someone who never deserted Paul even the last days when he was in prison in Rome and the last phrase in this letter to Philemon Paul says the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit amen the ceb says you know I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you or you know may the Lord the grace the Lord Jesus Christ be with you or so he blesses Philemon and the church and the believers that meets at Philemon's house with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ okay so that is the book of Philemon the letter to Philemon a very short letter but so many things that we can learn in our context in our day which we can apply any questions any doubts yes sorry good morning yes yes yes I was asking I think we expect a another the last assessment from for Philemon right yes okay so when are we expecting it we'll just see if anyone has any doubts or questions and then then we'll move on to decide the last the date for the last assessment is that fine Lopeta it's fine thank you yeah so any doubts questions anything you all want to say yes Rosalind pastor it's a like it's a question related to when pastors like suppose there's a pastor it's my own personal experience I want to share suppose there's a pastor who is not working and if he expects us to support him or send offering for him or even if he asks us directly like can you send and it's be it's a ongoing like you know so how can we politely and like the support is being sent but because it is an ongoing thing how can anyone politely say no or how can we tell the pastor that you know I may not support you hence forth and what reasons can we give politely offending okay so just to understand your context Rosalind thank you for your question the scenario that you placed so you you have been supporting this pastor and before or people have been supporting this pastor and they cannot do so anymore maybe they have their genuine reasons or because they feel the pastor has to be self-supportive and not depend on them and also is this pastor you know that you're talking about is the church that you are going to or is just some pastor who writes and asks for a financial support and does he already have a church or he sees someone like an evangelist okay so pastor this is this pastor is not from my church he is an evangelist like you know a pastor who has prayer meetings but then so I was so I want to say I was supporting him but now I cannot support him in this case how can I because due to some personal reasons so how can I politely tell him that I cannot or is it right to tell him I cannot support you or I have to just leave it that way by not attending to him okay I think since you have been supporting him and he will look forward for your support I think it is good to let him know that you will not be able to support him going forward because you have your personal constraints you have you're not in a position now to support him and give into his life and so to kindly excuse and I think you should not be offended you should not get upset because it's not your so-called moral responsibility that you should because you're not anyway part of his church or you know or he's not somebody who is part of your family that you're you have the responsibility but you can just politely tell him that you know going forward you won't be able to help the reason being is that you have you know some other responsibilities that you have to cater to or you're not in a position to do so any longer anyone else wants to add or help Rosalind any thoughts anything anyone wants to share or help yeah pastor you are straight to the point that's the only thing she has to do because when she gets she will be like a pretense or he might think any other thing but when she is straight to the point she beats into the eyeball he says you know what man I think it's the end of the journey I cannot go beyond this point it's okay he will understand with the help of god yeah thank you Lou Bega I hope that helped Rosalind thank you pastor thank you it really lifted my burden thank you so much yeah thank you Lou Bega thank you god bless yeah okay anyone else has any questions okay if not we'll end class today with our last class success you want to say something yes success or we can't hear you success or success would you like to say something you have your hand raised sorry I can't hear you sorry we still can't hear you would you like to type it in the chat section please okay so when can we have our the last assessment on filaments when can I post the assessment can I post it on Monday the 22nd or is that too late for all of you is Monday 22nd fine you can post it pastor if it is ready so that we can do it according to our okay you mean I can post it even today yeah because the the oh your the deadline will be not 26th April right in that case then you have to be last time is a deadline is 26th April then yeah deadline I can give you on 25th that's Thursday then you can post because almost all the papers the deadlines are like 26th okay or I can even post it today you all can give it in by 25th is that okay if everybody agrees yeah okay yeah yes thank you all so much for for the for being part of the classes I just admire all of you for your you know being consistent in spite of the the jobs that you have the ministry positions that you hold I know it's very difficult to attend these online classes to do the assessments but I just really appreciate and I want to congratulate all of you for for persevering for enduring thank you Aradna, Jafina, John Paul, Lailama, Lubega, Paul, Ruby, Rosalind, Subashi, Success and Zellatoli I think there are other students as well they're not joined today but yeah really admire all of your perseverance and endurance and just just praying that you know God would give you the grace and the strength to continue on to run your race with perseverance, with endurance, fixing your rise on Jesus and you know just like Paul says in second Corinthians chapter 3 verse 6 that you know we are not competent in ourselves but he has made us competent ministers of a new covenant not of the letter but of the spirit because the letter kills but the spirit gives a life you know and I just pray like Paul writes and says you know let us continue to walk worthy of the Lord growing in all spiritual wisdom and knowledge and understanding and bearing fruit in everything in every good work so just praying that over each of your lives that God would continue to use you mightily to extend his kingdom your honor so God bless you all and thank you all for being part of the last you know last three years it was a good journey you learned so much from all of you looking forward to see you sometime in life yes God bless thank you so much everyone