August 30, 2023
Author: Pastor Bernard Ibrahim
August 30, 2023
“Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to
Philemon our beloved fellow worker and Apphia our sister and Archippus
our fellow soldier, and the church in your house: Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always
when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of
the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints,
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.
For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother,
because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.”
Philemon 1:1-7
This is how the letter of Philemon begins, with an introduction, a
greeting, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ.” Then he gives to Philemon two elements about his prayers, two
kinds of prayers really, that he shares with Philemon. As far as we
know, Philemon was in the church in Colossae and probably one of the
elders there in the church in Colossae along with Archippus. The first
element of his prayers for them is thanksgiving to God, you see that
there in verse 4 and 5. He gives thanks to God for his love and of the
faith, verse 5, “Because I hear of your love and of the faith that you
have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints.” Notice that the
first element of his prayers that he tells Philemon and the whole church
really, is that he is thankful to God for the grace he sees in them.
And
I thought this is an interesting way to share with the church and
really pray for the church. We hear about a lot of churches, we get
letters from pastors, (we’ll be reading one today) and I thought it's
interesting that Paul knows that none of us naturally, even the pastor
there, can naturally love Christ, have the growing, active, living faith
in the Lord Jesus except God works in us. So this is a reason to give
thanks to God and it's a good reminder for us. Every time we hear about a
brother, another church far away, a brother that is near, we hear and
we see their love for Christ and their faith in Christ, we should take
that as an opportunity in our prayers to give thanks to the Lord because
we know he has done it. It's not of us, every good gift is from above,
there is nothing in us that we can somehow generate on our own.
Love
for the Lord Jesus and faith in the Lord Jesus is a good thing for us
to contemplate and as we think about one another or churches abroad,
churches nearby, or other fellow workers in the gospel, give thanks for
these good gifts. Give thanks to our Lord for these good gifts that we
see, these graces, these evidences of the Spirit.
The second
element of his prayers that he shares with them is a request or a
petition. You see that in verse 6 and the other element of his prayers
that he's sharing “I pray that the sharing of your faith may become
effective.” Notice that he's praying that the work that he is doing, the
sharing of the faith, the sharing of his faith with others, that it
would be effective, that the kingdom would grow. We're instructed by
Christ to pray, “Your kingdom come,” that's how the kingdom comes, one
soul at a time. And that is what he's praying for, that it would be
effective. The work he's doing, the sharing of the faith, of the truth
of the Lord Jesus, of the Gospel, that that would be effective. And you
see that for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us
for the sake of Christ, so that Christ would grow and become glorified
and become even greater and greater in the hearts of men.
That's
the petition. And this is something we do often pray for and so a good
reminder that this is a good thing for us to pray for, that as they are
spreading the gospel it would be effective, the sharing of their faith
would be effective in the hearts of men and women there that hear the
word.
So I thought this is really a good instruction for us on
how to pray for our brothers and sisters, giving thanks for the love and
faith that we see in them in the Lord Jesus and praying that their
sharing of their faith would be effective to God's glory and that they
would see the fruit of the labor as they seek to share the gospel with
others.
That's my encouragement to you and I think we can
actually put into practice right here tonight as we're going to hear
about our brothers and sisters.
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