From: Paul, currently in prison for preaching about Jesus Christ, along with our brother Timothy

To: Philemon my beloved friend and fellow worker, as well as your wonderful wife Apphia, your son Archippus (you must be proud of his call to ministry ), and all the other believers who meet in your house for worship.  Say hello to them for me!

I hope this note finds you enjoying the grace and peace we have from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m constantly thanking God because I’ve heard so much about your love and faith that you have for Christ and all the believers. Do you know what I’m praying for you right now? I’m praying that you will be greatly effective in sharing your faith so that our testimony as Christians would magnify Christ. We have rejoiced and been very encouraged knowing of your love. The believers you have sacrificially supported have told us all about it!

Now, I have something to ask you. I could just command it, but I’d rather ask you out of love.  Yes, even though I’m your elder and even though I’m in prison because of Christ, I don’t want to command you, but rather appeal to you on behalf of my son, Onesimus. Yes, “my son.” I led him to Christ while here in prison. Now I know that before he was completely worthless to you, the exact opposite of his name. But Christ has changed him! I can’t think of anything better to call him than Onesimus and I’m sure he will be useful to you (and to me as well.)  I sent him back to you, and even though he is your slave, please welcome him as you would me.  In fact, I would have liked to have kept him here to help me, as I know you would do if you were here, but I didn’t want to do that without asking your permission first. I would be thrilled if you would send him back to me, but that’s your decision.  Don’t just do it because I asked.

You know, I’ve been thinking about all this… it’s possible God worked all this out just so that you two could be together forever. Not as a master and slave, but as brothers!  I consider him a brother, but it would be even more the case for you!

Again, please welcome as if he were me.  I realize he probably stole some things from you when he ran away.  Just send me the bill for anything he owes. I promise I’ll pay it back. (but I think we can count it even, considering what you owe me )  Yes, brother, I’m asking you a favor, and I know it’s hard for you.  But this will give me so much encouragement in the Lord.

But why am i going into all these details, I know I can trust you to do even more than I’ve asked. And hopefully, as a result of your prayers i’ll soon be released from this prison.  When that happens I’m planning to come visit you as soon as possible, so make sure the spare room is ready

Oh, Epaphras who’s also here with me in prison says hello, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke my other coworkers

May the Lord Jesus Christ enable you to do the right thing,
Paul

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The Sunday evening message was brought by Dr. Kevin Bauder, president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary. He preached from John 1:1.

John 1:1 shows us three things about Jesus, the Word.

1. His Eternity – He is the eternal One (“in the beginning was the Word”)
   The word was does not mean “came to be,” it means “always existed.” Likewise, the word begetting does not and cannot mean “beginning.” (Acts 13:33). Also, the word beginning is indefinite; whatever point you consider “the beginning,” at that point the Word already was.
   This has a theololgical implicatation – The Word is self-existent. He doesn’t depend on anyone or anything; He is the source of all things. This then has a practical ramification: If He is the source of all things, including life, if we want that life we must get it from Him.
2. His Trinity – He is the other One (“and the Word was with God”)
   The Word is with God, there is something that is God that is not the Word. Our finite minds cannot grasp a three-person single being, but that’s what God is.
   What exactly does the word with mean? In Greek, the language of the New Testament, there are several words for with. The one used here is the most intimate one, pros (????), it can literally mean, “face to face with.” What are the Father and the Word doing together? They are fellowshipping and enjoying one another’s presence. He is also resting from His creative work (Gen. 2:2-3).
   There is also a practical ramification of the Word being with the Father. He is our intercessor and advocate “with” God. He is Someone Who is God Who stands between us and God.
3. His Deity – He is God (“and the Word was God”)
   Dr. Bauder related a story of an oppotunity he had to witness to a Jehovah’s Witness (JW). JW’s believe, due to their theology that Jesus is not Jehovah, that the last phrase of John 1:1 should be translated “and the Word was a god” because the word God (theos) lacks the definite article (english: the) in the Greek. Dr. Bauder showed this JW three other instances in John 1 (John 1:6, 12, 18) where God (theos) lacks the article, and the JW agreed that these 3 places referred to Jehovah.
   The fact that there is no article, does not mean that God is indefinite (a god), but it instead means that the Word has all the qualities or essence of God, and obviously One Who has all the qualities or essence of God is God. It could not be a definite article because then it would mean that the Word and God are completely equivalent, and this is not the case because there is a part of God that is not the Word (the Father and the Holy Spirit).

Disclaimer: This is my unofficial summary of the message; it may or may not be entirely accurate as to what the speaker actually said. Any errors are almost certainly the fault of my summary, not what the speaker said.

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