Scandalous Love (EP 187)

What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Carver Podcast. I'm Bryce, and today, by the title of the episode, In the Spirit of Easter, Good Friday, Palm Sunday, I figured that this passage would be great to talk about why we believe and are consumed by the scandalous love of God. We are gonna be in the book of Philemon. And if you were someone listening to this who doesn't know what the book of Philemon is, it is after Titus, before Hebrews. So comment below if you've never heard of Philemon in your Bible. It is one chapter, it is a letter that Paul wrote to his friend Philemon, and I believe that this letter is so, such a beautiful picture of the love of God. So we're gonna dive into it, so if you've got your Bibles, we're gonna be in Philemon. We're gonna start in verse eight. So Paul is writing this letter to Philemon, and he's like, at first, you know, he does the typical Paul greeting, and then he's like, yo, you know, I love your faith, and I'm grateful for you, and this, this, and that. Here we go, Paul's writing now, verse eight. Accordingly, though I am bold, I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love's sake, I prefer to appeal to you. I, Paul, an old man, and now a prisoner, also for Christ. Stop right there. Paul, many times throughout the New Testament, Church of Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, he is commanding them to do something, right? As Paul's like, look, I know my authority in Christ, but for the sake of law that we listen to, I'm appealing to you to make the wisest decision according to the law. Here's the law. So basically what's happening is, Paul is writing a letter to Philemon about Philemon's runaway slave, Onesimus. So here's what happened. Philemon had a slave named Onesimus who ran away from home, and he ran to Rome and knocked on the door, and coincidentally, the guy that he stumbles upon would be Paul. Now, it would make sense that Onesimus would know who Paul was through Paul and Philemon's relationship, but Onesimus, who was Philemon's slave, ran away and stumbled upon Paul. Now, there was this ancient Greek law or tradition that was now adopted by the Romans, essentially was, if a runaway slave ran away from their slave owner and stumbled upon someone, that family would offer that runaway slave sanctuary in their home, and one of two things would happen is, while that runaway slave has found sanctuary in a new family's home, that family has to convince that slave to go back to their slave owner, or they sell the slave on the slave market, and whatever money that comes from that slave, they give to the slave owner. Does that make sense? And so, with that being said, Paul is now giving Philemon the opportunity to wisely and lovingly follow the law in Onesimus' favor. This is what he says, I, Paul, an old man, now a prisoner also for Christ, I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and me. Let's stop right there. Onesimus is the one runaway slave. Forgot to mention this. Paul's on house arrest, Paul's on house arrest in Rome, and so what's happening? Onesimus was probably helping Paul out around the house. Furthermore, that term child, where it says for my child, Onesimus, Paul used that language oftentimes for converts, for the faith. So what we can assume from the context of the passage is Onesimus was a runaway slave, stumbles upon Paul, is helping Paul around the house during this sanctuary hour while Paul's on house arrest. Onesimus becomes a convert, a convert to Christianity. And so now Paul, as he's convincing Onesimus to go back home, he's now convincing Philemon to offer him grace. As he says, look, now he was formerly useless to you, Philemon, because he had left you in verse 11. He says, formerly he was useless to you, but now he's useful to both me and you. Because now he's assuring Philemon, like you would be glad that if Onesimus is helping anyone, he's helping me, right? So now he's not only useful to Philemon because he's helping me, but he's useful to me because I'm reaping the benefits of it. So now he's kind of, like, a little bit of sweet talk here. Verse 12. I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. Man, I love that verse. I would have been glad to keep him with me in order that he might serve me on behalf, on your behalf, during my imprisonment for the gospel. Verse 14. But I preferred to do nothing without your consent, because according to the law, he's honoring Philemon and honoring the law. Without your consent, in order that your, your goodness might not be by compulsion, but out of your own accord. Meaning he's appealing to sincere love. I want you to do something, Philemon, not because I'm asking you to do it. I want you to do it because you sincerely love God. Isn't that beautiful? When we follow Jesus, we don't follow Jesus because we have to, but we do it because we want to, because we love him. In the same way, Paul is asking Philemon to respond in that way. I don't want you to respond in this way or send him this way or let him be here because you feel like you have to now. I want you to respond in this way. I don't want you to respond in such a way because you want to, because you love God and you love people. Verse 15, for this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever. Verse 16, no longer as a bond servant, but more than a bond servant, as a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So now he says, if you so willingly and so gracefully receive fully him and back, even though he's done wrong, receive him back, not as your slave, but as your brother. You know, Jesus says in the gospels, he says something very important. You know, the disciples say, hey, your mother and your brothers are here. And Jesus is like, my family, my mother, my brothers and sisters are the ones that do the will of my father. Meaning this family of God is more than just blood. I mean, we are all connected globally around this one truth that Jesus Christ is Lord. So he's like, I hope that you receive him not as a slave, but as a brother. He is converted. So the faith receive him joyfully that he is now converted. And then I love that, that he says this verse 17, Paul says, so if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. Paul is saying, even though once a missus slapped you in the face and rebelled against you and done something wrong, when you receive him, don't receive him as this dirty, nasty, wrongdoing human. Receive him as you would receive me. Gently, humbly, joyfully, gracefully, receive him that way. And in the same way, that's how we're, that's why we're afraid to approach God. I mean, I can imagine you and I were once like once a miss, or maybe you were watching or listening to this and you feel like once a miss where you know you've done wrong. You know, you've backstabbed God. You know, you've slapped him in the face. You know, if you spit on him, you're like, I don't know if I can approach him because I'm too afraid or because I don't know how he's going to receive me or if he's going to punish me. And so the heart of God is to do exactly what Paul is asking Philemon to do is like receive him how you would receive me joyfully, graciously, things like that. And I love, I love what he has said in verse 17. And this is the whole heart of the gospel. And this is why I love. And if you get anything out of this entire letter, this is it. Once a miss, a runaway slave from Philemon who has done wrong, who deserves to be punished. Paul is sending him back who is now converted to Christianity in Paul's presence. Paul is sending him back. And this is what he says. If he, talking about once a miss, Paul talking about once a miss, if he has done anything wrong, if he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, charge that to my account. Verse 19, I, Paul, write this with my own hand and I will repay it to say nothing of your owing me, even your own self. So Paul says, look, once a miss has done something wrong to you, once a miss has done anything, Paul, the most beautiful picture of the gospel says this. If once a miss has wronged you at all, I, with my own hand, I want you to know this, Paul is saying to Philemon, I, Paul, who am writing this with my own hand am saying to you, charge it to my tab. I will pay for his mistakes. Well, that doesn't make sense because Paul hasn't done anything wrong. In fact, Paul is already in prison. Paul's already on house arrest. What do you mean you're going to pay for his mistakes? That is the beauty of the gospel. You and I were once like once a miss or maybe you are like once a miss where you're constantly spitting in God's face, slapping and rebelling against him and you have no right or reason to deserve the grace or mercy of God. But Jesus Christ says, hey, Father, if anyone has wronged you, charge it to my tab. I will pay you. That's why what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane is so beautiful when he's sweating drops of blood because he's saying like, look, like Father, if there's, if there is another way, let me know, but not my will, your will be done because Jesus Christ didn't want to, to put the sake of humanity on the altar. That's why he put his own life on the altar because he was saying, charge the mistakes and wrongdoing of man on my tab, which is my body. Let me be sacrificed for it. And so Paul is having the same heart posture saying, look, I know once a miss did something wrong, receive him how you would receive me. But let me tell you something. I know that there has to be justice. There has to be payment. And so if once a miss has wronged you, don't punish once a miss, charge it to my tab because I've done something wrong. That is the beauty of God's love. That's why it's so scandalous. The love of God is so scandalous because it doesn't make sense. What do you mean that I've done wrong stuff but charge it to Jesus' tab? What do you mean that I've made a mistake and I deserve justice but you're going to inflict the justice on God instead of me? What do you mean? And that is the scandalous love of God. That is the whole heart of this narrative of scripture from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22, the whole 66, books is a narrative of the rescue mission that God wanted to become so close to you and me, so close to man, even though we were the ones that screwed up. That's the scandalous love of God. And it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense to our brains because we know what we deserve. It doesn't make sense to our lives because we know we deserve to be backstabbed. You know what? Maybe you feel that way. Maybe you feel like a once miss and maybe you're afraid to go back or maybe you're afraid to turn to Jesus or maybe you're afraid to apologize to that friend because you think that when you approach that person that you're going to get get what you deserve, because we're so used to getting what we deserve. You know what I mean? We're so used to inflicting evil when evil has been done to us. We're so used to only loving people when we've been loved. Everything's so transactional. And Jesus Christ here in the letter of Philemon, Paul to Philemon is saying, hey, once missus made some mistakes, but whatever he's wronged you for, charge it to my account and don't hold it against him. The Bible says, he who knew no sin, talking about Jesus, became sin so that you and I could become the righteousness of God. Our wrongdoing was charged to his account, and that is the heart. I want to be more like Paul. And then verse 20, what does he say? I, Paul, write this with my own name. Verse 19, I will repay it to say nothing of you, of your owing me, even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. And then he says this, confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more, than I say. At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers, I will be, I will be graciously given to you. So he says something, he says, you know, confident, he knew the character of Philemon. He's a faithful follower of Jesus. He says, Philemon, I know you're going to do far more than out of my sincere heart I'm asking you to do. So the next time I see you, prepare a guest room for me so that me, you, and once miss can celebrate the goodness of God being shown to once miss through Philemon for his grace. All in all, man, this gospel, is one of grace, scandalous love. The love of Jesus Christ is full of grace. It's a gift that you and I don't deserve. Yes, we slapped God in the face, but it says, nope, I know you've done that, but I'm going to put that on Jesus's tab. I know you've done wrong, but I'm going to inflict that justice on Jesus so that I can have you. That's the heart of the father. Furthermore, a lot of people get this misconstrued, the scandalous love of God. Like a lot of people think, oh, grace is amazing. Grace is amazing. That's an excuse to sin. By no means. Paul would write in Romans six through eight, just because you have grace does not mean you should go sin. That is abusing God's grace. Rather the book of Titus right before Philemon would tell you and I that the grace of God actually fuels us to walk this thing out. And so, you know what the beauty of this is, is that the grace that Philemon will show to once a miss will transform once a miss in his faith so much so that it will give him endurance and confidence to follow Jesus Christ, even though he's done wrong. And to be honest, that's what my faith does for me. Knowing that Jesus has paid for me. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going my debt, that he's shown me grace, that he has sacrificed his life for me. That gives me confidence even though I've done so much wrong to endure in the faith. Because I know that my faith isn't about what I've done, but it's about what he has done. If your faith is about what you can do, you will fail and fail and fail and you will never make the cusp because you are broken and there is no amount of self-help books, no amount of things that you can fill in your heart that will fix your issues, fix your life, or cancel out your mistakes. We need an eternal payment to pay an infinite debt that we have towards God. And that's why Christ's sacrifice is so beautiful. And that's why I mentioned this verse so many times, but Hebrews chapter 12, verse two, and we look to Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. And the scriptures say it was for the joy set before Jesus that he endured the cross. Why would Jesus who has no flaw in him, who has made no mistake, who has created all things and always existed? Why would Jesus, why would he do something that is not in his own nature? Why would he take on death? Why would he die for things that he didn't do? Why would he take justice on that he didn't deserve? Why would he take the payment for sins that he didn't commit? And the Bible would say it wasn't the thickness of nails that killed him. It wasn't the Romans that killed him. It wasn't the beating that killed him, that it was love for you and me that made Jesus stay on the cross, that he could not get down because he couldn't fathom having relationship without you. So he endured the pain for the sake of you. That is scandalous love. That is the grace of God. And that love should compel you to live this thing out. And let me tell you something really quick. Michael Killeen, who said something that rocked me to the core. The name of Jesus Christ should move you. The gospel should move you every time you hear. You and I should never grow cold. We shouldn't grow cold to the gospel unless it's on Easter or Good Friday. That is silly. That is awful. We should be sober to the reality of what Jesus has done, his name and his sacrifice and his resurrection, the defeating of sin and death, everything in his grace. We should be sober to it and moved by it every single time we think of it, talk about it, say his name. But we've grown mundane to it in America because we think that he's a laborer. We think that he's a laborer. We think that he's a a laborer. We think that he's a or a lifestyle or a key chain or a backpack or a sticker on a water bottle. He is more than that. He is alive and active, sitting on the throne in heaven, getting glory for his sacrifice for humanity. And you and I rob him of the glory when we think we can do it on our own. So let me tell you, we have to be moved by this. And the book of Philemon is a beautiful picture. I, Paul, write with my own hand. Hey, Philemon, if I haven't made my point enough, I just want you to know I have written this with my own hand. And I want you to see this right now. Charge once in a mistakes to my tab. Charge once a missed wrongdoing to my account. And in the same way, that's the heart of Jesus. Charge man's mistakes to my life so that they may have life. Because Jesus' mission was to come to give what? Life and life abundantly. And I pray that the scandalous love of God transforms you in such a beautiful, profound way so that you never forget. I don't want you to forget. Don't forget the beautiful love of God. Lord Jesus, we love you. We thank you for who you are. We thank you for your scandalous love. God, our prayer is simple. Would your love radically transform us from the inside out? And would your grace fuel us to live this thing out called faith? God, we love you. We thank you. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.