Sermon Series beginning on September 8.

1. HIStory 101:
Freedom!

2. Your Story
• As we approach HIStory we start with
YOUR story.
• Every one is separated from God because
of the fall into sin.
• There is only 2 religions in the world?
• Every other religion is about what we do
to TO WORK OUR WAY TO GOD…

3. Bible tells us this in Gen 3
• St Paul reiterates this in Romans 5 and 6
• Romans 5: 8
but God shows his love for us
in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.
• Your Story and MY Story begin with our
need to be reconciled with the Creator of
all things.
• So do we have the responsibility to
appease an angry God or???

4. OR….
• Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have
been justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2
Through him we have also obtained
access by faith into this grace in which we
stand, and we rejoice
in hope of the glory
of God. 3
Not only that, but we rejoice in
our sufferings, knowing that suffering
produces endurance, 4
and endurance
produces

5. character, and character produces hope, 5
and hope
does not put us to shame, because God's love has
been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
who has been given to us.
6
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ
died for the ungodly. 7
For one will scarcely die for a
righteous person—though perhaps for a good person
one would dare even to die— 8
but God shows his love
for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us. 9
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by
his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from
the wrath of God. 10
For if while we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much
more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved
by his life. 11
More than that, we also rejoice in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have
now received reconciliation.

6. So we are justified by faith…
• Your Story and My Story become OUR
Story because of HIStory.
• This is why we are studying the Letter of
St. Paul to Philemon.
• We are the slave “Onesimus.” We have
nothing right in us, nothing that can make
us “right” with God…
• But the Gospel or Good-news is that…

7. Emmanuel
• God with us… HIStory is about God
coming to us, seeking us, calling us, filling
us and ultimately freeing us!
• Romans 615
What then? Are we to sin
because we are not under law but under
grace? By no means! 16
Do you not know
that if you present yourselves to anyone
as obedient slaves,[c]
you are slaves of the
one whom you obey, either of sin, which

8. leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to
righteousness? 17
But thanks be to God, that you
who were once slaves of sin have become
obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching
to which you were committed, 18
and, having been
set free from sin, have become slaves of
righteousness. 19
I am speaking in human terms,
because of your natural limitations. For just as you
once presented your members as slaves to
impurity and to lawlessness leading to more
lawlessness, so now present your members as
slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

9. 20
For when you were slaves of sin, you
were free in regard to righteousness.
21
But what fruit were you getting at that
time from the things of which you are
now ashamed? For the end of those
things is death. 22
But now that you
have been set free from sin and have
become slaves of God, the fruit you get
leads to sanctification and its end,
eternal life. 23
For the wages of sin is
death, but the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

10. So what is a “slave” in the 1st
Century?
• If you were a “slave” in Roman times: “you
were regarded, in the culture and by
secular law, as an animated tool, a piece
of property” (Lutheran Study Bible)
• You could win your freedom and it was
Christians and Jews who held that we are
made in God’s image that believed in
Freedom from Slavery…

11. Slavery in ancient Rome played an important role in
society and the economy. Besides manual labor, slaves
performed many domestic services, and might be
employed at highly skilled jobs and professions.
Teachers, accountants, and physicians were often slaves
and many led lives of relative comfort, even being seen
as part of "the family", with a possibility of gaining their
own freedom through reward or from their own savings.
Greek slaves in particular might be highly educated.
Those condemned to slavery as punishment or used
purely for labor, such as those slaves who worked on the
huge mass production farms (Latifundia), in the provincial
mines, and at the great mills, often lived under brutal
conditions and had a high early death rate.

12. A freed slave was the libertus of his former master, who
became his patron (patronus). The two had mutual
obligations to each other.
As a social class, former slaves were libertini. Men could
vote and participate in politics, with some limitations.
They could not run for office, nor be admitted to the
senatorial class. The children of former slaves enjoyed
the full privileges of Roman citizenship without
restrictions. The Latin poet Horace was the son of a
freedman, and an officer in the army of Marcus Brutus
Some freedmen became very powerful. Many freedmen
had important roles in the Roman government. Freedmen
of the Imperial families often were the main functionaries
in the Imperial administration.
Other freedmen became wealthy. A freedman designed
the amphitheater in Pompeii.

13. So we are “Onesimus” but in
Christ we are also Philemon.
We are fellow citizens and
brothers and sisters in Christ.
St. Paul was a Citizen of the
Roman Empire by birth…

14. Who is Philemon? Colossae…
• Letter Written by St. Paul in Rome 60 AD
• Purpose: To reconcile Philemon to his
runaway slave Onesimus, who had
become a Christian and was like a son to
Paul in Prison…10
I appeal to you for my
child, Onesimus,[b]
whose father I became
in my imprisonment. 11
(Formerly he was
useless to you, but now he is indeed
useful to you and to me.)

15. Paul appeals to Philemon
• He calls him a “our beloved fellow worker”
• He acknowledges him as a leader of the
“church in your house” (Pastor)
• He reminds Philemon that as believers in
Christ they are both children of God..
• 3
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

16. Paul shares praise
• 4
I thank my God always when I remember
you in my prayers, 5
because I hear of your
love and of the faith that you have toward
the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6
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.[a]
7
For I have derived much joy
and comfort from your love, my brother,
because the hearts of the saints have
been refreshed through you.

17. Then St. Paul does what Christ
does for us…
• He intercedes for Onesimus….
• 8
Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ
to command you to do what is required, 9
yet for
love's sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an
old man and now a prisoner also for Christ
Jesus— 10
I appeal to you for my child,
Onesimus,[b]
whose father I became in my
imprisonment. 11
(Formerly he was useless to
you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to
me.) 12
I am sending him back to you, sending my
very heart.

18. 13
I would have been glad to keep him with me,
in order that he might serve me on your behalf
during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14
but I
preferred to do nothing without your consent in
order that your goodness might not be by
compulsion but of your own accord. 15
For this
perhaps is why he was parted from you for a
while, that you might have him back forever,
16
no longer as a bondservant[c]
but more than a
bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially
to me, but how much more to you, both in the
flesh and in the Lord.

19. 17
So if you consider me your partner, receive him
as you would receive me. 18
If he has wronged
you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to
my account. 19
I, Paul, write this with my own
hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing
me even your own self. 20
Yes, brother, I want
some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my
heart in Christ. 21
Confident of your obedience, I
write to you, knowing that you will do even more
than I say. 22
At the same time, prepare a guest
room for me, for I am hoping that through your
prayers I will be graciously given to you.

20. So what happened that St. Paul
could do this?
• He could speak to Philemon, who had
been wronged and deserved justice from
a place of a “beloved fellow worker,” “a
partner,” as a “Beloved BROTHER”.
• He believed that because Philemon was
acquainted with your and my story, and
had believed in Christ, was justified and
part of our story because HE KNEW
HIStory….

21. So what is HIStory
1. We are a covenant people
2. The King gives us our identity in HIS
name as we are adopted in Christ Jesus…
Romans 53
Do you not know that all of us who
have been baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death? 4
We were buried
therefore with him by baptism into death, in
order that, just as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, we too might
walk in newness of life.

22. 3 We are then called to live a life of
obedience because of who we are not in
order to appease an angry God.
Romans 6:5
For if we have been united with
him in a death like his, we shall certainly be
united with him in a resurrection like his.
6
We know that our old self was crucified
with him in order that the body of sin might
be brought to nothing, so that we would no
longer be enslaved to sin. 7
For one who has
died has been set free from sin. 8
Now if we
have died with Christ, we believe that we will
also live with him.

23. Covenant relationship
• Covenant Relationship:
• UP: Father: John 3:16 (BELONG)
• IN: Identity
(BELIEVE)
• OUT: Obedience (BECOME)

24. HIStory 101: Freedom
• Freedom is never FREE..
• Christ won our Freedom on the Cross and
proved it in the empty tomb…
• Now we understand what Jesus was
saying when HE said: John 8:31
So Jesus
said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you
abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
32
and you will know the truth, and the truth
will set you free.”

25. 33
They answered him, “We are
offspring of Abraham and have never
been enslaved to anyone. How is it that
you say, ‘You will become free’?”
34
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I
say to you, everyone who practices sin
is a slave[b]
to sin. 35
The slave does not
remain in the house forever; the son
remains forever. 36
So if the Son sets
you free, you will be free indeed.

26. We are FREE..
• What are we going to do with our
Freedom?
• St. Paul had confidence in Philemon’s
faith and obedience so that he says
“Refresh my heart in Christ”
• May our lives be lives of covenant people
obedient, holy and pleasing to God, not
because we have to but because we want
to live as citizens and children of God…