Forgiving for the Gospel, Part 10, Philemon 23-24

Paul wasn’t alone.  He travelled with men who were of the highest caliber of spiritual manhood.  The men who served alongside Paul were men who were 2^nd to none in the faith.  Out of the 6 mentioned in this letter, two of these men would go on and each write a Gospel, Mark and Luke. 

These men were Paul’s match.  Everything Paul suffered these men suffered with him.  Take Aristarchus for example, mentioned in verse 24.  This guy wasn’t afraid of anything or anyone.  He was the guy grabbed by the rioting mob in Ephesus (Acts 19).  He was with Paul when they shipwrecked on the island of Malta (Acts 27).  He may have been in prison with Paul as much as anyone else, probably because Aristarchus was from Thessalonica.  Why does that matter?  Because Thessalonian Christians knew how to take a beating for their faith and not back down.  It is probably this trait that made any of the Thessalonian Christians good candidates for Paul’s team (1 Thess. 2:14-17).  If you were going to run with Paul to spread the Gospel you were going to get hurt.

This meant that everything Paul was doing his team was doing with him.  If he was on one street corner preaching they were on the other corners.  If he was up late praying they were at his side.  Take Epaphrus, mentioned in verse 23.  He was the reason the Colossian church existed in the first place.  Colossians 1:7, “You learned the Gospel from Epaphrus…”Paul spoke very highly of his work ethic and his willingness to suffer for Christ.  But what Epaphrus is probably most famous for is prayer.  Paul says in Colossians 4:12, “He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.  I vouch for him that he is working hard for you…”  When others were getting off their knees to go to bed Epaphrus stayed and prayed.  He probably missed meals and sleep and delayed the team’s departure times due to his constant praying. 

But the A-List goes on.  You also have the good doctor, Luke, mentioned in verse 24, who wrote the Gospel of Luke and who wrote the book of Acts.  You also have Timothy, mentioned in verse 1, who was Paul’s prized pupil.  While Paul considered several men his “sons” in the faith, Timothy was “the son” of Paul, he was first out of all of them.  Paul probably loved, trusted, and invested in Timothy more than any others.  As a matter of fact, 2 of Paul’s letters to Timothy make it into the Bible.  This was the A-Team.  This was the first string.  This team was ranked first among servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Gospel got out to the ancient world because of these men. 

            But we need to look closely at this group.  Because there are several men named here who are tremendously important for Philemon to see.  There are two men there who match the caliber of the others.  But their lives are pictures of forgiveness for us to see.  One man is a living picture of the power of forgiveness in restoring someone to service for Christ.  His failure and forgiveness happened in the past.  The second man has not yet failed.  He will fail in the future, as we read further in the Bible, and therefore he too will need forgiveness at that time.  Let us look at the first man. 

 

Profile #1.  John Mark.  The Power of Forgiveness to Restore.

            Our first profile of forgiveness is found in the man named Mark, mentioned in verse 24.  Turn with me to Acts 12:12.  In Acts 12 we learn 4 things about Mark. 

First, he is called both John and Mark (v12). 

Second, his mother’s name was Mary (v12). 

Third, his mother’s house is where many believers gathered to pray and worship (v12). 

Fourth, Mark personally knew the Apostle Peter.  The Apostle may have even had a closer relationship with him since it was his house the church was meeting at - and no doubt where Peter was ministering.  Also, speaking of Mark’s famous friends, according to Colossians 4:10 Mark was the cousin of Barnabus, a very prominent leader in the early church.  But it is this early relationship between Mark and Peter that will be very important to keep in mind as we see what happens with Mark.

            At the end of Acts 12 we see Mark is recruited to be part of the ministry Paul and Barnabus were doing.   Then, in Acts 13 we see Paul sets out on his 1^st missionary journey along with Barnabus and John.  They do not get far when it says in Acts 13:13, “John left them to return to Jerusalem.”   We do not know there is any problem with this until we get to Acts 15:36-40.  Turn there with me.  In Acts 15 Paul and Barnabus have returned from their 1^st missionary journey and Paul proposes they go back to the churches they founded to make sure everyone is doing okay.  Let’s read what happens…. [Read]

            For some reason Mark deserted them.  He started out with them but he quit before they really even got started.  He didn’t go back to Antioch where they started from, he went home to Jerusalem, maybe to his mother’s house. 

As far as Paul was concerned, Mark could not be relied upon.  Maybe he was too young, maybe too timid, too distracted, too homesick, we don’t know what it was.  Regardless of what it was, Paul did not want him going on the 2^nd missionary journey because he couldn’t be trusted to see the mission all the way through.  The Lord said in Luke 9:62, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” 

            The argument over whether or not to take Mark along was so intense that it split Paul and Barnabus.  In this scene you see two philosophies at work.  On the one hand you have Paul, who held a high standard, and who didn’t view the mission field as a place to restore another Christian.  The mission field is for proven, able, dedicated servants, it is not a place to figure out if its something you want to do.  Whatever his view, he definitely felt burned by Mark on their first mission trip and had no use for him on the 2^nd trip.  He felt so strongly about this that he was willing to part ways with Barnabus, his partner of so long. 

On the other hand, Barnabus, whose name means “Encouragment”, may have wanted to encourage Mark back into mission work.  He probably believed Mark could become useful and just needed coaching and mentoring and discipleship.  Perhaps since they were family he was more optimistic, but, nevertheless Barnabus clearly believed Mark was ready for another shot, and was willing to part ways with Paul to give Mark that chance.  

That is the story of Mark’s failure and the subsequent turn of events.  But after his failure he was recovered, restored and reinstated.  And it is by God’s gracious dealings with him that 2 men took him under their wing.  The first, as we’ve seen is Barnabus, his cousin.  At his cousin’s side he went on mission trips and matured greatly under Barnabus’ leadership.

The second man God used in Mark’s life was probably even more instrumental in restoring him.  It was a man who personally understood what it meant to fail in a big way and then be restored to service for Christ.  This 2^nd man was none other than the Apostle Peter.  Peter, as we mentioned earlier knew Mark since he was a young man in his mother’s house years ago.  But listen to what Peter says about Mark many years later at the end of his 1^st letter, 1 Peter 5:13, “She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends her greetings, and so does my son Mark.” 

Whenever you see these guys refer to some other guy as their son, it referred to the special, mentor relationship they had with them.  These “sons” were seen and loved as though they were their own children.  They invested everything into them to raise them up in the faith.  Now why would Peter come alongside Mark and develop this kind of relationship with him? 

First, because he had known Mark already for a long time, and perhaps out of an existing relationship Peter cared for the young man whose mother had housed the church and wanted to help Mark.

Secondly, and probably even more important, is that Peter probably saw a lot of himself in Mark.  Mark’s situation undoubtedly reminded Peter of his own situation a long time ago.   Just like Mark, Peter was a young guy once who made a commitment and failed in a big way to live up to it.  He told Jesus that if everyone else fell away he would not, even if it meant dying for Jesus.  But less than 24 hours later Peter denied even knowing Jesus 3 times. 

But someone was there to restore Peter.  On the beach, at the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus restores him, because with Christ, Peter could be used to do great things in service to the Lord. 

We can be sure Peter empathized with Mark in the bitterness of failure, and we can be certain that he would have wanted Mark to experience the blessing of restoration, as he once had.  Therefore there is no one more perfectly suited for mentoring Mark and restoring him to useful service in the ministry than Peter.

So, what happened?  And why does this have anything to do with Philemon?  Well, what Paul is asking Philemon to do is what Paul had to do with Mark.  Just like Onesimus ran away from Philemon, Mark ran away from Paul in the middle of a mission trip.  Paul somewhere along the way had to forgive Mark.  Philemon knew this, and therefore knew Paul was not asking him to do something he was not willing to do himself.  He’d been there.  He’d been in Philemon’s shoes. 

And as Philemon saw Mark’s name listed there in the letter, he would realize that Paul had not only forgiven Mark.  He re-enlisted him into service on his team.  You see, when Paul writes this letter to Philemon it is about 62 AD, which is about 12 years after Mark had deserted Paul.  And where is Mark at that point?  According to Philemon 24, he is with Paul, serving at his side, probably in prison with him, or, close-by serving him in any way Paul needs.  Sometime in those 12 years Paul regained confidence in Mark and believed having him on his team was wise.  Paul made sure that the church in Colosse accepted Mark because there may have been some resentment leftover towards him for his desertion of Paul.  Most salient in all of this though is Paul’s words at the end of his life in 2 Timothy 4:11.  He writes to Timothy and says, “Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.” 

There are several applications for us today from Mark’s profile.

            Application:  Paul knew what it took to forgive someone who runs out on you.  He had practiced the same thing he was preaching to Philemon.  Philemon knew that his good friend had been in his shoes before.  We need to be careful that we don’t press others to do things that we ourselves are not willing to do.  Even more importantly, if we are encouraging someone to follow the Bible’s teaching, we need to be humbly sensitive to the difficulty they are in if we ourselves have not been in their position before.

            Application #2:  Failure does not mean someone is permanently sidelined.  A person can make a comeback.  It isn’t easy for anyone, but, through forgiveness and a long process of restoration it is possible.  All that is needed is a lot of humility, dedication, and the guidance of godly leadership and a person can be restored to serving Christ.  Notice something that is apparent, although not stated:  Mark worked hard to regain credibility.  He went on mission trips with his cousin Barnabus and became a disciple of Peter.  After time he would have a new track record for people to see that he can be helpful.

            Application #3:  Ministry is right in front of you.  Barnabus had a cousin who needed to be discipled.  Peter had a young man in his church who needed mentoring.  You can go across the world to serve Christ.  Or, you can go across the aisle in church. 

At the end of this message I want us to see the healing power of forgiveness.  Forgiveness is powerful in putting someone on the path to restoration.  Through forgiveness someone has the potential to be useful and helpful again in serving Jesus Christ.