A P R I S O N E R O F J E S U S C H R I S T
Philemon 1
1 Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer,
Philemon 1
9 Yet for love’s sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 3
1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
Ephesians 4
1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
In the letter written to Philemon, Paul refers to himself as a “prisoner of Jesus
Christ”. This letter is referred to as a Prison Epistle.
In Ephesians Paul likewise makes reference to being a “prisoner of Jesus Christ”.
In the other letters that Paul address the different churches he refers to himself as:
Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ –
2 Corinthians 1:1
Galatians 1:1
Ephesians 1:1
Colossians 1:1
2 Timothy 1:1
Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ –
Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:1
2 Timothy 1
8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;
Today, if someone is in prison under most cases the family is ashamed of their family if they are in prison but Paul said don’t be ashamed because I am in prison.
Acts 28
17 And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans.
Acts 26
29 And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.
2 Corinthians 11
23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
Paul knew what it was to be in prison.
Elaborate on our visit to Stirling, Scotland and the Stirling Jail dating from Victorian times.
What does it mean to be a “prisoner of Jesus Christ”
• Share the documentation from the book “The Chronicle” that details the Apostolic church in Russia from the early 1900’s.
• Modern day testimonials of those in prison from “Voice of the Martyrs”
• Testimonials of Hebrews 11: 33-3
Prisoner by definition:
1. a person deprived of liberty and kept under involuntary restraint, confinement, or custody; especially : one on trial or in prison
2. someone restrained as if in prison
Philemon:
Small Letter with a Big Lesson
• 335 Greek words
• Shortest of all Paul’s epistles
• Only personal note in the Pauline epistles
Date: 61 AD
Place: Church at Colossae
• In Philemon, a different address is utilized by Paul; a unique address….
o Not as Paul—the person whose heart is knit to those to whom he writes
o Nor as Paul the apostle—the authoritative declarer of the gospel
o Nor as Paul the servant—one who is given a ministry to perform
o But rather, he introduces himself as Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
This is the only letter that Paul describes himself in this way – “a prisoner of Jesus Christ”
In this address he is not introducing himself as one who belongs to Jesus Christ as a prisoner, but one who is a captive because Jesus Christ placed him in a Roman prison.
He is in the circumstances in which he finds himself, not by accident, not because of the sudden change of plans, but by the very design of God.
After Paul had been smitten by blindness on the Damascus Road, Ananias was commissioned to go to him to bring a message. Ananias was sent with the order,
“Go for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.” (Acts 9:15–16).
Paul was to minister not only in Israel but in the high courts of the Roman Empire.
• God chose the means by which Paul might have a voice in the imperial household.
• God’s method was to deliver Paul to a Roman imprisonment, so that as he was passed from guard to guard, captain to captain, and from court to court, his tongue might speak forth the un-searchable riches of Jesus Christ.
• Paul is not one who has been enslaved or imprisoned to Christ, but rather, he is one who has been made a prisoner by Jesus Christ.
I believe the Apostle Paul was so consumed as a prisoner of Jesus Christ in the sense that it was his passion ever waking moment to be used in the propagation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul totally and unreservedly gave himself to do God’s bidding, to go where he wanted him to go, to say what he wanted him to say.
It may be observed that as Paul endured his imprisonment, there was perfect peace, composure, and rest in the circumstances that are his. I would further say that from visiting in what is today Greece and seeing first-hand the prison that Paul reportedly was held in one could easily say he was sold out to the gospel.
• If anyone had a right to rebel against that which was the will of God, it would be the Apostle Paul, for God has taken him through the most trying of circumstances.
2 Corinthians 11
23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. (195 stripes)
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; (36 hours)
26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
o His life had been a continuous life of suffering and now his suffering was to be climaxed in the will of God by this Roman imprisonment.
It was from this imprisonment that he wrote to the Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians, as well as this personal note to Philemon.
You can search through all those epistles and there is not one single note of rebellion against that which was God’s will for him.
• That which gave him peace, even in the midst of trying circumstances, was the absolute conviction that the apostle of Jesus Christ, and the servant of Jesus Christ, might at the same time be the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• When you can rest in the truth that you are God’s child and this is God’s will for you, you will experience the peace of God. “The steadfast in mind you will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in you” (Isa.26:3)
• When you begin to doubt and question God’s will for your life, immediately the peace of God leaves. For apart from this complete rest in “God who works all things according to the counsel of His own will”, there can be no peace for the child of God.
• It is not with a note of complaint, criticism, or rebellion, but rather, it seems, with a note of joy, that Paul introduces himself as a prisoner who belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, who has not abandoned Paul because he is in prison, but who finds himself in prison because this is the will of God for him.
• Through Paul’s physical chains, these Romans spiritual chains of sin and death would be released!
