Philemon

Rev. Charles G. Dennison
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Nineteen sermons by Rev. Charles G. Dennison, former pastor of Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Sewickley, PA, a verse-by-verse exposition of Paul's letter to Philemon, dwelling at length on its opening salutation and prayer of thanksgiving — Paul's imprisonment, Apphia and Onesimus, and a new day of prayer in Christ. Preached July 1998 - February 1999 and drawn from the Dennison Sermon Library archive.

  1. 02/28/1999

    Love Before Faith

    Verse 7 closes the letter's opening section, and the small chiasm in verses 5-7 rewards patient reading. In verse 5 Paul places love before faith, an order easy to read past. The Bible's complexities draw readers more deeply into faith.

  2. 02/21/1999

    Tomorrow's Bread, the Grand Goal

    Prayer's real, grand goal should be the End itself rather than merely present relief, a claim tested against Luke 11:3's request for 'this day tomorrow's bread,' read here as reaching toward that same end. Jesus, Paul, and James agree remarkably closely about what prayer is actually for, despite writing in different genres and settings. Praying for today, properly understood, already means praying for the last day.

  3. 02/14/1999

    Giving Ourselves Away Like Creation

    Paul's prayers open onto a heavenly life, and Romans 8:26 places that life within a groaning creation whose goal is the resurrection of the redeemed on the last day. Believers, like creation and like Christ, give themselves away. Prayer shares in that same self-giving.

  4. 02/07/1999

    Philemon's Chiasm

    Paul's attitude toward prayer across the letter leads to its structure, since chiasm and parallelism shape the whole epistle to Philemon as one large chiasm. Seeing that structure changes how the letter's small parts relate to the whole. In this letter, form carries the argument.

  5. 01/31/1999

    No Old Testament Thanksgiving Like This

    Christ's death and resurrection changed how Paul prays, and the Old Testament has no real examples of saints giving thanks for others the way Paul routinely does. Ephesians 1:18 shows the same pattern. Giving thanks for other believers is a distinctly New Testament habit of prayer.

  6. 01/17/1999

    Becoming What We Already Are

    Paul's prayer is itself a gift of grace, and there Arminian and Reformed accounts of sanctification and prayer part ways. Sanctification means becoming what believers already are in Christ. All boasting belongs to the Lord.

  7. 12/13/1998

    Incense and Perpetual Prayer

    The new day in prayer and the meaning of 'always' lead to the Old Testament's priestly incense offerings, which prefigure Christ's perpetual prayers. Thanksgiving for others belongs to the heart of real prayer. Prayer already takes part in the eternal realm now.

  8. 12/06/1998

    Praying Always

    Paul claims to pray 'always,' and the word rules out both a literalistic misreading and a watered-down one. Paul's bond with Christ grounds that constancy, because Christ himself prays always for his people. Human prayer is possible only because Christ's unceasing prayer takes it up.

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Nineteen sermons by Rev. Charles G. Dennison, former pastor of Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Sewickley, PA, a verse-by-verse exposition of Paul's letter to Philemon, dwelling at length on its opening salutation and prayer of thanksgiving — Paul's imprisonment, Apphia and Onesimus, and a new day of prayer in Christ. Preached July 1998 - February 1999 and drawn from the Dennison Sermon Library archive.

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  • Creator
    Rev. Charles G. Dennison
  • Episodes
    19
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    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church
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    Philemon