Hello friends, welcome to In Bolden. I'm Chris Shatter, an ordinary Christian living with and learning about an extraordinary God. Hello friends, we're coming to the end of our look at new beginnings throughout the Bible from beginning to end. And I hope you have heard something that has spurred you into using your gift of the forgiveness of sins, salvation that Jesus has given you to realize that even you, yes, you can be integral in the works of God, that he can use you and he needs to use you to help with his plan to spread throughout the world of his name and his message of how much he loves us, how much he loves everyone, and that he wants to bring us all up into heaven with him for our final new beginning.
If you ever talk to a non-Christian and they give you the line, quote, the Bible is just some old book written thousands of years ago and society, well, it's evolved since then, unquote. You might want to share the story of a slave name, Onesimus, which means useful. Not the Onesimus in the book of Philharmon, we'll get to him later. No, the Onesimus of 1716.
It shows God's total sovereignty over this world and how he weaves his way throughout all time. He works through all of us to complete his plan, whether a believer or not. The story of the Black slave Onesimus shares striking parallels to the Bible slave written of in the New Testament. Puritan minister, Cotton Mather of Boston, was gifted as slave by a parishioner in 1711.
It's believed Mather changed that slave's name to Onesimus, and like Philharmon's slave, Onesimus was considered a liar and thief by his master. But in 1760, Onesimus told Mr. Mather something he did believe, that he knew how to prevent smallpox. There had been a huge outbreak in the States at the time, and he shared with his master how in his home country, people would rub pus from an infected person into an open wound on the arm.
This would cause mild symptoms and would inoculate the person against the smallpox. Mather was fascinated. He verified Onesimus's story with that of other enslaved people. And Mather, while attempting to spread this great news during the smallpox epidemic, was, of course, vilified.
How dare he take the word of a slave? A Black slave at that. But Mather, he pressed on. Combining efforts with the position Zavadel Boylston, the two inoculated their own children and their enslaved workers.
They then began inoculating other willing Bostonians. And of the 242 people they inoculated, only six died, one in 40, as opposed to the one in seven deaths among the population of Boston who didn't undergo the procedure. While history doesn't give much credit for Onesimus as being a key part of the development of immunizations, he can be found in the story. Like Naaman's Jewish slave girl, his desire to be useful and seeking a better relationship with his master saw him sharing a cure for so many.
Vilam on one nine to 11 says, it is none other than Paul, an old man, and now a prisoner of Christ Jesus, that I appeal to you for my son, Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formally, he was useless to you, but now he has become a useful tool both to you and to me. How useful are we to God? How are our new beginnings lived out for the world to see the glory and gifts of God?
For the Boston slave, Onesimus, he appeared to never have accepted his master's Christian religion. He did, however, buy his own earthly freedom by giving mather enough money to purchase a different slave. But for the Bible's Onesimus, who stole from his master and ran away to Rome, his freedom was purchased for him. Once by Jesus, when he after being discipled by both Vilam on and Paul accepted the Lord as his Savior.
And his earthly freedom was paid for by Paul, who stated, if he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. Paul exhibited a great lesson of our faith in Jesus, to stand for those who cannot stand on their own. And in doing so lived out an example for Philomond to follow. If Philomond believed in what Jesus taught, not just believed in Jesus, he knew he must live out the fruits of the Spirit, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, grace, etc.
This was no small feat. Just as in the world of the 1700s, slaves were a valued commodity and allowing a slave to run away without punishment was bad enough, but allow a thieving slave like they both were to do so was unheard of. Mather suffered public humiliation by accepting his slave as an equal partner and curing a deadly disease. And Philomond was certain to suffer the same fate from other slave owners if he accepted Onesimus back as an equal in Christ.
But what about the Bibles Onesimus? Where does he fit in God's plan? Notice that our worldly sins and crimes are not erased without any repercussions. Paul did not say if he just welcomed Onesimus back with all debts forgiven.
A crime had been committed and it needed to be repaid by someone. Onesimus took a number of steps in his life to become useful to God. He first sought out Paul and Rome when his life had become a complete mess. He accepted Jesus as his savior.
And like the first 3,000 Christians, he sat at the feet of a great teacher to learn about Christ and his expectations of us. He then apparently asked to go home and face Philomond, his old master. Philomond 1 15 to 16 says, perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever. No longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother.
He was very dear to me, but even dear to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord. You know, we can only imagine the scene of Onesimus and his fellow travelers arriving at Philomond's door, had in hand a posture of humility most likely, asking for forgiveness. He became God's instrument to help others learn how to forgive, how to love, and how being a Christ follower transforms us. You know, my friend Andrea has been the person in my life to model forgiveness.
I've watched how she has forgiven well-trothed hurts and has been eternally grateful for receiving forgiveness. By seeing her transformation, it has helped me to transfer my own heart. She has been very useful to God. Alcohol Anonymous's 12 Steps are well known by many, and placed in a Christian context may help some of us to follow in an Essomist's footsteps to be fully available for God's purposes, to be useful in our new beginning.
And here with a few minor edits are the 12 things. One, we admitted we were powerless over sin, but our lives had become unmanageable. Two, comfortably that God is greater than ourselves and can restore us to sanity. Three, made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.
Four, made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Five, admitted to God to ourselves and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs. Six, we're entirely ready to have God forgive all these defects of character. Seven, humbly asked him to remove or forgive our shortcomings.
Eight, made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. Nine, made direct amends to such people wherever possible except when to do so would injure them or others. Ten, continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrongly prompted, when we were wrong, promptly admitted it. Eleven, sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out.
Twelve, having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to all centers and to practice these principles and all our affairs. Friends, Jesus paid the price to be our intercessor, our kinsman Redeemer. We are accepted by Him in full, but it's now up to us to do the work to live out being acceptable to Christ each and every day with our new beginning. Have a great day.
I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Abolden Podcast. Be sure to follow along so you don't miss any episode and check out my blog at embolden.net.