Philippians

SLIDE 1 - as I go up

Good morning Church we had an amazing holy week last week as we spent two Sundays and Friday looking at the road to the Jerusalem, the arrest of Jesus and the cross, then Sunday celebrating the resurrection! And of course a great Saturday filled with egg, face painting, inflatable chaos, games, and more!

But today we’re going to start a new series that will take us through the end of the May studying the book of Philippians, so naturally today SLIDE 2 we will be in Acts 16. Ok, this may not seem like the natural place to start, using one book to launch the study of another - but - one of the great things about the Bible is the way God orchestrated and inspired its writing and creation, so while Paul wrote the book of Philippians later in his ministry, in Acts 16 we can see the foundations of the church in Philippi, the people that Paul’s letter was written to!

If you were anything like me growing up your favorite pages in the entire Bible were probably the last five… Now I don’t know if your Bible has these, if not you’re missing out - but all my Bibles growing up had maps like these in the back SLIDE 3 Maps showing the migration of Abraham found in Genesis from Ur to Egypt. Maps of the Israelite Exodus from Egypt back to the Promised Land, or maps of the 12 Tribes as they were spread through Israel. But the map that matters to us today is this one SLIDE 4. This map shows us the journeys of the Apostle Paul as he spread the truth of The Gospel throughout much of the East and Northern Mediterranean. Now this is a lot of travel - most experts agree that if you calculate the distance traveled, as the crow flies, Paul traveled over 10,000 miles - in a book analyzing Paul’s ministry method author Eckhard J. Schnabel attempted to figure out the actual distance walked and traveled by boat and came to the staggering total of 8,700 miles on land, mostly by foot, and 6,800 miles on sea - totaling over 15,500 miles traveled over the course of these journeys - that of course only including the travel from point A to point B, not the time he spent in the cities. Now, we don’t know how much it cost Paul, or how much it cost the various churches to help sponsor Paul, but he had a great travel tip - to save on hotel or inn costs - get arrested for sharing the Gospel, you’ll get free lodging in the local Roman prison - remember that on your next family vacation it could save you big! (pause) Joking aside, this wasn’t an easy life of travel - we know that during these journeys Paul was arrested three times, he was beaten nine times, four of which was the 39 lashes, because 40 was deemed potentially fatal, three times he was ship wrecked, resulting at least once in a day and light left adrift in the open sea, these all mentioned in his letter to the church in Corinth in 2 Corinthians 11.

Paul’s missionary life was a HARD life - but today we’re going to be looking at the time leading up to and in Philippi - the ministry that resulted in the Philippian church, which first recieved, as a letter, the book of Philippians. So if you have your Bibles feel free to read along with me, if you don’t have them you can grab one from the chair in front of you, and if you don’t own a Bible - that one is now yours - you can keep it! We actually won’t have the full text on the screen this time as that would be a nightmare for our tech team to keep up with and I felt like being nice today. We will read all of chapter 16, then go back and break it down and see what God has for us today.

Acts 16 (CSB)

1 Paul went on to Derbe and Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman, but his father was a Greek. 2 The brothers and sisters at Lystra and Iconium spoke highly of him. 3 Paul wanted Timothy to go with him; so he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, since they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they traveled through the towns, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem for the people to observe. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia; they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 Passing by Mysia they went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us!” 10 After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, the next day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, a Roman colony and a leading city of the district of Macedonia. We stayed in that city for several days. 13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate by the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and spoke to the women gathered there. 14 A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. 15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

16 Once, as we were on our way to prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She made a large profit for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 As she followed Paul and us she cried out, “These men, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation, are the servants of the Most High God.” 18 She did this for many days.

Paul was greatly annoyed. Turning to the spirit, he said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out right away.

19 When her owners realized that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. 20 Bringing them before the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are seriously disturbing our city. They are Jews 21 and are promoting customs that are not legal for us as Romans to adopt or practice.”

22 The crowd joined in the attack against them, and the chief magistrates stripped off their clothes and ordered them to be beaten with rods. 23 After they had severely flogged them, they threw them in jail, ordering the jailer to guard them carefully. 24 Receiving such an order, he put them into the inner prison and secured their feet in the stocks.

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the jail were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was going to kill himself, since he thought the prisoners had escaped.

28 But Paul called out in a loud voice, “Don’t harm yourself, because we’re all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He escorted them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him along with everyone in his house. 33 He took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds. Right away he and all his family were baptized. 34 He brought them into his house, set a meal before them, and rejoiced because he had come to believe in God with his entire household.

35 When daylight came, the chief magistrates sent the police to say, “Release those men.”

36 The jailer reported these words to Paul: “The magistrates have sent orders for you to be released. So come out now and go in peace.”

37 But Paul said to them, “They beat us in public without a trial, although we are Roman citizens, and threw us in jail. And now are they going to send us away secretly? Certainly not! On the contrary, let them come themselves and escort us out.”

38 The police reported these words to the magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens. 39 So they came to appease them, and escorting them from prison, they urged them to leave town. 40 After leaving the jail, they came to Lydia’s house, where they saw and encouraged the brothers and sisters, and departed.

OK, that is a lot of text - but lets break it down, lets simplify it a bit - there are three key stories here that I want to zoom in and focus on. First is in verses 1 through 10. SLIDE 5

We see in this part of the chapter Paul and Silas picking up Timothy and in what I’m sure was an awkward and uncomfortable conversation, Timothy getting circumcised - this was done to honor Jewish customs - but not because Paul believed that Christians had to follow Jewish tradition, but rather SLIDE 6 because Paul knew “the Jews who were in those places, [and that] they all knew that his (Timothy’s) father was a Greek.” Paul knew that for the Jews to listen to the truth Timothy would tell them Timothy would have to honor their custom. Paul was asking Timothy to do something painful not for his own spiritual wellbeing, but for the sake of the Jews they would be ministering to. And we see that this seems to have worked as they continued on in their ministry we see that their churches grew greatly!

But then we hit the moment we want to look at first SLIDE 7 Verse 6 tells us that as they are passing through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, around here on the map, the Holy Spirit forbid them to speak the word in Asia - so the Spirit wouldn’t let them go this way, either up through the Black sea or up and around it - we don’t know their plan, because God didn’ let it happen, God intervened. They keep going West - but apparently they still wanted to go East as we see then in verse 7, they wanted to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus didn’t allow them. Resulting in them ending up over here in Troas. We never know why they were routed, why God said no to their plans - other than that God had other plans, we don’t know why God had other plans, just that He did. While in Troas we’re told in verse nine SLIDE 8,

During the night Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and pleading with him, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us!

This gives us a great picture of Paul and his groups journey. When they set out they apparently had plans to go up into Asia, or at least shortly after they decided that was their plan. But God had another plan, God wanted them to go to Macedonia. Now we don’t have enough of Paul’s side of the story to know for sure how much time was spent in prayer and discussion leading up t their decision to go to Asia, but the fact that God had to shut that door (twice) makes me think maybe they were leaning a bit more on their idea than listening to God, which brings us to our first observation today SLIDE 9 we are to be discerning not deciding. And I’m willing to bet Paul learned that well on this journey. In the chapter before this, Acts 15, Paul was with his previous traveling buddy Barnabas and said lets revisit every town we went to before check up on them and encourage them. Well… you may have noticed in chapter 16 when we read it - you didn’t hear the name Barnabas - the two ended up parting ways because Barnabas wanted to take a guy name John who they called Mark… because that’s not confusing at all - but Paul refused to travel with Mark because Mark had bailed on them halfway through their previous journey. So we’re told that Paul instead took Silas while Barnabas took John slash Mark. Good news and spoiler alert - Paul and Barnabas made up, reconnected, and were friends again later. But between that event and this one - I think Paul learned that we need to pause and pray. We need to discern rather than decide. We need to listen to God, not to ourselves, we can and should also consult other wise councilors - but never at the expense of prayer and consulting God. Discerning not deciding. So the first question we need to be asking ourselves, are we making room to SLIDE 10 and are we listening to God or are we speaking for ourselves? And if you want a bonus observation/application one point 5 - don’t assume all closed doors are sorrowful - while yea Paul and crew didn’t get to go to Asia - this closed door led to the church spreading into Macedonia, and don’t worry about Asia through church history we know other disciples and apostles were already there! So again, point one - be a person who discerns what God wants rather than decides what you want.

The second part of this chapter shows us the earliest days of the Corinthian church SLIDE 11

Acts 16:10–13 CSB

10 After he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, the next day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, a Roman colony and a leading city of the district of Macedonia. We stayed in that city for several days. 13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate by the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and spoke to the women gathered there.

An interesting thing happens in this section of Acts 16 up to this point, Luke, the author of the book of Acts, used a lot of they language. SLIDE 12

“4 As they traveled through the towns, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem for the people to observe. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers. 6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia; they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 Passing by Mysia they went down to Troas.”

Between verses four and eight - Luke says they or them eight times, but then in verse ten (pause) SLIDE 13

WE immediate made efforts.... God had called US to preach…

I don’t want to read into this too much, I don’t know if Luke joined them at Troas or if something happened and Luke went from a they mentality to a we mentality - church historians have argued over that for 2000 years I don’t think we’ll settle the debate today, just a fun observation to share, you can count that as observation 2 and a half… - the key observation here for us today though is that they and we are both plurals. You see before this journey began Paul was with Barnabas as I mentioned before, but they parted ways - and Paul took Silas, and on the way picked up Timothy, and at some point Luke, and likely some others. And some of these people make since - like Timothy we’re told in verse two was spoken highly of by the Christians in Lystra and Iconium, like he was an up-and-comer! Luke was a doctor… remember what I said before about Paul being beaten, flogged, stoned, and shipwrecked… I bet he was stoked to hear a doctor was hired to learn about this Christian movement and was like ‘send him may way!’ (pause) ‘and tell him to bring a few extra first aid kits’ (pause) But Paul doesn’t journey alone. Paul knows that SLIDE 14 Life (and ministry) is a team event. Now, some of us are like YES! Ha, now I can tell people they have to hang out with me! Other people are going NO! I need a new excuse not to go to Brian's to watch Lord of the Rings… extended cut… again… But regardless of our personality, or preferences, how we are energized we are called to be with others - that is where ministry happens. Now, before you introverts get angry, I’ll let you know… I’m one of you. But I learned if I want to be effective in ministry I have to charge my energy - read a book, watch a movie, play a game - then wisely go and use my energy for the things that build God’s kingdom! Then I need to go home and take a nap. God doesn’t care if we are energized by being with others or being alone - he cares that we want to glorify HIS name! SLIDE 15 So (pause) are you using your energy for glorifying God and reaching His kingdom, or are you prioritizing it for yourself?

Now - this doesn’t mean we all need to be super outgoing, charismatic, people people. I will admit, I’m in the minority, but I think Paul was an introvert… I’m pretty sure 99 percent of Bible scholars disagree with me, but that’s OK they need to be wrong at times too.... But Paul understood this, Paul knew he needed people around him to encourage him, to help him, to keep him from forcing his way to Asia when God was clearly saying stop. But we then get to see this play out in the early stages of the church at Philippi when Paul meets Lydia. Paul strategically went on the Sabath to a place where he thought people would be praying. And they found some people, and shared the Gospel with them, they told them about Jesus, the cross, the resurrection. And in verse fourteen. SLIDE 16

Acts 16:14–15 CSB

14 A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. 15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

Lydia is Paul’s first recorded convert in Europe. We don’t know how much time passed between her believing and then her and her house being baptised but we can guess it wasn’t long. But then she invites Paul and his entourage to stay at her house, and Luke simply says “and he persuaded us.”

Now some first century economics for you… Purple fabric is EXPENSIVE! The most popular way to make purple fabric in this region was called Tyrian-Purple, because it came out of Tyre. To make purple fabric in this region you had to collect a certain species of sea snail, crack the snail open, extract a mucus the snail produces - then expose that snail snot to the sun for just the right amount of time, not too long, not too short, and repeat 249,999 more times… to get enough mucus for 1 ounce of usable dye.... so purple fabric was not cheap - so purple fabric dealers made a pretty penny… and Lydia sold purple fabric.... so I think they probably saw her house and were like - guys… we just hit the Philippians parsonage jackpot! But Paul and crew stay at her house for the rest of their time in Philippi because they know the importance of people and partnership. Because Life and ministry is a team event.

And I guess… not everyone on Paul’s team stayed there the rest of the time… Paul and Silas had a night elsewhere… namely a Roman prison....

In this final part of Acts 16 we see Paul and friends are being trailed by a slave girl possessed by a demon declaring SLIDE 17

These men, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation, are the servants of the Most High God.

And we learn not all publicity is good publicity - she probably made it hard to talk reasonable with her shouting, made it hard to pray with or for people - like what she was saying was true, but it was coming in a way that hurt the truth rather than helped it. So Paul casts the Spirit out of her and breath a sigh of relief to find the girl’s owners enraged - the spirit possessing her apparently had a way of predicting the future which they used for large profit and Paul, by healing her, just cut them off from that money. So her owners go the the chief magistrates, think mayor slash judge slash executioner… and they tell them SLIDE 18

These men are seriously disturbing our city. They are Jews and are promoting customs that are not legal for us as Romans to adopt or practice

And of course - as good law keepers, they can’t have that! So they have Paul and Silas stripped and beaten then thrown into prison. The guard seeing these guys beaten and bruised was told to guard them carefully, he can put 2 and 2 together and knows these are probably extremely dangerous criminals so takes them to the inner most cells and secures their feet in stocks - wooden or metal clamps holding them in place.

Naturally imprisoned for casting out a demon Paul and Silas plead with God for aid… wait nope.. I read that wrong… they are praying and singing hymns.... They are hosting a worship service! The other prisoners listening in, snapping along… How great is our God sing with me How great.... Our God is an awesome God he reigns.... ok I won’t punish you with any more of my off key singing… but they are sitting there worshipping God and a violent but also apparently very localized earthquake comes - and breaks their chains - and the guard waking to see the doors open and loose chains panics; likely recalls his order, guard them carefully, and is about to kill himself out of shame to hear

Don’t harm yourself, because we’re all here!

unlike my singing that was surly music to his ears - he has lights brought forward asking how to become saved; Paul and Silas end up at his place, they are washed, bandaged, and fed, everyone in the guard house becomes a Christian and are baptized - at like 2am by the way - then Paul and Silas are returned to prison - I mean… they already have it bad, don’t want to add escaped convict to the list…

Come sunrise the magistrates must be like - yup that beating and night in jail surly taught those trouble keepers the trick - so they send the local police force to let them loose and send them on their way. Paul and Silas, however, responded with SLIDE 19

37 But Paul said to them, “They beat us in public without a trial, although we are Roman citizens, and threw us in jail. And now are they going to send us away secretly? Certainly not! On the contrary, let them come themselves and escort us out.”

Now the magistrates had a problem - Roman citizens had certain rights, just like we as American citizens do - and one of those rights was that they could not be bound or beaten without a trial… and now the police are looking at the two guys in panic… IF these guys are roman than they and the high magistrates just PUBLICLY commited an imperial crime. Paul and Silas could have demanded A LOT in return for this, but they opt to trade humiliation for humiliation -

let them come themselves and escort us out

Lets make the apology as public as the crime. But that's all they ask for, no lawsuit, no eye-for-an-eye, but rather embracing Christ’s teaching of turning the other cheek, while smirking as you’re escorted out of prison by the high magistrates. Then they visit Lydia and and the others briefly before departing.

But what I want us to focus on here is their time in prison. While they were imprisoned unjustly and illegally - they didn’t spend that time mourning themselves, licking their wounds in despair, crying out to God in sorrow - no - they sung out in hymns and praise to God! Paul and Silas know something we forget all too much, SLIDE 20 We are to be glorifying God first not satisfying ourselves. And in that glory; we are to be glorifying God in the midst of our sorrows just as much as in the the height of our happiness - we should be finding joy throughout. When life beats you down are you dwelling on the goodness of God in the midst of sorrow and pain or are you griping and complaining singing a song of woe is me - why God, why me?

Paul and Silas had this attitude that in the worst of times they could see and praise God. SLIDE 21 How can you embrace and adopt that same attitude yourself. Note we’re not talking about putting on a mask and fake smile - we’re not talking about happiness we’re talking about joy. While I’m sure Paul and Silas weren’t having the time of their life - they were joyful - we can be sad and joyfull, we can be happy and joyfull, we can be hurt and joyfull or content and joyfull. We are called to be people of joy; which produces praise and glorifying God.

So.... Philippians - we see the foundation of the church the letter is written to. We see three truths, three pillars that went into the groundwork of that church. SLIDE 22

We are to be discerning people, not deciding people.

Life and ministry is a team event.

We are to be glorifying God first not satisfying ourselves.

Next week as we turn to Philippians 1, keep these truths in mind, and until then this week monitor your life. As choices approach ask - am I listening to God, am I discerning - or am I speaking for myself, am I deciding? When you are planning your time; ask am I being intentional with others; am I treating life and ministry as a team event or am I trying to live my life alone? And through it all - are you trying to glorify God or satisfy yourself?

Let me pray for us.