Coworking
Notes
Transcript
Coworking
Coworking
Paul is encouraging the church in Philippi to join him in sharing the gospel
He left of telling them to stand firm in the Lord in this way
Paul has spoken of unity in the church, singleness of mind, and now, we see he has a specific situation in mind.
Paul is going to call out some people by name
And we are going to see Paul is writing to the Philippian Church, but he is writing to a particular person to help him out.
Also, we are going to see a very, very familiar passage…
One that is often used as a prescripture…
We will talk about that later…
Let’s read out section today
I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my coworkers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Εὐοδίαν παρακαλῶ καὶ Συντύχην παρακαλῶ τὸ αὐτὸ φρονεῖν ἐν κυρίῳ.
I summon my call to Euodia and I summon my call to Suntuche to set one mind and purpose in the Lord.
Perhaps you recognize the notable verses…
But let’s take a look at what sets up these verses, because often, I think, we don’t know the context of the familiar passage.
Let me demonstrate
How may of you have heard these verses?
How many of you knew an appeal too two woman who are obviously leaders of the church preceded these verses?
Yeah, that is what I thought!
Let’s look at this first part.
I am going to use a slightly different translation because I want to capture the essence of what is being said.
I have a special appeal which goes jointly to Euodia and Syntyche: please, please, come to a common mind in the Lord. (And here’s a request for you too, my loyal comrade: please help these women. They have struggled hard in the gospel alongside me, as have Clement and my other fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.)
Where do you start:
The Greek does something interesting:
It is structured to say:
I appeal to you Euodia
I appeal to you Syntyche
The verb is repeated.
And oh, can I tell you the speculations regarding these two fellow workers of Paul.
Some commentators just cannot tolerate that two women would receive such a request from Paul
(Because, as you know, Paul hates women, as some would say)
So some have said these are actually two men and it is a scribal error
For that to be true, a scribe would need to make a specific suffix error on seven different words
It is not possible. It is the thought of men who will not tolerate scripture elevating women
I read some commentaries that will take this situation as the example that leads to Paul writing in his 1st letter to timothy, “I do not permit women to teach.”
You see, because if you let a ‘couple of women’ try and lead, they will just start divisions
That is what some would say…
And, as you can see in the verse, Paul has to appeal to a ‘man’ to help
I just cannot tell you the level of ridiculousness that I have read from people, so called scholars and experts, who try to explain this so it fits their belief system.
I have been telling you that Paul seems to have started with a:
Young girl who was a slave who made money for her master because she was possessed by a spirit of divination
Let’s look at the story for a moment…
Paul went on further, to Derbe and then Lystra. There was a disciple there by the name of Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman, but with a Greek father. The Christians in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted Timothy to go with them, so he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews in those regions, since they all knew that his father was Greek. When they went through the cities, they handed on to them the decisions which had been taken by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, so that they could observe them. The churches were strengthened in faith, and grew in number every day.
They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, since the holy spirit had forbidden them to speak the word in the province of Asia. When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus didn’t allow them to do so. So, passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. Then a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man from Macedonia was standing there, pleading with him, and saying, ‘Come across to Macedonia and help us!’ When he saw the vision, at once we set about finding a way to get across to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the good news to them.
So we sailed away from Troas and made a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis. From there we went on to Philippi, a Roman colony which is the chief city of the district of Macedonia. We stayed in this city for some days.
On the sabbath day we went outside the gate to a place by a river where we reckoned there was a place of prayer, and there we sat down. Some women had gathered, and we spoke to them. There was a woman called Lydia, a godfearer, who was a seller of purple from Thyatira. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying. She was baptized, with all her household.
‘If you have judged me faithful to the Lord,’ she begged us, ‘please come and stay at my home.’
So she persuaded us.
As we were going to the place of prayer we were met by a girl who had a spirit of divination. She and her oracles made a good living for her owners. She followed Paul and the rest of us.
‘These men are servants of God Most High!’ she would shout out. ‘They are declaring to you the way of salvation!’
She did this for many days. Eventually, Paul got fed up with it. He turned round and addressed the spirit.
‘I command you in the name of Jesus the Messiah,’ he said, ‘come out of her!’
And it came out then and there.
When the girl’s owners saw that their hope of profit had vanished, they seized Paul and Silas, dragged them into the public square before the authorities, and presented them to the magistrates.
‘These men’, they said, ‘are throwing our city into an uproar! They are Jews, and they are teaching customs which it’s illegal for us Romans to accept or practise!’
The crowd joined in the attack on them, and the magistrates had their clothes torn off them and gave orders for them to be beaten with rods. When they had thoroughly beaten them, they threw them into prison, and gave orders to the jailer to guard them securely. With that instruction, he put them into the innermost part of the prison, and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a huge earthquake, which shook the foundations of the prison. At once all the doors flew open, and everyone’s chains became loose. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, ‘Don’t harm yourself! We’re all still here!’
The jailer called for lights and rushed in. Trembling all over, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside.
‘Gentlemen,’ he said, ‘will you please tell me how I can get out of this mess?’
‘Believe in the Lord Jesus,’ they replied, ‘and you will be rescued—you and your household.’
And they spoke the word of the Lord to him, with everyone who was in his house. He took them, at that very hour of the night, and washed their wounds. Then at once he was baptized, and all his household with him. Then he took them into his house, put food on the table, and rejoiced with his whole house that he had believed in God.
When day broke, the magistrates sent their officers with the message, ‘Let those men go.’ The jailer passed on what they said to Paul.
‘The magistrates have sent word that you should be released,’ he said. ‘So now you can leave and go in peace.’
But Paul objected.
‘We are Roman citizens!’ he said. ‘They didn’t put us on trial, they beat us in public, they threw us into prison, and now they are sending us away secretly? No way! Let them come themselves and take us out.’
The officers reported these words to the magistrates. When they heard that they were Roman citizens, they were afraid. They went and apologized, brought them out of the prison, and requested that they leave the city. So when they had left the prison they went to Lydia’s house. There they saw and encouraged the brothers and sisters, and then they went on their way.
I specifically waited to share this story with you, because now I think you can understand what led to the beginnings of this church
And what is likely the source of conflict.
Remember, the people here are in a kind of retirement community of those who are highly-loyal to Rome, Roman law, and the religious practices of Rome.
So, when Paul writes…
I have a special appeal which goes jointly to Euodia and Syntyche: please, please, come to a common mind in the Lord. (And here’s a request for you too, my loyal comrade: please help these women. They have struggled hard in the gospel alongside me, as have Clement and my other fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.)
Paul’s appeal comes in the context of all the things that happened in Philippi
Jesus appears to him to stop them from going one direction
Paul has a vision sending him in another direction
On Sabbath they are looking for a place to pray (no Synagogue)
Women gathered with them, and Lydia, a God-Fearer joins them
She and her house are baptized
They stay at their house
At the same time, a slave girl is following them calling out that ‘these men are slaves of the Most High God’
Paul heals her by setting her free
She is, essentially, being trafficked for her fortune telling
That leads to her ‘pimps’ becoming upset and turning Paul and his crew to the authorities
What Paul and the others are preaching (the gospel) is NOT LEGAL
That leads to them being severely flogged and imprisoned
Then we have a miracle earthquake and all the prison doors are opened
Which leads to saving the life of a prison guard
Whereby his whole house believes and is baptized
And they stay there for a couple of days!
Now we have two houses they have stayed in…
They are set free the next day and Paul protests because his ‘civil rights’ as a Roman were violated.
They simply beg him to leave the city
He agrees…BUT NOT BEFORE he spends more time with Lydia
Paul’s ministry and sharing the gospel began with the Women of the city
And you can try and marry these characters in Acts to the ones to whom Paul is speaking
The former slave girl set free
The prison guard and his family
Lydia and her house
BUT, and this is important, we just have NO scriptural confirmation
And you can see the tension in the city when Paul left
Which is why he wants to return, or at least send Timothy (who was there)
Now, knowing all of that, which is full of visions, a visit from Jesus, miracles, etc.
Does it surprise you that Paul says next…
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.
When Paul writes this, he is imprisoned in some form.
And what memory comes to his mind?
Hey, do you remember when we were in prison in Philippi?
His mind is not on the flogging, and the bad
His mind is on the gospel going out and seeing entire families being baptized in the Lord
His appeal is such to say, there is nothing that should divide you!
Don’t you remember how all of this started!!!
Leading to theses quotable, notable verses that are often stripped of their context, but now you understand their purpose:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The problem, it seems to me, is not that these two ladies had ‘doctrinal’ differences…
I think they had differences in approach
Imagine for a moment…
One group met Paul and next thing you know he is in court, flogged, and jailed because of their belief in Jesus and rejection of Roman gods
The other group experienced two miracles:
First, a slave girl is set free from a divining spirit
Second, a prison guard witnesses a miraculous earthquake after these men pray
One group may be taking a quiet, methodical, approach to spreading the gospel
The other group has no fear whatsoever of the local authorities
Like today:
One church will be quiet and formal
The other is loud and boisterous getting the gospel out
And Paul is saying…
Whichever one of you is anxious about all of this
About the spreading of the Gospel
Let God know that!
He can say the peace of God will guard your heart
Because Paul (and others) experienced that in real time
In an impossible situation
And in the context of SHARING THE GOSPEL with others!
Coworking
Coworking
