01-20-2019 - The Slave & the Jailor - DELIVERED
What Happens when God Changes our Plans and our Path?
We must not omit to notice the correspondence which exists between the language of the Epistle and the circumstances of the Philippians. Philippi was a Roman colony; St. Paul refers once and again to the rights and duties of citizenship. Like other Roman colonies, it had a military character; it was a garrison against the Thracian barbarians. St. Paul calls Epaphroditus his fellow-soldier; he derives his metaphors from wrestling and the race; he bids the Philippians to stand fast and strive together for the gospel. It was a city in which there were very few Jews; hence there is nothing in the Epistle which presupposes an acquaintance with the Old Testament. There are references to it here and there (ch. 1:19; 2:10, 11, 15; 4:18); but no direct appeals to its authority. It was founded by a Macedonian king on Macedonian soil. The official tongue of the colony was of course Latin; but the language, education, customs, religion, of a large proportion of the Philippians were Greek. The apostle not only writes in Greek, as in all his extant Epistles; but uses here and there words which remind us of Greek thought and Greek philosophy, αὐτάρκεια, ἀρετή, ἐπιείκεια, αἴσθησις, μορφή: or of Greek rites, μυεῖσθαι, ἐνάρχεσθαι, σπένδεσθαι. It was not a very populous city, not a great centre of trade; but it was situated on the great Egnatian Way, the main road between Rome and Asia; it was “the first city of Macedonia” as one came from the East. Hence it had something of a cosmopolitan character, which seems to be reflected in the composition of the earliest Church—the purple-seller from Thyatira, the Greek slave-girl, the Roman jailor.
This plain, between Hæmus and Pangæus, is the plain of Philippi, where the last battle was lost by the republicans of Rome. The whole region around is eloquent of the history of this battle. Among the mountains on the right was the difficult path by which the republican army penetrated into Macedonia; on some part of the very ridge on which we stand were the camps of Brutus and Cassius7; the stream before us is the river which passed in front of them; below us, “upon the left hand of the even field,”2 is the marsh by which Antony crossed as he approached his antagonist; directly opposite is the hill of Philippi, where Cassius died; behind us is the narrow strait of the sea, across which Brutus sent his body to the island of Thasos, lest the army should be disheartened hefore the final struggle.4 The city of Philippi was itself a monument of the termination of that struggle. It had been founded by the father of Alexander, in a place called, from its numerous streams, “The Place of Fountains,” to commemorate the addition of a new province to his kingdom, and to protect the frontier against the Thracian mountaineers. For similar reasons the city of Philip was gifted by Augustus with the privileges of a colonia. It thus became at once a border-garrison of the province of Macedonia, and a perpetual memorial of his victory over Brutus. And now a Jewish Apostle came to the same place, to win a greater victory than that of Philippi, and to found a more durable empire than that of Augustus. It is a fact of deep significance, that the “first city” at which St. Paul arrived7, on his entrance into Europe, should be that “colony,” which was more fit than any other in the empire to be considered the representative of Imperial Rome.
The remarks which have been made concerning individuals may be extended, in some degree, to communities in the provinces. The City of Rome might be transplanted, as it were, into various parts of the empire, and reproduced as a colonia; or an alien city might be adopted, under the title of a municipium
The Roman colonies were primarily intended as military safeguards of the frontiers, and as checks upon insurgent provincials. Like the military roads, they were part of the great system of fortification by which the Empire was made safe. They served also as convenient possessions for rewarding veterans who had served in the wars, and for establishing freedmen and other Italians whom it was desirable to remove to a distance. The colonists went out with all the pride of Roman citizens, to represent and reproduce the City in the midst of an alien population. They proceeded to their destination like an army with its standards5; and the limits of the new city were marked out by the plough. Their names were still enrolled in one of the Roman tribes. Every traveller who passed through a colonia saw there the insignia of Rome. He heard the Latin language, and was amenable, in the strictest sense, to the Roman law. The coinage of the city, even if it were in a Greek province, had Latin inscriptions. Cyprian tells us that in his own episcopal city, which once had been Rome’s greatest enemy, the Laws of the XII Tables were inscribed on brazen tablets in the market-place.2 Though the colonists, in addition to the poll-tax, which they paid as citizens, were compelled to pay a ground-tax (for the land on which their city stood was provincial land, and therefore tributary, unless it were assimilated to Italy by a special exemption); yet they were entirely free from any intrusion by the governor of the province. Their affairs were regulated by their own magistrates. These officers were named Duumviri; and they took a pride in calling themselves by the Roman title of Prætors (στρατηγοί). The primary settlers in the colony were, as we have seen, real Italians; but a state of things seems to have taken place, in many instances, very similar to what happened in the early history of Rome itself. A number of the native provincials grew up in the same city with the governing body; and thus two (or sometimes three5) co-ordinate communities were formed, which ultimately coalesced into one, like the Patricians and Plebeians. Instances of this state of things might be given from Corinth and Carthage, and from the colonies of Spain and Gaul; and we have no reason to suppose that Philippi was different from the rest.
Thematic Importance
The encounter with the slave girl raises two important themes regarding the advance of the gospel in Acts:
1. Magic or the demonic influence behind it presents an obstacle to the gospel. This theme also occurs with Simon the Magician (Acts 8:9–24) and in Paul’s interaction with Bar-Jesus in Paphos of Cyprus (Acts 13:6). Magic was practiced by both Greeks and Jews.
2. The motive for profit often threatens to impede the gospel. This also is seen with Simon the Magician (Acts 8:9–24) and with Demetrius (Acts 19:24–28).
Peterson notes that “Luke is turning the tables on those who accused Christians falsely and demonstrating the defeat of the devil and the victory of Jesus Christ. He is also demonstrating the power of the gospel to liberate people from the oppression imposed by magical beliefs and practices.” (Peterson, Acts of the Apostles, 92).
The Declaration of the GOSPEL - The GOOD NEWS is not always met with Immediate Acceptance and increased Anticipation (Acts 16:19-24)
A Proper ATTITUDE and Complete ACCEPTANCE Set the Stage for Something Spectacular ()
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
Shepherd the Concern over the Mundane and Material needs toward the SPIRITUAL and ETERNAL needs ()
29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And 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 and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.