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HITCHHIKERS GUIDE
2. Philippians
The happiest of Paul’s letters, the lightest in tone, the one that mentions the words, joy,
rejoice or gladness no less than 19 times, was written FROM Prison! Philippians. It’s a
rich irony as we’ll see, because of the circumstances that lead to the Philippian church
being planted. It also illustrates the Power of Faith in Christ and shows just how
seriously Paul took Jesus words, in
Matt 5:10-12 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are you when people insult you,
persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same
way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Do you feel Blessed when bad things happen to you? Do you feel like rejoicing and
being glad? Probably not. But is it possible? Is there a power available right now
through God’s Spirit that could bring about a supra-circumstantial joy in the followers
of Jesus? If not, then our faith is powerless and false through and through. Because
that IS our promise.
John 16:33
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have
many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." So
peace in the middle trouble, that’s the promise. Someone here might say, Rick, “I'd
like to see you be joyful under my circumstances.” That’s a telling phrase: “under the
circumstances.” Can life be lived ABOVE the circumstances?
Paul showed us it can. And as hitchhikers through his letters, we can’t stop at
Philippians studying it’s context, without seeing that JOY is not a theory for Paul. So
let’s look into that context by first asking WHEN this letter was written.
WHEN
What we know for sure is that it was written from prison (1:13). And we know of 4
imprisonments that Paul went through.
- The first was in Philippi itself around 50 so that’s ruled out because he wouldn’t
need to write a letter and he didn’t have time.
- The second was an imprisonment in Jerusalem in
59 which only lasted a few weeks and so was also
too short.
- The third is an imprisonment in Caesarea lasting 2
years, 59-60. I got to see the ruins of Caesarea in
Israel back in September. They guess Paul was
held in these warehouses next to Agrippa’s Palace
by the sea. It was a long enough imprisonment for him to write from here, but
there’s a problem: Paul indicates in Philippians that if he stays in prison, he’ll
likely die but if he’s released it will mean freedom and more ministry. But in
Caesarea, the situation was reversed. Prison was actually keeping him alive in
the custody of Rome, and if he was released, the Jews from Jerusalem would
have had him assassinated.
- So the fourth and most likely option is the Roman imprisonment, where Paul
landed after he appealed to Caesar from Caesarea. That was probably 61 AD
and it means that when Paul says,
o Phil 1:12 “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to
me has really served to advance the gospel”
o … he means A LOT has happened. A riot in Jerusalem, a 2 year prison
stay in Caesarea, a year long boat ride, including ship wreck… In all this
he sees God’s providential hand working for good.
So what can we learn from where it was written to?
WHERE
We get a lot of this background from Luke. In Acts 16 he tells of how the church was
first planted in Philippi, maybe 50, in the middle of Paul’s SECOND missionary journey.
This trip had gotten off to a nice start, revisiting churches Paul and his team had
planted in the middle of Turkey.
But now they get up to Northern Turkey and they hit a wall. They want to go into Asia,
where Ephesus is, but they can’t. They next turn to Bithynia, but Luke says, “the Spirit
of Jesus would not allow them to.” So they passed these places and headed to the
northern coast to a town called Troas.
So that’s it, they’re stumped. Just like you get stumped, when you don’t know which
way God wants you to turn.
- They tried up into what would one day be Russia and God says NO.
- They tried west into Ephesus but God says NO.
How frustrating must that have been?
They’re doing God’s work, shouldn’t he be
clearing the way? We don’t know how that
negative guidance came to them. Maybe
prophetic, maybe circumstantial. But listen
friends, they had closed doors just like we
have closed doors. And only in hindsight
could they see that God had a plan.
After chilling in Troas for a while*, Paul has a
dream where a man from Greece calls to
him… “come over here and help us!”. They
took that dream as the green light to go to Europe – where they seemed to have no
intention of ever going there. That one decision turned the gospel onto European soil
where it grew roots and became the center of gravity for the Christian movement for
more than 1000 years. (Protected from Islam?)
You never know what God is starting while you’re stopped!
So they land at Neapolis in northern Greece. Quickly they move to the closest
important city which is Philippi.
WHERE
Philippi’s claim to fame was that it was named for the father of Alexander the Great, in
360 BC. More recently, about 50 years before Paul, the city had been the site of a
decisive battle during a key rebellion when the Brutus and Cassius who murdered
Julius Caesar were put down by general Octavian who would become Caesar
Augustus.
As a reward for their help in that battle, the city was made into a Roman Colony. All it’s
inhabitants were made into Roman citizens and even though it was a Greek city, it
enjoyed all the rights and privileges of Italy. That was a big deal. Law and Order was
not a guarantee back then, but Roman citizens, could never be scourged or crucified
and they could appeal to Caesar. Every citizen’s name was on a roll in Rome and they
got tax breaks, property rights, and in civil suits, every person in that city was like a
Roman.
It was as if Rome had been transplanted. So when Paul writes to them and says,
Phil 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven.
… they would understand the impact of that metaphor. Heaven has been transplanted
on earth. And we have the rights and privileges of God’s children here and now, to
access God’s grace, and power to live out a new pattern. The pattern and principles of
a far off land.
So that’s Philippi. Now let’s talk about
WHO
…it was written to. The church was started with one woman. Paul tries to find a Jewish
synagogue to start preaching in Philippi, but there isn’t one there. Instead he meets a
group of devote, God fearing women who meet by the local river to pray on the
Sabbath. And they preach to them, following in Jesus footsteps…
So Lydia is the first European converts. So Luke proudly records,
Luke 16:14 As she listened to us, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted
what Paul was saying. She was baptized along with other members of her
household.
Now, this small but promising beginning in Philippi seemed to be totally derailed by one
little girl. She was a fortune teller, given psychic ability by an evil spirit. Clearly that
spirit was not comfortable with the Good News about Jesus going out and so she would
raise a loud ruckus every day when Paul and his team talked to crowds down by the
river.
“These men are telling you the way to be saved.” Acts 16:17
Paul is agitated by this girl. Why? It could be because even though she seems to be
promoting them, Paul doesn’t want publicity from a known sorcerer! But it may be more
likely that he’s upset with the implicit message behind her promotion… the word
“WAY” in the Greek has no definitive article and so it should be translated indefinite:
“These men are telling you A way to be saved,” not the way.
And that would be in keeping with all occultic thought past and present. There is no
problem Satan ever has dumbing Christianity down into just another good way to
enlightenment. Every attack on the Christian faith in our own day not an attack on it’s
goodness, but an attack on it’s uniqueness. We can understand the force of the
argument against us:
that an unique way to God by it’s very nature shuts out other ways, puts itself in
competition with them and that seems mean, or demeaning, or arrogant.
But when it comes to Christianity, the moment you gut it of it’s uniqueness, you gut it of
it’s goodness. Because if Christianity is just another program of good works, well, it’s
just more bad news because can’t do enough. So make Christianity just another way, it
sounds magnanimous, but in reality it’s disastrous.
Why? Because it robs Christianity of Grace, which is it’s clarion, unique Message –
and it’s goodness. Paul did not want an endorsement from a shaman that would
essentially gut the good news of its goodness by framing it as A WAY to be saved. So
he cast the demon out of this slave girl. And after that confrontation we’re left to
assume that she too received Christ. So her owners, who made money from her
predictions, we’re incredibly upset.
They seized Paul and Silas and drug them into court. They trumped up some charges
about disturbing the peace, since it was frowned upon to proselytize a Roman Citizen.
And the judge ordered Paul and Silas stripped and beaten and thrown into prison.
PRISON AND JOY
But the character of the church and the letter to it, became defined by one event that
happens next. If you had hung around the prison that night, you would have been
woken up around midnight to hear the sound of… wailing? Groaning? Misery? No…
singing. That's right, singing. Because Paul and Silas were filled with joy.
Men and woman, there’s something supernatural going on when God’s people can rise
above their situation like that. It’s the miracle of perspective. The perspective that
says, my bloody and aching back, the pinch of the ankle and wrist locks, is nothing
compared to my citizenship in heaven and the acceptance I have as a child of God.
If you could look at someone win the lottery and watch them dance and hug people and
yell and scream, you might envy that person, but do you for one minute hold that
person in awe? Do you for one second think: I wonder what their secret is? Is there
some mystery you are attracted to in that moment? NO.
But to have joy through a market crash, or a beating… THAT’S AWESOME, that
attracts people and causes them to wonder and question. That’s why God knew what
he was doing in allowing Paul and Silas to be thrown into prison that night.
You see, in that prison, there was a man whom God knew would be drawn to
such joy. The man was the jailer.
See, in the middle of the night, as Paul and Silas are singing in the Philippian jail, an
earthquake shakes the city. This one was so violent that it crumbled the walls of the
prison and loosed all the chains of every prisoner. The jailor woke, thinking all the
prisoners escaped and he was about to kill himself as an alternative to facing
execution.
But Paul stopped the man and told him they hadn’t left. He looked at them and
instantly knew these were the men who had been teaching about how to have peace
with God. He knew these were the men who had been singing here. Their songs and
their joy had preached a sermon to him.
So he only needed to ask them one question, “how can I be saved?” How can I have
what you have? This joy, this assurance that goes beyond this life, that leads to this
kind of supra-circumstantial happiness? So Paul cut to the chase:
Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved… this promise is for you and
your whole household!
That’s the GOOD news. That’s not the mediocre news. That’s not the OK news that if
you work really hard and do these 5 things you might gain the secrets of enlightenment,
maybe. No, that’s the good news! Acts 16:34 says,
He and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God.
So you see again an evangelistic character was worked into the DNA of that church,
friends. Paul would later write them and say:
Phil 1:4-5 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of
your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now…
There was a connection between Joy and Gospel. They go hand in hand, friends.
Gospel fervor is the product and our joy is the ad campaign. Joy is foundational to
a contagious, church. Joy is at the center of evangelistic heat. Oh, that our church
never loses it’s happy joy, it’s light spirit, it’s fun because our laughter is saying
something:
- We’re free
- We’re at peace
- We’re accepted
- We’re secure.
o No matter what our circumstances.
It was that kind of soil that the Philippian church was planted. In the soil of supracircumstantial
joy that finds it way back to the gospel. It’s all about the good news.
Drinking it in and pouring it out on others. That’s why JOY is laced throughout their
letter. It’s founding members were…
- a woman, by gender a second class citizen, honored to find that she as
welcome in the kingdom as anyone, and…
- a slave… released by the bondage of false religion
- a jailor, a desperate man without hope in this world or the next, until he met
Jesus Christ.
Now never read this letter without thinking about these three people. So now we turn
to…
WHAT
What doesn’t Philippians say? Well rather than break down the letter into sections, let
me instead highlight themes
- JOY – 1:4, 1:25, 2:2, 3:1, 4:1-4
- UNITY – 1:27, 2:2, 4:2
- STAND UNDER ATTACK – 1:15, 1:28, 2:30, 3:2, 3:18, 4:1, 4:13
- RETURN OF Christ – 1:6, 1:10, 2:6, 2:9-11, 3:20-21, 4:5
CONCLUSION
The Glad Letter says we were made for Joy friends! Joy…
- Because we’re saints, made holy by GRACE
- Because we participate in the gospel, fully drink it in, and we take it home
with us
- Because we’re confident that God’s going to finish what he started in us
- Because we see the evidence of our salvation in our unity.
Prayer:
Phil 1:3-11 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all
of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from
the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work
in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 It is right for
me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I
am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's
grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of
Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more
in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is
best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit
of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of
God.
