So we're in Acts 16, and you say, hey, Brother Corman, I thought we were going to go through
the book of Philippians on Thursdays, but if you're paying attention while the scripture's
being read, you probably noticed that Acts 16 is a great deal that takes place in
the city of Philippi, so I thought it'd be good as we're kind of going through
the book of Philippians, one, to not be in a rush about it.
As I mentioned last week, it's a great book, might as well take our time and enjoy it,
but also I thought it'd be good to maybe just kind of get some background about the city
of Philippi and its people, the place and the people of Philippi, before we kind of
dig into the book.
And I think there's some application we can make as we go and some things we can
learn just by kind of looking at the characters and the place of those that are in the book
of Philippians.
Of course, you're in Acts chapter 16, and of course, we mentioned last week in Philippians
chapter 1, you want to keep something in Acts 16 all night, you might want to go
over to Philippians chapter 1, if you can keep something in both places, we'll go
back and forth a little bit, but we're going to be primarily in Acts chapter 16.
It says there in verse 1 of chapter 1, Paul and Timotheus, the servant of Jesus Christ,
all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.
So Paul is the author or the writer, I guess you would say, of Philippians.
And some people might say, well, it says Paul and Timotheus, so maybe how do we know
which one it is?
But we have to remember who Timothy was, he was somebody that helped Paul and Silas,
and that's found in Acts chapter 16, we see where Timothy joined them and to go on
these missionary journeys with Paul, it says in verse 1 of Acts 16 verse 1, then came
he to Derbe and Lystra, and behold a certain disciple was there, named
Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess and believed, but his
father was a Greek, verse 9, it says, and a vision appeared to Paul in the
night, and there stood a man in Macedonia, which is where the city of
Philippi was, and prayed him, saying, come over into Macedonia and help us,
and after that, and after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to
go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering the Lord to call us first to preach the
gospel unto them.
So you see where Paul comes in in Acts chapter 16 verse 1, Timothy joins him
there, and then he goes in and ends up in Philippi eventually, and you know,
further proof, you know, and I'm sure there's nobody in here that's really
struggling tonight, you know, who wrote the book of Philippians, it's a very
commonly accepted thing that Paul wrote it, but you know sometimes, you
know, we just kind of take these things for granted, sometimes it's good
to know why we believe what we believe, why do we believe Paul is the
author of the book of Philippians tonight.
Well, first of all, we see that Timothy is referred to in the third person.
If you go to Philippians chapter 2 verse 19, he says, but I trust in
verse 19, if you want to go there, but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send
Timotheus shortly unto you.
So it wouldn't make any sense for Timothy to say that about himself, and
not only that, if you go to Philippians chapter 3 verse 4, we see where
Paul describes himself, he says in verse 4, though I might also have
confidence in the flesh, if any man thinketh that he hath whereof he
might trust in the flesh, I more, and he goes on talks about he was
a Hebrew of the Hebrews and as touching law of Pharisee, so on and
so forth.
So Paul not only refers to Timothy in the third person, but then also
goes on to describe himself in the first person.
So just getting that out of the way real quick, that's, you know, some
proof right there that Paul is the author, you know, he's the writer,
we understand that, you know, all scriptures given by inspiration of God, so on
and so forth, but he is the one that is dictating this epistle.
But let's talk a little bit more tonight about the people to whom that
epistle is directed to, and this would be the people of Philippi, you
know, the Philippian church was made up, obviously, people that
lived there, now there were people that came from different
regions, we'll see that about Lydia here in a minute, that came and
lived in that city.
But the city of Philippi was one of the chief cities of the Roman
Empire back then, and if you want to go to Acts chapter 16, look at
verse 20, it says, and he brought them to them, and excuse me, and
brought them to the magistrate saying, these men being Jews do
exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not
lawful for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans.
So we see this, that there's this Roman civil structure there,
it's a chief city as we'll see in a minute, but because the
folks in Philippi were Roman citizens, what we understand is
or we need to understand, and I'll make application here at the
end, is that because they were there, they had certain benefits
that not everybody did.
They benefited from being in that particular city and being
Roman citizens.
If you go to, well, further, we'll just move on here, you
know, this is a very key city, okay, you know, in verse 12
there, if you want to go there, it says in Acts 16, verse 12,
it says, and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief
city of that part of Macedonia.
So they are benefiting from the fact that they are a chief
city, and again, we'll come back to that towards the end,
we're just kind of looking at some things about the city of
Philippi tonight.
Also, there is this apparent lack of a synagogue, which, you
know, may or may not be a good thing, depending on how you
take that, right?
In verse 13, it says, and on the Sabbath day, this is after
they'd come to Philippi, right, from Troas, we went out of the
city by a riverside where prayer was want to be made, you
know, and want there just meaning that was their custom,
that was their behavior in this situation that on the
Sabbath day, instead of going into a synagogue, you know, it
appears that they would rather go to this riverside to make
prayer, and of course, Paul went there and preached.
So we would see also that one of the things about the city
of Philippi is that this is not a, you know, Jewish safe space,
as we would call it today, right?
It says in verse 20, if you recall there, again, when
they're bringing Paul to the magistrates, they said to him,
these men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
right?
And it's kind of interesting that they point that out,
that not only they're troubling our city, but that
they're Jews, right?
So this isn't, the Jews don't have a synagogue there,
they don't have a lot of influence there.
In fact, they're probably with some hostility.
Now you could look at that and say, what are these guys,
antisemitic or is this an accurate description of the
Jews?
I'll let you decide that tonight, right?
They're always kind of causing trouble, right?
They're always, even today, they've, they've gotten that
reputation of being people that, you know, are kind of
troublemakers.
I mean, they've been kicked out of so many countries and so
on and so forth.
And even today, you know, they're responsible for a lot of
the wickedness that's in our country, so on and so forth.
And that's just a fact, that's really a whole other sermon
right there.
But that's kind of just a background of the city of
Philippi, you know, and we could talk about if you really
wanted to dig into the historical context of it, you
know, it's a chief city, it's on a major highway, it's kind
of on the edge of the Roman Empire.
And because of that, it benefits a lot of, a lot of
commerce was there.
When it was, when the Greeks had it, I believe it went by a
different name, but there was apparently a lot of gold mines
there that were used to help expand their empire.
So this is a very wealthy city, okay, and this is a very
wealthy city, and I believe that we kind of get it, we
can kind of see that given one of the first converts
that you see in Philippi, which was Lydia, right?
It says in verse 14, and a certain woman named Lydia, she
was a seller of purple, okay?
Now back then, you know, getting these garments, these,
you know, clothing, tapestry, that type of thing, textiles,
that was hard to come by.
You couldn't just, you know, run down to Joanne fabrics
and pick up whatever you like, you know, you had to
get, it was a very unique craft, it was something that
was very, you know, expensive, especially when you're
getting into dyes and things like that, that's why
she's a seller of purple, right?
So that could kind of show us the fact that this is a
wealthy city, you know, be given the fact that one,
there's a merchant there named Lydia, who's selling
this expensive type of thing, and we understand the, you
know, the law of supply and demand, you can't sell
expensive things if there's no one there to buy it, right?
So we can kind of get it, start to get a feel what
this city Philippi was kind of like, you know, it
seems like it was a very prosperous city, that they
had a lot of financial prosperity, they had money,
so on and so forth.
But let's talk a little bit more about Lydia.
It says she was a seller of purple, of the city of
Thyatira, so again, she's somebody that was not native
to that city, again, showing us that Philippi was a region
where a lot of people came to, and again, that would
increase, you know, the commerce that would take place.
It says she, which worshiped God, heard us, whose heart
the Lord opened, and she intended on the things which
were spoken of Paul, and when she was baptized and her
household, she besought us saying, if you have judged
me faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide
here, and she constrained us.
So we see her salvation here, this is one of the very
first converts, it's the first one that we see, and what
we see from this also is that Lydia's house became
a base of operations, right, that she says there at the
end, she said when she was baptized, it goes on and
says, if you count me faithful, come into my house
and abide there.
And then if the next verse, or verse 16 rather, it says,
and it came to pass, so as, you know, he goes, Paul
goes in there, Timotheus, Silas, they're there, and then
it seems like that becomes kind of a base of operations,
that's where the church begins to meet initially.
Again, showing us that Lydia had some wealth, you know,
this is, I mean, back, probably a lot of people
were getting saved, a lot of people were coming to
the church, and they're meeting in her house, right,
which means she has to have a substantial sized home
to be able to have all these people there.
Again, that requires money.
But it says in verse 16, and it came to pass as we
went to prayer, so they're leaving from Lydia's place now,
this has become kind of a base of operations.
And that's where, of course, verse 16, where we see
the second convert that is mentioned in the city
of Philippi, and this would be, as I've coined her,
the demonic damsel, right, because that's what she is,
a certain damsel possessed with the spirit of divination
met us, right?
Verse 16, it came to pass as we went to prayer,
a certain damsel possessed with the spirit of divination
met us, which brought her masters much gained
by soothsaying.
The same followed Paul and us and cried,
saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God,
which show unto us the way of salvation,
and this she did many days.
So this is, you know, she's become a nuisance,
you know, she's butting in, Paul's trying
to preach the word, and she's following him
around many days.
And it says there, again, in verse 18,
she this many days, but Paul being grieved,
turned and said to the spirit, and speaking
to the demonic spirit that was within her,
I command thee come out in the name of Jesus Christ,
in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her,
and he came out the same hour.
And what I want to point out real quick
is Paul's impartiality here when it came to his converts.
You know, he was not somebody that was just,
he cared about preaching the gospel to whoever.
You know, he wanted to get it to everybody.
He was not partial in himself.
He wasn't preferring somebody else above another.
You would say, well, of course,
he went and preached to Lydia.
I mean, look, everything she had to offer.
She had the house, she had the purple,
she had, you know, she could put the check
in the offering plate.
She could fill the place up, you know, it was nice.
And what Paul's showing us here is that he cared
just as much for Lydia as he did for this damsel
that was actually being exploited.
You think it's the complete opposite of Lydia's situation.
She's very wealthy, she's successful in her business,
she's making money.
Then on the other opposite end of the spectrum,
you have this young girl who's being exploited
by these masters and she's probably, you know,
being given just enough to sustain her.
You know, she brought her masters much gain by suicide.
He doesn't say she brought it to herself.
And what that shows us again is that Paul
is impartial about who joined the church.
And this is something that we have to keep in mind as well
is that we don't want to, you know, start to judge people
or say, you know, we're a church that's only
for the middle class, or we're a church that's only
for the upper class, or we only want, you know,
the poor to come here.
No, we want people from all economic,
the whole spectrum to be able to come here.
No matter what their economic standing is,
they should be welcome in the house of God.
You didn't see that with Paul, say, oh, Lydia,
I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were so wealthy.
I'm glad you're saved, but no,
let's have church in your house.
This demonic girl, well, I'd preach her the gospel,
but what's she got to offer?
That's not Paul's approach,
and that's something we have to keep in mind.
Now, I think the tendency with what I've seen,
you know, in our stripe or our brand of Baptist churches
is that we don't look so much down at the poor.
You know, the poor were like, yeah, we want the poor,
because that's probably most of us, right?
We would say, you know, by the American standard of living,
you know, by the way, we're not living on dirt floors
and chasing our next meal,
as in so many other parts of the world, right?
But, you know, we would say, oh, the poor, come in,
come in, you know?
But maybe it might be that when the wealthier person
comes in, you know, when they come rolling in
with a nice vehicle and they have everything,
and maybe you'd say, oh, well,
maybe get a little bit of a stuck-up attitude
or just say, well, they just don't understand
the plight of a common man, you know,
or whatever it might be.
And you know what, hopefully that isn't the case,
but it very well may be, and it shouldn't be.
And Paul addresses that, or excuse me, James rather,
you don't have to turn there, in James 1,
it says in verse nine,
let the brother of low degree rejoice
in that he is exalted, right?
The brother of low degree should rejoice in exalted.
You know, he goes into church
and everyone's on the same plane, right?
That's why he's exalted,
because he's brought up to the foot of the cross,
where there is no Jew nor Greek, you know,
there's no rich or poor, there's no bond or Scythian,
you know, none of these things.
It's all a level playing field at the cross.
So the brother of low degree,
whom society would look at, you know,
kind of like the demonic damsel
and try to exploit whatever, oppress,
when they come into the house of God, they're exalted.
They become a child of God.
They are an heir to, they're an heir of Christ,
a joint heir.
And it says, but the rich in that he is made low.
So the rich is supposed to rejoice
in that he is made low.
Now notice it doesn't say the rich in that
he isn't allowed, no, the rich is allowed.
You know, we understand that there's a danger in riches
that money is the root of all evil,
and we'll talk a little bit about that
here at the end as well.
But the rich are just as welcome, you know,
and the rich can rejoice just as much
as the brother of low degree.
The rich can rejoice just as much in the poor
because they also are brought low
and brought to that same level field.
And what is that level playing field?
A child of God, you know, a born again Christian.
That's what we rejoice in,
whether we're a brother of low degree
or whether we are wealthy.
So Paul was impartial.
He was not, did not have preference who joined the church,
rich or poor, didn't matter.
You just wanted them saved, so on and so forth.
And we should have that same attitude.
You know, when we go out and knock on a door,
we shouldn't go into the wealthier neighborhoods
and say, oh, no one's gonna get saved here.
You know, and we're fortunate here in Tucson
because it's kind of a, it's a clean slate, right?
The map is very, hasn't been filled in very much.
So we have a lot of the poorer communities to go to,
which is where we're gonna go.
You know, that is the emphasis that Christ gave
when it came to going out and preaching the gospel,
go to the poor, right?
But that doesn't mean we should get a bad attitude
towards the wealthy, you know?
And I've been leading a soul winning time up in Tempe
on Wednesday nights for two years,
and we go to the wealthy neighborhoods
because everything else has been done
sometimes several times over.
And we go into these neighborhoods and, you know,
I, even myself, and I've noticed it in others,
they have, you need to check your heart sometimes
when you go into these
because people can kind of get this
downtrodden attitude of, oh, here we go again.
You know, their front lawn is bigger than my whole house,
and it's such a wealthy neighbor,
no one's gonna get saved here.
Well, what's funny about that is about every week
somebody gets saved,
even in these wealthier neighborhoods.
And, you know, Paul, you know,
that's the attitude that he wants us to have,
that whether we're going to a poor neighborhood,
whether we're going into a rich neighborhood,
you know, we should preach the gospel
and trust the Lord to work in the hearts
of the people that we preach to.
And, you know, here's the thing too,
and I'll just say this is that, you know,
people get discouraged when you go into these
neighborhoods and you go into these wealthy neighborhoods
and they feel like they're failing
because they didn't get somebody saved
or, you know, only one person got saved out of,
you know, seven teams, 15 people,
whatever that were out there.
But whether you're a rich neighborhood, poor neighborhood,
is getting people saved, is that the command?
No, that's the result of obeying the command
is that people get saved, right?
The command is to go and preach.
So if you go and preach, you know,
you're already a success.
You've already obeyed the great commission
and whether it's receptive or not, you know,
that alone should put a smile on your face.
That you're doing something that a lot of people
don't bother to do, that a lot of Baptist churches
are letting just go by the wayside today.
To go out and just obey the command to go at all.
So I always remind myself of that
and I say, I repeat that line a lot to people
who I sense are getting, you know,
they might make a remark of, you know,
here we go again.
It's like, hey, we didn't get anyone saved,
but did you go?
Well, then you obeyed.
But again, Paul here, let's get back into it.
Paul was impartial about who joined the church,
you know, and that's the attitude we have,
but you have to understand that if you want converts,
it's gonna cost you something, right?
It's not just gonna come free.
That's the case with Paul.
I'm not saying this is what's gonna cost us,
but it's a principle that we can apply.
It says in verse 19,
And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains
was gone, again, not hers, theirs,
they caught Paul and Silas and drew them
into the marketplace under the rulers
and brought to the magistrate saying,
these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city.
You know, they were going out soul winning
and, you know, might say something like,
and they called the police department.
They got the, you know, they got the building manager,
right, they were persecuted.
He says they trouble our city and teach customs
which are not lawful as for it to receive,
neither to observe being Romans.
And the multitude rose up together against them
and the magistrates rent off their clothes
and commanded to beat them.
And when they had laid many stripes upon them,
they cast them to prison and charging the jail
to keep them safely who receiving,
having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison
and made their feet fast in the stocks.
And that's when Paul gave up.
That's when he said, I'm just,
I can't pay this price anymore.
This is too much.
No, they sang, right?
We know how the story goes.
Very, very familiar story.
They sang hymns and at midnight,
you know, the earthquake came,
the cell doors opened and so on and so forth.
You know, Paul was able to do
a lot of great works for God, wasn't he?
But it came at a price.
You know, Paul was able to see Lydia get saved.
He was able to see this demoniac girl get saved.
He was able to see a lot of people get saved
that we don't read about in the book of Philippians
or in the book of Acts, but it came at a price.
And look, our converts are gonna cost us something.
You know, it might not mean that you have
to get cast into prison.
You might not get beat for it.
You know, but here's the thing.
It's gonna cost you your time.
It's gonna cost you the effort and the energy
to learn how to give the gospel.
It might cost you having to actually sit down
and mark your Bible, memorize the scriptures,
maybe even practice.
It's gonna cost you the time to go out
and be a silent partner and learn how to do the work.
It's gonna cost you having to go out
and be faithful to a soul winning time.
If you want converts, if you want that,
that's what it costs.
It costs us something.
Now, praise the Lord, it doesn't cost us this.
You know, but here's the thing.
If this was the cost, you know, if it ever came to this,
those of us that aren't willing to pay these minimal costs
of all those things I just mentioned,
we would never put up with that.
That would be the end of us.
We'd say, well, enough soul winning.
You know, I schedule, you know, whatever time,
you know, this minimal amount of time,
just enough to say I go.
You know, if this was the cost, we would fall away.
Right?
So, you know, our cost is pretty low
when we compare it to Paul's.
It's just costing us our time.
You know, and we live in a place
kind of like Philippi, very affluent, very wealthy,
very, you know, this country is very prosperous,
you know, and we have a lot of freedom.
Why aren't we taking advantage of it?
Why aren't we going out and doing it if we're not?
And of course, you know, it might cost you something,
but even then, Paul's mentality,
you know, willing to pay that price,
he continues to even get more converts.
We know the story, he doesn't throw up his hands
and say, that's it, I quit.
That's where the story of the Philippian jailer comes in.
Right?
We all know that story, how he comes and he said,
you know, he's ready to thrust himself through
and Paul says, do thyself no harm.
And he comes in and falls down trembling
and asks that question
that we all recite at the door often.
What must I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he gets saved and they, of course, you know,
baptize him in his house and then he feeds them.
So it all worked out.
Look, if you're willing to pay the price,
you will get the converts.
It will happen, but you gotta be willing
to put in the effort and whatever it takes,
whatever's necessary to make it happen.
And praise God, it's not costing us
as much as it is costing Paul,
although maybe someday it will.
So we've looked at a few things here about Philippi,
about the people there.
We've looked at the converts.
The other thing I would like to look at,
and we'll kind of tie this all together at the end,
is the leadership.
I think this is an important principle
that we could see here, the leadership that's in Philippi.
Now, you have to remember the way Acts kind of reads
when it comes to the character of Luke.
There's this they and we, they and we.
Paul, or excuse me, Luke, rather,
is of course the one who's penning the book of Acts.
And it says there, if you're still in Acts chapter 16,
look at verse four, and as they,
referring to Paul, to Molothias, and Silas,
as they went through the cities,
they delivered them the decrees for to keep,
that were ordained of the apostles
and the elders of Jerusalem.
Verse six, now when they had gone through,
throughout Phrygia and the regions of Galatia,
and verse seven, after they were come.
So you see this they, verse eight again,
they, he's telling everything that happened to them,
right, because he's not with them yet, right?
So where does he come into the story here?
Well, it says in verse eight,
and they passing by, Messiah, came down to Troas.
Okay, that's where they come,
and then look, notice after, in verse 10,
and after he had seen the vision,
immediately we, so now you see,
this is where Luke is joining him in the story, I believe.
When he comes to Troas, which is near to Philippi,
now the narrative begins to read we, not they.
This is important, there's a point here,
so stick with me, and it says here,
we endeavored to go into Macedonia,
surely gathering that the Lord had called us
for to preach the gospel unto them.
Therefore, loosing from Troas,
we came straight with a straight course
to Samothosia, and the next day to Neapolis,
and from thence to Philippi.
So this is how they ended up in Philippi,
and this is where I believe Luke stays for,
I've heard people say he was there for about 20 years
until they saw Paul again, which is significant.
Okay, notice there, it says towards the end of verse 12,
and we were in that city abiding certain days.
Now, verse 40, it says, and they went out of prison,
this is after the Philippian jailer,
and entered the house of Lydia, so where do they go?
They go to the house of Lydia, why do they go there?
And when they had seen the brethren,
again, showing us that the church
is meeting in Lydia's house,
that's where the brethren were.
They said, well, we gotta let people know
that we're out, we gotta let the church know
that we're free, tell them this cool story
of what happened with this jailer,
and this earthquake and everything, right?
I mean, if that happened to you,
you'd wanna probably go tell the brethren, right?
Because we'd be the only ones that believe you.
Or everybody else would wonder about you and say,
oh, okay, huh, and they pat you on the head.
So they're running over, but notice again,
they're going to the house of Lydia,
again, further evidence,
that's where the church was at that time,
and they comforted them and departed,
chapter 17, verse one.
Now when they had passed through,
do you see how it changes there?
It goes, we, we, it goes, they, they, they, they,
we, Troas, Philippi, they depart, they.
Which shows us that Luke stayed behind,
that's what I believe, is that Luke,
at this point in the story, stays behind.
Now why did Luke stay behind?
You know, some people say that he was,
maybe he lived there, there's other things,
but I just wanna see what's actually in the scripture,
and I think what the scripture is showing us
is that, you know, that he was left behind
to establish leadership, okay?
Because people say, oh, see, Lydia, house church, right?
And there's a big house church movement
taking place today, and I'm not opposed
to churches in a house, right?
That churches start out that way,
that's, there's nothing wrong with that.
That's how it's starting out in the book of Acts,
it's a biblical way of doing things.
But today there's this philosophy and this mentality of,
well, since we're meeting in a house,
or people are rather, I should say,
they are meeting in a house
because they don't wanna have leadership.
They're saying, oh, you know, everyone's a pastor.
Anyone can be the deacon, anyone can stand up and preach
and it's just a free for all.
Now that's not, I'm not saying that's the case
all the time, but that is out there.
And really that warrants a whole sermon,
this is just something I'd throw in there
because it's worth pointing out.
Luke rejoins Paul, you know, some 20 years later,
but notice that's, you know, Philippi is written,
is a epistle that was written while he was in jail.
In fact, people say it's the last epistle,
a prison epistle that he wrote
before he was released by the Romans.
It's written from Rome.
So if you see the big picture,
you have Paul going on his missionary journey,
ending up in Philippi with Luke,
leaving Luke in Philippi
in the church that's in Lydia's house
and then 20 years later another missionary
meets him again, then sometime later writing to him
and how does he address them
when he's writing to the same church
that was at that time meeting in Lydia's house,
whether they ever got a building
or moved on to whatever, we don't know.
But even if they were there,
even if they were still in Lydia's house,
how does he, what is, again, we read it,
Philippians 1, 1, to who was it written?
The bishops and the deacons.
Which shows us that Luke was left behind
to establish leadership.
He was there to put people into these positions
and to ordain elders in the city.
And I point that out today because, again,
I'm not against a church and a house.
I'm not against that.
But I am against churches
that don't want to have any leadership.
I don't think it's biblical.
And today we have a lot of these house churches
that they're establishing,
themselves simply because they have
an aversion to authority.
They don't want anyone to be in the lead.
But you gotta have somebody in the lead.
Somebody's gotta lead the thing.
Someone's gotta take it in a direction.
And that's just how God has set up the local church.
The last thing I wanna look at, I'm almost done,
is we've looked at several things
about the place and the people of Philippi today.
We've looked at some of the first converts.
We've looked at their geographic location,
the fact that they benefited from that.
And I think we see the fact
they were benefiting from it
because of the church of Philippi's liberality.
Of course, today that means a different thing,
but it means being very generous.
I guess we call them liberals today
because they're very generous
with other people's money.
But the liberality in the Bible means
being charitable, giving, having an open hand.
And this is something that the Philippian church
is just praised for and they were known for.
And I believe that's because the fact
that the citizens of Philippi were prospering financially.
And they put that to good use.
Again, I talked a little bit about how we shouldn't
be biased towards people that might have wealth.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Unless it's gotten by vanity, then it'll be diminished.
But if they've, through labor and hard work,
and honest work, have prospered themselves,
that's a good thing.
They've been successful by honest means.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Now, the important thing about is
if we are financially successful,
to remember what we should be doing with those finances.
Why is God blessing us?
Why is God allow that to happen?
And give us that wisdom.
If we are wealthy, like the people in Philippi were,
we should put that wealth to good use.
We should put that wealth to good use.
Now, go to Philippians chapter four.
Philippians chapter four.
I'm gonna have you turn to a couple places
right here at the end.
It says in Philippians chapter four, verse 14,
not withstanding, ye have done well done,
so he's praising them for this,
that ye did communicate with my affliction.
Now, you Philippians know also, verse 15, chapter four,
that in the beginning of the gospel,
when I departed from Macedonia,
no church communicated with me
as concerning, giving, and receiving.
So when he got beaten left,
Macedonia left the church of Philippi and left Luke there,
no church communicated with me.
And communication is what I was talking about, money,
about helping him financially, supporting him.
No church communicated with me
as concerning, giving, and receiving, but ye only.
You say, look, you're the guys
who are the only ones that did it.
For in Thessalonica, ye sent once again
unto my necessity.
Again, Paul's not looking to get rich,
but Paul's gotta eat, and Paul has needs.
Paul's gotta put some clothes on his back.
And that's, again, a whole lot of doctrine.
There's nothing wrong.
The laborer is worthy of his reward.
You know, don't muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.
And that's Paul, he's that ox, right?
He's that laborer.
He should be the first partaker of the fruits.
He's planted this vineyard.
Nothing wrong with that.
And again, that's something else
you find in these house churches.
One of the major doctrines
that they don't want any leadership,
and they don't wanna tie it.
They just think it's all wrong, right?
And they're the ones that are wrong.
Paul here is praising him, saying,
you sent once again unto my necessity,
not because I desire a gift,
but I desire fruit that I may abound to your account.
Right, and this is a good lesson for us.
If we have wealth, if we give to the church,
if we give to the missions,
if we give to the promulgating of the gospel,
that's fruit to our account.
Now, that's not a substitute
for us doing our own personal evangelism,
but you know, when we're giving
to the work of the Lord, you know,
God sees that.
And he says, he chocks that up.
That's, I believe that, that's a reward.
Is that what Paul just said?
Paul said, I didn't desire this gift.
I didn't desire it for myself.
I desired that fruit may abound to your account.
He said, look, I took what you gave me,
and I went to this city, and this city, and this city,
and I did the same thing there
that I did in Philippi, and souls are getting saved.
That's the fruit that abounds not only to Paul,
but also to those that supported him
and sent him there and made it possible
for him to even do the work that he was able to do.
Now, Paul is gonna get it done one way or another.
You know, he's a tent maker,
and he would labor night and day.
We understand that, but I imagine he was able
to do even more than he otherwise would
because of the people at the church of Philippi
who understood that though they have prospered,
it matters what they do with their wealth.
It matters what they do.
And they sent it on ahead.
You know, they laid their treasures up in heaven.
And as we get into the book of Philippi,
that really is a major theme in the book of Philippians,
not minding earthly things, but having a spiritual mind,
seeing that which is to come, sending it forward,
you know, sending our affections
on things which are above.
And you can see that here.
What's one way, you know, people say,
oh, you know, I'm setting my affection on things above.
Okay, well, how does that manifest itself?
Well, one way is through giving.
You know, people have an abundance.
They give to the work of the Lord, and it gets done.
If you would, go to 1 Timothy 6.
I'll wrap it up real quick here for sake of time.
But, you know, again, Paul even mentions
in 2 Corinthians 8, he brings up the Philippian church again.
He says, moreover, brethren, we do you to wit,
saying we would want you to know,
of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia,
how that a great trial of affliction
and the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty
abounded on the riches of their liberality.
For their power I bear record, yea,
and beyond their power they were willing of themselves.
And he goes on and just, again,
he's referring to the church of Macedonia,
and he's even reminding the Corinthian people,
look, the Philippians are the ones that gave to me.
The Philippians are this giving church,
they're generous, they're even willing
to give of themselves.
Again, showing us that,
this is why we're taking the time to go through Acts 16,
because we kind of get a sense
of what the people in Philippi were like.
Because remember, the book of Philippians,
Paul really loves on these people.
You go read Philippians 4, 1,
where it's like dearly beloved and loved in the way,
and it's just love, love, love, love, love.
All through it.
And it's a very nice book to read through.
He's very, he's praising them.
It's a lot about, the theme is joy.
It's a great book.
We gotta get, why is that?
We'll get a sense of the type of people that were there.
Very generous people.
People who weren't biased.
People who were willing to open up their homes.
People who were willing to give even of themselves.
And what the Philippian people should remind us of
is the fact that we as God's people
need to invest in the gospel.
Invest in the gospel.
If you look there in 1 Timothy 6,
it says in verse six,
but godliness and contentment is great grain,
for we brought nothing into this world,
and to certain we can carry nothing out.
And having food and raiment,
let us be there with content,
but they that will be rich,
and again, that's will be rich,
not they that are rich.
It's people that their only goal in life is to be rich.
They that will be rich.
They say, I don't have time for the soul,
and I don't have time for the things of God.
I gotta focus on making money, right?
And that is something that's promoted in our culture.
That is something that the world says,
make money, make money, make money, make money,
and people just give their whole lives
to just making money, don't they?
And Paul gives a warning here in verse nine,
but they that will be rich fall into temptation
and a snare into many foolish and hurtful lusts
which drown men in destruction and perdition.
You're not gonna see that on the,
that's not what they're putting
on the Wild Horse Pass Casino bulletin boards.
Come get destruction and perdition.
Try to make, strike it rich.
There's no scratch off that says that.
Destruction and perdition.
But that's what people want.
They want all that money.
And Paul says, if that's what you want,
you better be careful,
because it will drown you in these things.
And why is that?
Because there's some sins that you can't get involved in
without a lot of money.
Or you have to have a constant flow of money
to keep that sin going, right?
Some sins, or even if it's a sin
that any poor person can get involved in,
it's magnified, it's taken to another level.
It's just indulged in even more
because of the wealth that people come into.
He says here in verse 10,
for the love of money is the root of all evil.
Not money itself, it's the love of it.
That's the root of all evil,
which while some have coveted after,
they have erred from the faith
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Jump to verse 17.
Charge them that are rich in this world,
that they be not high minded,
nor trust in uncertain riches,
but in the living God who giveth us richly
all things to enjoy.
In verse 18, this is a commandment
that Paul is giving to the wealthy
and the Philippian people.
I feel like they nailed it.
They knocked it out of the park.
It says that they do good,
that they be rich in good works,
ready to distribute, willing to communicate.
They did all those things.
And people might tend, you know,
the penny pinchers and the bean counters might say,
well, what do they need our money for?
What do they want that for?
They just want our money to do this or do that.
Well, look at what Paul says though at the end.
Laying up in store for themselves
a good foundation against the time to come.
He's saying, remind the rich to be willing
to distribute and give and invest in the gospel,
not just for the sake of the gospel, but for themselves.
You know, they're not gonna take it any,
you can't take it with you.
The only way you can invest it in heaven
is by investing in the gospel.
That's how you lay up in store
a good foundation against the time to come,
that they may lay hold on eternal life.
And the wealthy might struggle with this
if they don't do that last little bit there.
Lay hold on eternal life,
something he's told Timothy to do before.
He said, Timothy, you gotta lay hold on eternal life.
What now, is he saying, buy your way into heaven?
No, he's saying, you're saved.
We know that's not the case, right?
We all understand the gospel here.
He's saying, lay hold on eternal life.
Wrap your mind around heavenly things.
Lay hold on the fact that you're born again,
that you're saved, that you're on your way to heaven.
And you know what, this money,
it's not gonna matter as much to you.
The things of earth, as the song says,
will grow strangely dim
in the light of his glory and grace.
So if we lay hold on eternal life, you know what?
It's easier to give.
It's easier to open up the hand and give.
You say, well, I don't have a lot of wealth.
How does that apply to me?
How do I invest in the gospel?
I'm not these Philippians.
I don't have, I'm not a seller of purple.
I don't have any of that.
Well, again, I'll remind us the most valuable thing,
the most precious thing that any of us have,
and it's something that we all have,
is our time, is our time.
You only get so much of that,
and you can't earn more of that.
You might be able to extend your life
by taking care of yourself,
but even then, four score and 10, that's all you get.
The most precious thing you have is not money.
It's your time.
So you might not have the great wealth,
but you can still invest,
you can still emulate the Philippian people
by giving of your time.
That's how you're gonna invest in the gospel.
So I thought it'd be good to take time tonight
and just look at the people and the place of Philippi
before we really start to dig into this book
so we can get a sense of what these people were like
and why Paul's just loving on them so much in this book
is because they really are an exemplary church
of people that put people first
and the things of God first
and not themselves and their own interests.
Let's go ahead and pray.