In this episode, Arnie and Fred begin their discussion about the local church of Christ that was established at Philippi which was a prominent city in North East Macedonia. It was about nine miles North of the coast of the Aegean Sea. This was the first European city that Paul preached in on his second missionary journey in about AD 52. Paul was at Troas and received a vision in which a man said to "come to Macedonia and help us". When they arrived at Philippi after a few days they met a woman named Lydia and had the opportunity to teach her and her family the gospel and we talk about what occurred at that time. Later as they went to prayer, they met a woman who was possessed with a spirit of divination. We discuss what Paul did and the jailing of Paul and Silas because of it. We note the opportunity that this gave them to teach the jailer the gospel and what occurred because of that. We note the growth of the church at Philippi and its modest beginnings. Take about 30-minutes to listen in on our discussion. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. There is a transcript of this Buzzsprout episode provided for your convenience.
In this episode, Arnie and Fred begin their discussion about the local church of Christ that was established at Philippi which was a prominent city in North East Macedonia. It was about nine miles North of the coast of the Aegean Sea. This was the first European city that Paul preached in on his second missionary journey in about AD 52. Paul was at Troas and received a vision in which a man said to "come to Macedonia and help us". When they arrived at Philippi after a few days they met a woman named Lydia and had the opportunity to teach her and her family the gospel and we talk about what occurred at that time. Later as they went to prayer, they met a woman who was possessed with a spirit of divination. We discuss what Paul did and the jailing of Paul and Silas because of it. We note the opportunity that this gave them to teach the jailer the gospel and what occurred because of that. We note the growth of the church at Philippi and its modest beginnings. Take about 30-minutes to listen in on our discussion. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. There is a transcript of this Buzzsprout episode provided for your convenience.
This is a presentation of the Woodland church of Christ meeting at 3370 Broad Street in Sumter, South Carolina. We meet for worship on Sunday at tenthirty am and five thirty pm. We meet for bible study at nine thirty am on Sunday, and seven pm on Wednesday. If you have questions or comments on this lesson, you may email them to Fred Gosnell at fgosnell@ftc-i.net Or to Arnie Granke at agranke440718@twc.com.
Arnie:Good afternoon. This is Arnie Granke. And Fred Gosnell, we're with the church of Christ at Woodland, in Sumter, South Carolina. And this is what does the Bible say? We hope that if you happen to be in the Sumter area that you'll come and visit with us for worship or Bible class on the Lord's Day, on Wednesday evenings we also have a Bible study at that point. If you happen to be visiting in the area as a tourist or be assigned here at Shaw Air Force Base in the military, why we would certainly welcome you and love to study the Bible with you. Fred, I'm looking at Philippians one one, where where Paul, where Luke is Paul is writing in Philippians, one one. And and he says Paul and Timogtheus, the servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints, in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi. With the overseers and servants. I've substituted the word overseers because bishops has a connotation to it that's not a biblical connotation. And sometimes people misunderstand what deacons are also. So they're they're servants. And so those, that was the reason for the, the word, explanation there. And I'm just thinking, as I look at that passage, why don't we talk about the church at Philippi? A little bit?
Fred Gosnell:Okay. Well, of course. Philippi was, the city of Philippi, it was a prominent city in northeastern Macedonia. It was about nine miles north of the Aegean coast. And it was named for Philip the Second of Macedon. He was the father of Alexander the Great. And of course, he was, Alexander the Great was the one who seized, seized that area in 358 BC. And it's important for its productive, productive goldmines. 1000, a 1000 talents a year supposedly was what they mined from that.
Arnie:That's a good bit of gold.
Fred Gosnell:Yes, yes. And of course, it has a fertile and a well watered plain. Its domination of the road system in Northern Greece. And of course, it's a strategic defense position on the frontier of Thrace to the to the northeast. So passed, it was passed to the Romans in 168 BC. Macedonia, of course, became a Roman province in 146 BC. Philippi was the scene of the life death battles between Octavian Augustus versus Brutus and Cassius in 42 BC. Subsequently, it became a Roman colony. And, of course, it was in a strategic position so, and it would be a great place for one of the first churches to be established.
Arnie:Well, in addition to that, it was the first European city. Paul had mostly been preaching over in Asia, of course, up to that point. But it was the first European city where Paul preached during his second missionary journey around AD 52, actually, Several people obeyed the gospel there. Luke apparently stayed when Paul resumed the second missionary journey. And then Paul returned on during his third missionary journey as you, I suppose most of our listeners would realize Paul was quite a traveled individual during the last 15 years or so, of his of his work in in the gospel. So, Luke apparently stayed there. There, there were several that obeyed the gospel in in Philippi, Luke apparently stayed there when when Paul reserned, resumed his trip. And Paul returned on his third missionary journey around AD 58, actually. And then he departed back across the back across the sea, the Agean sea to to Asia and to Troas with, with Luke. Philippi very quickly became a church that had a lot of strength. Philippi twice, supported Paul, at Thessalonica, during his second missionary journey, and apparently contributed to relieve needy saints at Jerusalem, as Paul had urged churches to do. And when he completed the third missionary journey, he was the, one of the messengers who took the funds that had been collected there back to back to Jerusalem, for the for the needy saints, there to rele, to relieve them. Paul, again, was supported by them during his first Roman imprisonment. Luke writes about that as well. Around AD 63, was when was when Paul was imprisoned in Rome. Not actually in a prison, per se, it was a house arrest bak, basically. And all of this evinces is a pretty rapid and continuing growth there in this church in in Philippi. So I guess we, we could take a closer look at it there as it's established in AD 52, approximately, there, I'll pass it to you to begin that.
Fred Gosnell:Yeah. And Luke has the record of that in Acts chapter 16, verses eight through 12. And again, Paul's at a Troas,as that's in Asia, and this is during his second missionary tour. And Luke writes, begins in Acts 16, verse eight says, And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia. The we there is a Luke, Luke's doing doing the writing,
Arnie:Writing to Theophilus
Fred Gosnell:And, right. And in Acts, by the way, whenever you see the word we you know, Luke is included in the in that group. So he says that we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel to them. Therefore loosing from Troas we came with the straight course, to Samothracia, and the next day, to Neaapolis, and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia and a colony. And we were in that city abiding certain days. So so a vision was received a lot of times people call refer to that as the Macedonian call. And that's why they went to Philippi based on this vision he had based on this individual who had asked him to come and help us.
Arnie:We've actually got a song in our in our song book that recalls the Macedonian call there. That's that's kind of a kind of an interesting thing there. Lydia, a woman by the name of Lydia, who is apparently a Jewish woman, in Acts chapter 16, was, was converted, her whole household was was converted and Luke tells us about that. By the way, you you mentioned the, the we passages, and that's exactly right. That's how you know when Luke is with him, or when Luke is staying at at one of the places that Paul has, has asked him to, to work and Philippi was one of those. And when he's staying there, he refers to Paul's group as they. So so the we and they passages tell you when Luke is, is with him and when Luke is, is left behind, to take care of other other business. But anyway and in Acts chapter 16 Is is where Paul meets up with with Lydia. And she and some other Jewish people are worshiping down by the river, there in in Philippi. So verse 12 tells us that, From from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony, and we were in that city abiding certain days, and on the Sabbath, we went out of the city by a river side where prayer was want to be made. And we sat down and spake unto the women that resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us saying, If you've judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us. So how many people were there were that that went and they enjoyed her hospitality. We're not told. But obviously, at least Paul and, and Luke and probably some of the some of the others as as well. And so the work has begun. And it starts with, with this Jewish woman, not only obeying the gospel, but then providing them that with with housing, and probably meals as well to go along with that, there as they further the work in Philippi.
Fred Gosnell:Yes. And the next thing that happens, Luke records that in Acts 16, verses 16 through 23. So we begin there, and this would be the section that people would be familiar with, about the Philippian jailer. And so we begin in verse 16, says, It came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed of a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain, 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 did she many days, but Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they caught Phillip and Silas and drew them into the marketplace onto the rulers, 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. Of course, the real problem there is that they lost their means of making money. That was the real problem.
Arnie:That's right. She was a slave basically.
Fred Gosnell:Yes. So So then, And the multitude rose up together against them. And the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to, commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast him into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. Who havung received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their fast, feet fast in the stocks. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang, sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prisoner, prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were open, and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself supposing that the prisoners had had fled, Of course, he was going to do that because he would have been executed by the authorities that had had the prisoners been able to escape on his watch.
Arnie:Yeah, under all, in stocks and pillories and what
Fred Gosnell:Yes. So the keeper he awaked out asleep and he was not. going to kill himself but he thought, course they were all gone. In verse 28, But all cried with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm for we are all here. Then he called for a light sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And thy house. They spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour the night and washed their stripes and was baptized, he and all his straightway. And when he had brought them to his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced believing in God with all his house. And when it was day, the magistrate sent the sergeant saying, let those man go. And the keeper of the prison, told this thing to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go, now therefore, depart and go in peace. But Paul, Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly, uncondemned being Romans, and have cast us into prison. And now do they thrust us out privily, Nay verily, but let them come themselves and fetch us out. The sergeants told these words to the magistrates, and they feared when they heard that they were Romans. It was illegal to put Romans treated like that without having a trial. And they came and besought them and brought them out and desired them to depart out of the city. And they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed. So, so now we have Lydia has obeyed the gospel, and those that were with her, her household; then now we have the Philippian jailer, he's obeyed the gospel, and then those of his household. So we have the foundation here, of the church at at Philippi.
Arnie:I think there's something about these conversions that that we might ought to point out there. In the case of, of Lydia, she, they had taught her the had taught her the gospel, her heart was was opened. And she attended the things that were spoken of Paul, in other words, as he's, as he's teaching her, she believed those things, that's what the passage is telling us. And she was baptized. The same was true as well, of her households. We don't know how many, you know, maybe children that she had, or a husband was with her, or if they had servants that were working for her, or just how many people were, were involved with, with that, but she believed and, and was baptized. And when we come to the jailer here, we find that that all of his household also responds and, and him and when he says, What must I do to be saved? And they say, Believe and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved and thy house. Well, he didn't know anything about the Lord Jesus Christ. So they, they had to, had to teach him those things. And then after the teaching is concluded, they baptize them. So sometimes people have a have an idea that, Oh, what do you have to do to be saved? Oh, just be just be a believer. No, wait a minute, wait a minute. There's some other things involved here. beside that. And I think it's important that, that in a number of passages of Scripture, where various disciples had taught someone the gospel, it wasn't just a matter of believing it was a matter of being, believing and being baptized. And of course, the baptism was, was for the remission of his sins. I see you got your Bible in there.
Fred Gosnell:No, i was just lifting it up.
Arnie:Okay.
Fred Gosnell:So, so, so they're, they're converted there, and they're the basis. Again, we don't know how many, it's just said said that their households are. So so then we have Paul's company. Course, at the end of chapter 16, they, they leave. And they, It says that. They went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia, and when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and then then they departed. So, so we, we get to Acts chapter 20. And Luke, Luke, Paul left Paul there at Philippi. And then later on, Luke will rejoin them on the third journey. So in Acts 20, 1 through six, there we're told, And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples and embraced them and departed for to go into Macedonia. When he had gone over those parts and had given them much exhortation, he came unto Greece, and there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him and he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia and there accompanied him unto Asia Sopater of Berea and of the Thessalonians Aristarchus, Segundus, Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus, these going before tarried for us at Troas, and we sailed from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread and came unto them to Troas in five days, where we abode seven days. So so you can see there, we sailed away from Philippi. So Luke has now rejoined them, and they have gone to Troas. Tells us how long it took. And it says that they stayed there seven days. Of course, the record tells us why they stayed there seven days. But that's another story.
Arnie:Well, it is an interesting story, because the situation was that as, as Paul was preaching, one night there, Luke had joined him back in Troas and as they're, as they're, Paul is speaking, there's an individual that falls asleep, sitting in the, in the window on the third floor, the third loft of the building, falls out of the window, and he's taken up dead. And Paul raises him from from the dead. So but but you're right, there's more detail to it than than just that. So, so here's a, that confirms the things that Paul is preaching and certainly what, what Luke is telling us about that as as well. So, here, Paul now is in chapter 20, we've we've gone really Paul has has left and and other things have occurred he, there had he had gone to Ephesus and there was a riot that occurred there. That's that's a whole interesting story of its own. But since we're mostly talking about Philippi, we'll we'll maybe discuss that at another time. But there had been a, a riot that occurred and, and then Paul eventually comes back on his on his third missionary journey. And they they return I think, to teaching at Lydia's house. It's interesting to take into consideration you know, we think in terms now of the need for lots of help in getting the gospel preached, we feel like we've got to have a building and and we can't worship without having a building they met in in people's houses, they didn't didn't have to have a a church building there. They didn't have they didn't have any of the aids that we have that we rely on. You are listening to us either on the radio or on the on the internet or in a podcast as you're hearing this. They didn't have that kind of thing available in in Paul's day. No television, no, no phones, they didn't have Bibles, we've Paul's, Fred's got his Bible open. I've got my Bible sitting here open as as well. They didn't didn't even have Bibles at that particular point. No song books, no tracs that who would teach on on various topics. They didn't have a comfortable building with heat in the winter and air conditioning, maybe in the in in the summer. And so many people today think of these as, as being things that are absolute necessities. You don't need that worshipping in in modest locations is okay. It's acceptable before God because it's not the fanciness of the building. But it's the sincerity of the heart as we as we worship and I think that that's a lesson that we can that we can learn from there. The church had to had other problems. Well, there was a lot of prejudice against the church. Still is prejudice. There are a number of people that have unkind things to say about churches of, of, of Christ. And if if you don't get it from somebody that's a member of the of the Body of Christ, you may be getting false information from from what somebody else may have have to say. Well, that's no different from the conditions that existed, that prevailed in the first century. The church then had to combat local presiden, prejudice from the very start, actually. And I'm looking, Fred at Acts chapter 16 and verse 19. There was there was prejudice with regard to the to the Jews, in the case of the girl that they had cast out that the demon. Their masters saw that the hope or their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, drew them into the marketplace, unto the rulers, 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. Well, that's false. That's not, that's not true in the first place. And then verse 22, says, The multitude rose up together against them, the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they'd laid many stripes on them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. Well, we haven't encountered that here in in Sumter, and most churches in the United States are pretty safe from that. But there are other places in the world, where our brethren are suffering similar hardships as as that. We can't do much to help them except for one thing. And that's prayer. We need to be praying diligently on their behalf.
Fred Gosnell:Yes. And of course, you know, what we need to understand is that the fact that the church started in people's houses, doesn't mean it stayed there doesn't mean they didn't have another place to meet. The Corinthians later on in first Corinthians 11, we find that they were meeting in one place, and we know it wasn't a home because Paul had some criticism for them. He said, If any man hungry, let him eat at home. So So where the Corinthians were meeting wasn't a house, it was it was some other place. So so, the church grew. And the Philippian church was of course, soon growing and, and they were soon self supporting, and to the point where they also supported Paul. And in Philippians 4, 15, through 18, Paul writes to them, he says, Now, ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving but ye only. For even in Thessalonica, you sent once and again unto my necessity. Not because I desired it, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all and abound. I am full having received of Epaaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God. And of course, those funds were collected on the first day of the week, as Paul tells the Corinthians, and as Paul says, here, that was a sacrifice. So part of our worship is taking up a collection on the first day of the week for the saints. And the Philippians did that and part of that was used to support Paul in his efforts to preach the gospel.
Arnie:And the New Testament gives us instructions with regard to our attitude and our purpose behind that contribution. We may talk about that some some other time there. By the way, Fred. Just make mention you accidentally said the Corinthians. I do that kind of stuff, too. We're old men and every once in a while, you know that the wrong church comes out. But he was talking about the Philippians there so so don't be upset because he mentioned mentioned Corinthians there that was purely accidental. Well, we're out of time, aren't we, Fred? I tell you what. Time flies when you're having fun. And Fred and I both love to, love to talk about the gospel, love to talk about the Bible. And we hope that you do as well. We hope that that lessons like this are are helpful for you, help you grow and and by all means if you ever have questions, please contact us, and let us know; we would be glad to honor your questions and, and give you a Bible answer. So having said that, we wish you well throughout the week. We hope that you'll be with us again next Lord's Day.