Philippians Background: Why Philippi?
Acts 16
Philippians Lesson #001
April 14, 2022
Dr. Robert L. Dean, Jr.
www.deanbibleministries.org
Opening Prayer
“Father, we’re thankful that we can come together this evening in order to focus upon Your Word, to be encouraged to start this new study in Philippians: a study that is going to be very interesting, a lot of good teaching, a lot of good things to talk about here.
“Father, the focus on unity, the focus on the fact that we have joy no matter what the circumstances are, are all themes and doctrines that we need to pay attention to today.
“Father, we pray that You will open our eyes to the truth of Your Word as we go through this study, and that it’ll be a great time for spiritual encouragement, strength, and edification. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.”
Slide 2
All right, we’re going to start in Philippians, and then we’re going to go to Acts 16, because what we’re going to look at is the background. We’re going to start in Philippians, and we’ll go to the background, but I want to start with Philippians 1:1.
Slide 3
In Philippians 1:1, we have the beginning of our salutation as Paul addresses this Epistle to Philippi. He says, “Paul and Timothy.” He’s writing and includes Timothy along with himself to the congregation in Philippi.
He identifies them as bondservants of Christ. This is the Greek word DOULOS indicating a servant or slave. He uses that terminology of a slave, one that hasn’t been very popular in Western countries with the abolition of slavery in the last 150 years.
But this is exactly what Paul talks about in Romans 6, when he says that we are either slaves to our sin nature, slaves to the flesh, or we are slaves to righteousness. And as we live our lives, we are either one or the other. We are never neutral.
He identifies himself positionally as a slave of Jesus Christ. He is the One Who is in control of their lives and in charge of their lives.
Then he addresses it “to all the saints—that is, all those who are believers—in Christ Jesus, who are in Philippi with—that is, along with the leaders in the church, the different congregations there the bishops—that is, the EPISKOPOI—and the deacons:” the DIAKONOI.
We’ll look at each of those. But it’s important to get into this and look at some background. We need to address some basic introductory questions that should be at the beginning of every Epistle because there are always new people who are coming in and listening for the first time.
Who is Paul? Who is Timothy? Where is Philippi? And answering the question, “Why Philippi?” Why is he writing this Epistle to these in Philippians? We’ll address that as we probably go through tonight and then next week as well.
Before we get started going into Acts 16, something I wanted to talk about just briefly is: there are several people who are mentioned in Philippians. One, of course, is Timothy, who we just mentioned.
Another is Epaphroditus in Philippians 2:25, whom he calls, “my brother, my fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my need,” and was seriously ill and almost died. So, he has high regard for Epaphroditus, who was sent as a messenger from Philippi, which is located in Macedonia. And he was bringing a financial gift to Paul because Paul is in Rome, and he is under house arrest.
Paul is in need of financial help, and he has brought a significant offering to Paul. But what we’ll find out later is, it’s not enough because this house arrest is lasting for about two years. But it is a large amount considering the potential of those who are in Philippi. In 2 Corinthians 8:2, they’re referred to as those who gave out of their poverty. So, it gives us a hint about the nature of the congregation.
You have two women who are mentioned in Philippians 4:2, Euodia and Syntyche, who are not getting along with each other, and that’s causing a negative ripple through the congregation.
You have a man mentioned in Philippians 4:3 named Clement. Not enough is said about him to identify him, although some very early Church Fathers identified him with Clement of Rome, who later became a pastor in Rome. But we can’t say that with any level of certainty.
What do we know about the founding of the church in Philippi?
Slide 4
Turn with me to Acts 15. We’ll spend tonight just looking at the background here in Acts 15. Let’s pick it up at Acts 15:40, because what’s happened just before this is Paul’s gone on his first missionary journey.
He’s come back from his first missionary journey. He was accompanied by two people at the beginning of that first missionary journey. He was accompanied by Barnabas, who was a mature believer, who was the one who brought Paul out of obscurity as he had spent about 14 years in Tarsus.
Then John Mark. John Mark proved to be a little young and not dependable. This meant that when they got ready to go on the second journey, Paul said, “No, he’s not going to go with me.”
So, Barnabas took Mark, and they went to Cyprus. Then Paul chose someone else to go with him, and that is Silas, who is also known as Silvanus, which would have been his Latinized name. That’s described in Acts 15:40: “but Paul chose Silas and departed.” That is, they are departing from Antioch of Syria.
Then it says in Acts 15:41, “… he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.” We don’t know about other congregations in either Syria or Cilicia because they’re just not mentioned as part of Paul’s missionary journeys.
Slide 5
I put this map up here. We’re going to go through several different maps of the same area because I need to find out how they look on the projectors.
Here we have a map to orient everyone as to this area of the Middle East. Up in the north, you have the Black Sea. You ought to be familiar with the Black Sea if you’re keeping up with what’s going on in Ukraine, because the area of Ukraine is on the north shore of the Black Sea.
Over here is Istanbul. And you have the Dardanelles and the Bosporus, the straits going through here and also here, that give you access to the Black Sea. That is a strategic area that’s controlled by Turkey today. In the ancient world that was controlled by the Roman Empire.
We have Macedonia here. In Greek it’s “Ma-ke-do-NIA.” This is where Philippi, is located. Over here, we have Thessaloniki/Thessalonica and Berea.
When you get down into Achaia, you have Athens here. So this orients you to some of the names and some of the places.
Just south of Philippi, you have a little marked black dot right on the coast. It’s about 10 miles from Neapolis, which is the seaport to the inland city and colony of Philippi. Over here you have Troas.That is the last place where Paul was on the continent of Asia.
The Dardanelles and Bosporus divide Europe on the left. Thrace, Macedonia, and Achaia/Greece are all on the European side.
Here we have the Roman province of Asia, Bithynian and Pontus, and Galatia, Cappadocia, and Cilicia. Tarsus is in Cilicia. Just south of Cilicia, you have Antioch of Syria. This is where the church is that sent out Paul and Barnabas, and now they’re sending out Paul and Silas.
They leave there on a land route. It appears from the text that they went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. That means there are congregations in Syria, probably along this route, and also in Cilicia.
There’s an interesting video that you can watch on Amazon Prime. Mark Fairchild is the archaeologist. It’s called The Last Apostle, and it’s about the Apostle Paul.
He’s a well-known archaeologist. I didn’t hear him say anything negative that I would take to be wrong or erroneous doctrinally or archaeologically. He’s an interesting individual. He’s got a lot of energy. He’s probably in his late 60s now.
He is like a mountain goat going through all these places in Cilicia and over the area toward Ephesus over here. He gets on old Roman roads that have not been excavated, not been cleared.
He walks all over Turkey and says there are just hundreds and hundreds of undeveloped archaeological sites. Because—he didn’t make it this clear; I will—that Muslim government doesn’t have any interest in excavating either Jewish sites or Christian sites. So, they go unexcavated.
There is not enough money and not enough people to go to all these places. He goes off the beaten track in significant ways.
He discovered the oldest known synagogue in one location. It was way off the beaten track. He just happened to be ducking inside of a little archway. Then he put his hand up to steady himself, and there was engraved in the stonework a very primitive menorah, indicating that this had been the entry to a synagogue.
So, this is very interesting. He says during that 13- or 14-year period when Saul of Tarsus has gone back to Tarsus, that he’s an apostle. He’s been appointed an apostle since he was saved.
Do you think, from what we know about the Apostle Paul, that he just sat around and read Torah scrolls for 13 years? I don’t think so. He was out starting churches. The Scriptures are silent about this, except this hint that we have right here in Acts 15:41: that “he went through Syria and Cilicia strengthening the churches.”
That means there are churches that have been already established and planted in Cilicia, and at least in this short trek through Syria.
Slide 6
He would have gone through the Cilician Gates, which is an opening, valley, or pass through the mountains, as you go from Syria into what is today Turkey. The picture on the left is where a modern highway goes through there. That’s off of Wikipedia.
Then you have on the other side a much older black and white picture, where you have a very old dirt track. It gives you an idea of what this must have looked like at the time of the Apostle Paul.
Slide 5
He is going to be retracing his steps from the first missionary journey, which is this blue line. This is where he and Barnabas had left Antioch, and they went to Cyprus. Then from Cyprus they left, and they were on a ship to Pamphylia.
And they went through this area at Perga in Pamphylia, and then up to Antioch—Antioch in Pisidia, not to be confused with Syrian Antioch. Then they went to the cities of Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, and retraced their steps to follow-up with those who had just been saved and establishing those churches.
Then they went back to Antioch. Now he’s going on his second missionary journey, and that’s this purplish line that goes up through the Cilician Gates, then over to Tarsus, his hometown. That’s not mentioned in Scripture, but it’s a fair assumption that’s the route that the roads went.
Then he goes to Derbe, follows up on what they have seen in Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium. Then he wants to go into Asia from the east, but we’re going to learn that the Holy Spirit prevents him. We’re not told how the Holy Spirit prevented him, but the Holy Spirit prevented him from going into Asia.
Then they wanted to go up to the north and go to Bithynia. But again, the Holy Spirit prevented them from going into that Roman province and blocked them from going into northern Galatia.
So, they just kept going until they arrived at the coast at Troas. That’s when they’re going to have what is referred to as the Macedonian vision. I’m getting ahead of myself here, but that’s the route that they’re taking.
Slide 7
In the beginning of Acts 16 we read, “Then he—that’s Paul—came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek.”
So, his mother is Jewish and a believer. His father is a Gentile. Timothy had apparently come to trust Jesus as his Messiah on Paul’s first missionary journey. He has matured, he’s grown, and he has a positive reputation from other believers at Lystra and Iconium.
What’s interesting here is to follow the pronouns. It’s important in Acts to follow the pronouns. When Luke is writing, he will use “he” to refer to one of the apostles or an individual. He will use “they” to refer to a group that is traveling with Paul or with Peter. Maybe he’s referring to Peter and John.
Then all of a sudden, he’ll shift, and he’ll use a first-person plural pronoun. It’s “we.” What that means is that he’s describing where Paul, or Paul and Barnabas, or Paul and Timothy are going, and then he joins them. From the time that he joins them, he shifts to a first-person plural pronoun.
Slide 8
We see this in Acts 16:7–10. He is describing what is happening in Paul’s travels as “… they had come to Mysia. They tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood, pleaded with them, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ Now, after he had seen the vision, immediately—What?—we [emphasis added] sought to go to Macedonia …”
Before that Luke was not with them, but Luke has joined them in Troas. He says, “… immediately we [emphasis added] sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us [emphasis added] to preach the gospel …” That’s a use of EUANGELIZŌ. The Lord had appointed them to evangelize those in Macedonia.
In Acts 16:11: “Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course—so he’s on the ship with him, headed—to Samothrace,—one of the islands out in the sea—and the next day came to Neapolis.”
Slide 9
We’re introduced to Timothy in these verses, as a son of a Gentile father and a Jewish mother who is a believer. Timothy is the one who is going to go to Philippi with Paul. Timothy is with him along with Silas.
We saw Silas has been with Paul since they left Antioch. Then they pick up Luke in Troas. So, you have four traveling together: Paul and Silas, and then Timothy and Luke. So, they’re traveling along with them.
When Paul writes Philippians 1:1, it is Paul and Timothy. He doesn’t mention Luke in the Epistle, and he doesn’t mention Silas in the Epistle. But he mentions Timothy because there’s a connection between Timothy and those in Philippi.
He says some very positive things about Timothy when he is writing the Epistle to the Philippians. He said in Philippians 2:19, “… I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state.” He uses Timothy as a messenger taking a letter, taking gifts, donations, whatever it may be.
Then he says about Timothy in Philippians 2:20, “For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state.”
Later, when we get into both 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, Paul mentions others who have departed the faith. They’ve apostatized, or they just haven’t been dependable. But Timothy is one who is dependable.
Sometimes we get a negative impression of Timothy, but Timothy is one who is steadfast. He’s loyal, he is reliable. Paul depends upon him. He says about Timothy in Philippians 2:21, “For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus.”
Timothy has his priorities right. He is serving the Lord, not serving himself. So many of these others get caught up with the fame and attraction, or whatever, of being with the Apostle Paul, but they’re not serving the Lord. They’re just out for whatever they can get out of this situation.
Paul says to them in Philippians 2:22, “But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served me in the gospel.” That would be going back to that second missionary journey when they first were in Philippi.
Then he concludes again in Philippians 2:23 saying, “Therefore, I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how it goes with me.”
He’s writing this much later when he is in his first imprisonment in Rome. He’s waiting to see what the disposition is going to be of the trial and how things are going. Then he will send Timothy to Philippi. We’ll look at some of the issues related to that.
There’s some that have said that Paul wrote from Ephesus. He was imprisoned in Ephesus for a while, and not in Rome. But if you look at the way you would have to travel from Ephesus to Philippi versus from Rome to Philippi, it’s a much easier, much shorter journey. It was about a three-month journey from Ephesus to Philippi, whereas it was less than a month to go from Rome. That’s just one of many lines of evidence that it’s more likely that Paul wrote from Rome.
Slide 10
In Acts 16:6–7 we read, “Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them.”
Slide 11
You have these two phrases. The first one which indicates that the Holy Spirit is doing something to restrain them, to prohibit them, to keep them from going. I don’t think that He gave them COVID or had their flights canceled, but God has a way of preventing things if He wants to.
Then the last line: “the Spirit did not permit them,” did not allow them to, or give them leave to make the trip.
Slide 12
When we look at Acts 16:6–7, we see several geographical designations. You have Phrygia and the region of Galatia. Then you have Asia, Mysia, and Bithynia.
In this map, Philippi would be off to the left over here. This island we’ll talk about in a minute. It’s just off the coast. Philippi is 10 miles inland. So, this gives you a perspective.
Galatia is a Roman province. Bithynia is a Roman province. Asia is a Roman province. Then Mysia and Phrygia are territories within those provinces.
The red line starts at Lystra. Once they had gone to Derbe, Iconium, and Lystra—these three towns—they headed northwest. Paul was hoping to go into Asia, and the Holy Spirit prevented them. So, they’re going along this travel route that is between the province of Galatia to the east and Asia to the right, but they are prevented from going in any direction.
Slide 13
This is a more colorful map. I think this points it out a little bit better. It’s a lot more visible. You see the same thing.
They went from Derby, Lystra, and Iconium to Antioch, and then they headed north through the general border territory between the two provinces and were prevented from going up to Bithynia and Pontus.
This map also has Nicaea. That’s where the well-known Council of Nicaea was held. They eventually make their route that way.
Slide 14
This is the first map. I blew it up. They’re going to end up at Troas, waiting on the Holy Spirit to give them further direction and further guidance.
Slide 15
This map also shows the same thing: Galatia over here—you have North Galatia, South Galatia, Bithynia, and Pontus up in this area. That’s where 1 Peter and 2 Peter were written to those scattered, those in the Jewish Diaspora—these Jewish-background believers, if you remember—in Bithynia. They were up on the coast of the Black Sea, and then they made their route and ended up in Troas.
Slide 16
Acts 16:8–9 says, “… so passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ ”
Slide 17
Here again, we have our map showing their main route. I put these two red lines here. The Holy Spirit just blocked them from going left or right. He was vectoring them right into Troas. And once they got there, then—and not before—God gives them direction.
So often in life we have a decision to make. We want to know what the long-term plan looks like, and God just wants to get us to first base. He’ll worry about second base and third base eventually, but we are to trust Him in the process.
They come to Troas, and they have the vision called the Macedonian vision to come over and take the gospel.
Slide 18
In Acts 16:10 we read, “Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we—Luke is with him—sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to proclaim the gospel …” They are going to leave and head in that direction. So, they take off.
Slide 19
This is referred to later in 2 Corinthians 2:12–13. “Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened to me by the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I departed for Macedonia.” He doesn’t mention the others. They had been apparently waiting for Titus, who didn’t get there in time, so they left and went ahead.
Slide 20
In this map the yellow line here—we’ll look at it again in a minute in another map—that is the Ignatian Way. This is a major east-west route that the Romans had built: an east-west highway called the Ignatian Way or Via Egnatia. It starts off on the coast of the Adriatic and goes all the way across to the east, going to Thessalonica, Amphipolis, Philippi, and Neapolis. It then would go on until it eventually crosses over to the Dardanelles.
Slide 21
Luke writes in Acts 16:11, “Therefore sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day we came to Neapolis.” This is their route, and they land at the seaport of Neapolis, which is what is in the picture. You still see the remains of the harbor there today.
Slide 22
Here’s another picture of it in the modern town.
Slide 23
Let’s look at a little bit about the background. Why is Philippi so important, and why is it helpful to understand this in light of what happens there with Paul? It’s always important to get the history.
1. The Greek historian Appian described the city of Philippi as the gate between Europe and Asia. It’s about 10 miles from the seacoast inland from the port at Neapolis. It was the endpoint of the Via Egnatia. It goes on, but that’s it. It’s basically going from the Adriatic across to Neapolis.
2. In 360 BC it was first colonized by a group of Thasians. This island of Thassos is just off the coast from Neapolis. There were Greeks that lived there—Thasians—and they left in 360 BC. Remember, the heyday of ancient Greece under the time of Sparta and Athens was in the 5th century BC, so that’s in the 400s. This is after that period.
You had a group from there that were taken to the mainland. They went to the mainland and established a colony on the location of what would become Philippi. They also established the Acropolis. That’s the high point of the city. Often that is where they would build a temple to their god or goddess. We often think of the Acropolis in Athens where the Parthenon is located.
3. It wasn’t long after that, because there were a lot of gangs and thugs and robbers that inhabited the area and would prey on them, that they went north to Macedonia, and they asked Philip of Macedon if he would come and protect them. Now Philip of Macedon is well known in his own right as a warrior king, but he is the father of Alexander the Great. Philip will go down, and he will give them aid. Then he names the colony after himself. That’s why it’s called Philippi. So that’s taking place in the mid-300s BC.
4. In 168 BC there’s a major battle of Pydna. What’s significant about it is that the Roman Empire is expanding, and it annexed Philippi to the Roman Empire.
5. And then some 140 years later in 42 BC, one of the most significant battles in the ancient world takes place at Philippi between the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian. This is after the assassination of Julius Caesar. They defeat the armies of Brutus and Cassius.
This is what will lead to Octavian becoming Augustus, taking the name Augustus, and he will eventually become Caesar. The significance of that is that they’re going to turn Philippi into a Roman colony. It’s going to be settled by colonists, most of whom are veterans of the Roman army. As a Roman colony, later Octavian will declare that all of the inhabitants of Philippi are Roman citizens.
What’s interesting is that these Roman citizens who ought to know better are going to be the ones who will beat up and flagellate Paul and Silas, which is completely contrary to Roman law. Why would they do that? Well, I think it’s because one of the other distinctives that we’ll see in a minute, that when Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke come to Philippi, there’s not a synagogue in Philippi.
In Jewish tradition, you have to have 10 men in a location to have the meeting of a synagogue. That is called a minyan, M-I-N-Y-A-N. You have to have a minyan to have a synagogue. The minyan is comprised of 10 males. You don’t have 10 male Jews in Philippi.
In Jewish tradition, if you had some Jews that were there, they would meet on Shabbat down by the local river. So, Paul waits until Shabbat, he goes down to the local river, and there are just some women there.
Lydia, who’s a merchant—she’s a dealer in dyes. She’s from Thyatira. We don’t know if she was Jewish or not. But she’s down there. They’re down there washing clothes and taking care of whatever they needed to take care of there. That’s where Paul finds them.
There are no men mentioned. It appears that there are no male Jews in Philippi. You may say, “Well, so what?”
Well, when Paul leaves Philippi, he goes to Thessalonica. And there he goes to the synagogue. When he leaves there, he goes to Berea and goes to the synagogue. He leaves there, and he goes down to Athens, and then he’ll go to Corinth, and he’ll go to the synagogue. You had large numbers of Jews in Corinth. You had a Jewish population in Athens. You had a large number of Jews in Berea, and you had a large number of Jews in Thessalonica.
But you didn’t have any Jews in Philippi. This indicates they weren’t welcome; that these Roman veterans, military men were hostile to the Jews. They were anti-Semitic. That explains why they ignored or assumed that Paul and Silas could not have been Roman citizens: because they were Jewish, and in their anti-Semitism they rejected the idea at the very beginning that these men could have been Roman citizens, and so they violated their citizenship. This is what’s going on here in the background.
Slide 24
Here as a backdrop to this verse. As they go from Neapolis to Philippi, they are walking along the Ignatian Way. This is what the Ignatian Way looks like today. I wonder what Interstate 10 is going to look like in 2,000 years. You think it’s going to look that good?
What’s interesting is, you can see the grooves from the chariots and from the wheeled vehicles that went along there. They just cut grooves into the rocks. That’s phenomenal to look at the road system that the Romans developed.
Slide 25
They go to Philippi.
Slide 26
This is an aerial shot of the modern city. Down just below this hill, down in this area is where you have the ruins from the ancient city.
Slide 27
Here is another picture looking out across the fields now, towards the mountains in the distance. Philippi is a very beautiful area.
Slide 28
I’ve got a wide angle shot here to give us another perspective on what the area looked like.
Slide 29
They go down to the river. Acts 16:13: “… on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there.” No men. Very unusual. They begin to talk to them.
Slide 30
Acts 16:14: “… a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira.” Now that’s over across the Aegean, over in Turkey—one of the seven churches that’s mentioned in Revelation 2–3. She is a seller of purple, and she worshiped God. It’s very possible, it’s likely that she is a proselyte to Judaism. That’s the only indication, but that’s the same kind of phrase that’s used to describe Cornelius the centurion. “The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by [the Apostle] Paul.”
Slide 31
Then in Acts 16:15 we read—this stream in the background is the traditional site of where these women would have been—“… when she and her household were baptized …” So, she’s got a household, probably a husband, maybe children, certainly servants, and they are all baptized.
This comes up later in Acts 16:30–31. Because, when Paul and Silas are in jail, and the Philippian jailer says, “How should I be saved?” Paul says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.” This shows that within the culture there was a very strong sense of family and the unity of family—a strong understanding of the third divine institution. If the adults became believers, it was anticipated that the rest of the family would follow suit. She and her household are baptized.
Then Luke says, “… she begged us,—Notice the first-person plural pronoun—saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.’ ” She opens up her house. She’s very hospitable and welcomes them into her house to stay with her and to use that as their headquarters while they are in Philippi.
Slide 32
Then the next interesting thing happens in Acts 16:16. “As it came to pass, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination …” The Greek doesn’t use the word for possession; it uses the word “having.” That’s frequent in the Gospels. You have three different words that are used to describe demon possession.
Someone who has a demon or has an unclean spirit, using the word ECHŌ, meaning to have or hold something. That’s the idea of possession, internal control of a demon.
You also have the participle DAIMONIZOMAI, to indicate someone who’s acted upon by a demon. It doesn’t get as technical.
Then you have the phrase, “to have a demon in them, and it comes out of them”: EISERCHOMAI. ERCHOMAI means “to come”. EX means “to come out of.” EISERCHOMAI means “to go into.” When Jesus would cast a demon out, he would use the verb EKBALLŌ, which means “to come out of something.” Those “in” and “out” prefixes indicate that this just isn’t demon influence or demonic oppression from outside, but that there is a demon who is internally controlling the person.
She has a PYTHŌNOS demon. That’s the same kind of demon that the oracle at Delphi had. The oracle of Delphi was a priestess. She’s called “the oracle.” She had a python as part of what she was doing as the priestess. It’s interesting how serpents, like pythons, play a role, and that a demon was called a PYTHŌNOS demon, a PNEUMA PYTHŌNOS. It indicates she has a familiar spirit in the python and that she is indwelt by a demon. This gives her the ability to tell fortunes, and she was making a ton of money for her owners.
Slide 33
As we learn from examining all the different cases in the Gospels, the demons can only say what God allows them to say. When they’re dealing with Christ, they would have to refer to him as “God.” Here, they identify Paul as a “servant of the Most High God.” But Paul doesn’t need demons to validate him and to tell people who he is. So he is going to tell them to shut it down.
Slide 34
Acts 16:18: “… this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit ...” I think it’s interesting that it doesn’t say, “he turned and said to the girl.” He’s speaking to the spirit because that’s the real source of the verbiage, of the word, of the speaking.
He said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” That’s the phrase EXERCHOMAI—ERCHOMAI for “come” and EX meaning “out of.” That indicates the demon is in her—has to be in her to come out of her. ’ “And he—EXERCHOMAI again—came out that very hour.”
Slide 35
But this did not make her masters very happy. He has killed the golden goose, as it were. “But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace—that’s the AGORA—to the authorities.”
In the foreground here, this is the archeological remains of the ancient city of Philippi.
Slide 36
Here we have it identified. Here’s the forum—this rectangle here. The agora, which is the marketplace, is located over here. They are dragged over to the marketplace, to the authorities. The Basilica B is dated about AD 400. Palestra is much later. But the forum and the agora and the baths date back to the time of Paul. Over here, you have a location for the jail, where Paul and Silas were placed with others.
They’re dragged into the marketplace to the authorities.
Slide 37
Acts 16:20: “And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, ‘These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city.’ ” It’s interesting how it’s phrased there: “They’re Jews, so they trouble us.” There’s a subtle but definite hint that you’ve got a problem with anti-Semitism here in Philippi.
Acts 16:21: “ ‘and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.’” So again, this emphasis is on the fact that they have Roman citizenship, so they should know better.
Slide 38
Acts 16:22–23. Again, we have located in the front, the arena of the forum. You have the bema seat over here. And this Basilica A is AD 500. Then this again points to this area where the traditional prison is located. “… the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods.—not legal.—“And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into the prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.”
Slide 39
Acts 16:24. This shows you the area of the jail. “Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.”
Slide 40
Inside, this is what remains of that prison. They’ve got it propped up, but it was cut out of the hillside. Acts 16:25: “… at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners are listening to them.” One question we should ask is, “If we were thrown into a jail or prison, would we know hymns well enough to be able to sing them, and to pray?”
Before I went to seminary, I had picked up a book somewhere. I thought it looked interesting. It was a story of a Vietnam prisoner of war, Howard Rutledge. It was called In the Presence of My Enemies. He tells a story about being in the “Hanoi Hilton.”
You had a lot of guys who were believers. They had grown up in their Baptist church or Methodist church or whatever kind of church, and they would just know fragments of verses. But they had figured out a way and a code where they could tap out a message. So, some guy would come up with three or four words in a verse, and somebody else would complete it, and then somebody else would complete it.
Over time, they were able to put together a bunch of different promises, as well as the words for hymns. As a result of that, they would encourage each other with these verses, and they would encourage each other by singing hymns. Sometimes they would get in trouble and get beaten by their Vietnamese guards for that.
This is the kind of thing that you have: that when Christians are going through a time of suffering, a time of adversity, a time of hostility, they don’t look at the circumstances and whine and moan and complain about it. Instead, they are going to focus on the Lord and give thanks to the Lord and pray and sing hymns to Him.
Of course, this next verse (Acts 16:26) isn’t likely going to happen in our experience: that “Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors are opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.” Now, earthquakes can’t do that. An earthquake may cause the doors to fly open, but it’s not going to loosen the chains, and it’s not going to have all the chains fall off. That would be the result of an angel or a command from God to cause that to happen.
Slide 42
In the midst of this, after the earthquake (Acts 16:27), “… And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself”—because it’s a death penalty.
Some people think that this guy is in competition for being the smallest man in the Bible. Some people think it was “Knee-high-miah”. Some people think it was a couple of others. But this is a Philippian jailer who slept on his watch, so he’s the smallest.
So, Paul cries out (Acts 16:28), “Do yourself no harm, for we’re all here.”
Slide 43
Acts 16:29–30: “… he —the jailer—called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ ”
It’s interesting here. Is he asking for eschatological salvation? Or, is he just saying, “Okay, the prisoners are out. Everybody’s gotten loose. This is on my watch. They’re going to execute me. How can I be delivered from the penalty?” Whichever he’s asking, he got an answer that was more than what he expected.
Slide 44
Acts 16:31: Paul and Silas said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Now, I don’t think this is all that they said because there’s no mention of Jesus. There is no mention of sin. There’s no mention of the Cross.
It may have been part of what they were singing about or talking about beforehand. This is just typical biblical shorthand that gives the summary. This is what they said, assuming that one would know that they gave more information than this to the Philippian jailer. This is the conclusion of their gospel presentation.
A lot of people think that this is all there is to a gospel presentation, but that’s not true. You don’t just yell at people, or go by and have your “drive-by gospel presentation” and say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you’ll be saved,” and then go down the road. You have to explain what the gospel is: what Christ did on the Cross, why He did it on the Cross, and why it’s a free gift, and what faith is.
Slide 45
In Acts 16:32 we read, “Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.” This is where they’re giving him more and more information. He takes them home. His wife’s there. He says, “Tell my wife what you told me. Tell my kids what you told me.” And they’re going through the whole gospel presentation several times.
Then Acts 16:33: “… he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all of his family were baptized.”
It’s interesting. Right after Lydia is saved, she is baptized. Right after they’re saved, they’re baptized. There’s instruction though, that’s obviously in relation to the baptism. It’s not just, “Well, let’s run out and baptize them without telling them what it is all about, what it signifies, or why it’s important.”
That’s a sad thing today with baptisms: too many people don’t understand the symbolism, and they don’t explain what it is teaching. It’s teaching the fact of our positional identification with Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection. And because of that, we are entered into Christ by the spiritual baptism, the baptism by the Holy Spirit.
That is such an abstract doctrine, to understand positional truth, that God has given us this wonderful visual aid, this training aid, to help us understand what the baptism by the Spirit is all about. But nobody teaches that, I don’t think.
Slide 46
Acts 16:34, “Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced—because he had already believed. It’s a perfect passive participle—having already believed—or because he had already believed—in God with all of his household.”
Slide 47
Then in Acts 16:35–36, the next day comes. “… the magistrate sent the officers saying, ‘Let those men go.’ So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul saying, ‘The magistrates have sent to let you go.’ ” They got scared by the earthquake the night before. And he said, “Therefore depart.”
Slide 48
But Paul is not going to let them get away with it that easily. (Acts 16:37) He says, “They have beaten us …—they have broken the law—… uncondemned Romans,—we are not condemned by a court of law—and have thrown us into prison.”
What’s important here is, this shows that Paul is using his Roman citizenship. Some people have the idea that when we’re citizens of heaven, we’re no longer citizens of our earthly habitation. One who taught this was John Nelson Darby.
There have been a number of others (who taught) that your human citizenship, your earthly citizenship, has been replaced by a heavenly citizenship. But that’s not true. We have a dual citizenship.
We have responsibilities as citizens of our nation here on the earth. And we have higher responsibilities as citizens of heaven. But it’s not an “either or,” it’s a “both and,” which is lost on a lot of people because they, for whatever reason, disdain the politics.
I can understand that when you look at how politics is practiced today. But when you think about the roots of politics, if you get 10 or 15 families moving in to establish a colony or establish a new town, somebody’s got to be responsible for cleaning up the trash. Somebody’s got to be responsible for law and order. Somebody’s got to be responsible for keeping town records.
Choosing who will do that is politics. It comes from the Greek word POLIS and relates to the running of a city. Politics ultimately always boils down to the grassroots level. You have to make these decisions, and you have to select who is going to be responsible for taking care of all of these different things that must be taken care of.
So, that settlement may start off with 10 or 15 families. Next thing you know, it’s got 30 or 40 families, and 50 or 100 families. And now, you have a lot more to deal with.
Who’s going to lay out the streets? Who’s going to determine the lot sizes? Who’s going to keep the judicial records when people get in a disagreement? Who’s going to be the magistrate that’s going to settle the conflicts? That’s all local politics.
It’s going to get messed up because all these people that get involved are sinners and their hearts are “deceitful and wicked above all things. Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) Which is why you cannot put too much power in the hands of any one group or any one individual. Power corrupts, and it can get really bad. We see that today. We see a lot of corruption in this country.
I remember, a good friend of mine some 25 years ago said, “You haven’t been around the world enough to see what goes on in third-world countries, but we’re turning into a ‘banana republic.’ And the level of corruption in the US is going to become very competitive with the level of corruption in many Latin American countries.” He’s absolutely right. I’ve never forgotten that statement.
Slide 49
We get to Acts 16:38–39. We read, “And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city.” I don’t think it was, “Would you please depart from the city?” I think they were trying to run them out as quickly as they could, so that they wouldn’t get in any further trouble.
Acts 16:40, “So they—meaning Paul and Silas—went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.”
This gives us the background and how the church got started in Philippi. Don’t you think that was a lovely group of people? You had a woman who was a merchant. You had a jailer. You had a few others that were saved from different backgrounds. That’s the start of this congregation.
They are focused on Paul. It’s one of the most positive Epistles that we have in the New Testament. It’s a bit of a challenge for some people to look at this. The words “rejoice” and “joy” are used quite a bit. In fact, they’re used some 13 times in the Epistle. So, a lot of commentaries will title their commentaries using the word “joy” or “rejoicing.” However, I’m not sure that a form of that word used 13 times encapsulates the whole thing. We’ll figure it out as we go along.
Slide 50
Some have suggested that the key verse is Philippians 1:27. “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ …” Now, where else have we seen that kind of a command? In Ephesians 4:1: “… walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called.”
Philippians 1:27: “… let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit …” Unity is a major issue. There’s a problem with disruption, disunity. There are people who are having personal conflicts within the congregation.
Paul says you need to “stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” We’re here to serve the Lord, not to serve ourselves or to serve one another.
Slide 51
Another set of verses has also been stated as a possible center for the theme of Philippians. I think this fits very well with the previous verse. Philippians 2:14, “Do all things without complaining and disputing.” A lot of people skip that in their Bible reading for one reason or another.
Philippians 2:14–16: “Do all things without complaining and disputing that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast —that’s probably an instrumental participle: by holding fast—the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.”
This gets us started in our study of Philippians. We’ll come back next week and start talking about it, looking at the overview, the theme, other things, and structures related to this four-chapter Epistle.
Closing Prayer
“Father, we thank You for this opportunity to study these things, and how the church was established and founded in Philippi. And how the background, the understanding of the culture, the Roman culture, issues related to anti-Semitism, issues related to ignoring the law are very much a part of this Roman culture in this colony.
“Father, help us to understand the things that we read here, see their implications for our own thinking and for our own lives, and how we are to be transformed into the image of Christ. We pray this in His name. Amen.”
