Philippians Intro-Overview

All right, I find that the task of reviewing a book and overviewing it is a challenge. And I think the reason is, and on the last slide this morning, I'm going to list all the resources I utilized to get this information. And I wouldn't say they're contradictory, but it's interesting to see people's different view of the history here. So what I've done is, in a very systematic and outlined form, go through this with you this morning. and welcome input in terms of people with more history knowledge than I do in this space. But I can't wait to get back to verse by verse next week. So anyway, thank you, Roger, for the challenge. It's been very informative. I feel like I'm taking a class here at this point. Thank you for accepting the challenge.

The best kind of summary of the historical background of Philippi as a city, I think, came from Constable. So I'm going to kind of paraphrase, but paraphrase a little bit, basically lift his historical sketch, and we'll move on to other input as we progress through the slides this morning. We're launched. Okay, the name of the city of Philippi was originally Crinides, which is in the literature meaning springs.

Okay, so presumably there's some water there. It's not too far from the sea, so I guess that really fits kind of the area around Philippi. Secondly, it stood about 10 miles inland from the Aegean Sea and was in the Roman province of Macedonia. I'm going to show you a map in a second, but Macedonia is kind of Eastern Europe. including northern Greece and that area around the Mediterranean. I found this kind of interesting, and this was really documented by a number of people.

In 356 BC, Philip II, who was not only king of Macedonia, this whole region of the world, but he was the father of Alexander the Great. And he renamed the town after himself, and then enlarged the city. So Philippi is King Philip II of Macedonia. And so this happened like three and a half centuries before the time of Christ, and really four centuries before the new church was really founded. All right, then in 42 BC, the Romans, Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus defeated Brutus and Cassius in a battle fought just west of Philippi. Historical trivia, right? What are you doing over here? You're acting like a cheerleader. Good job, guys. All right, we'll give the credit here to Constable.

And after that battle, Philippi became a military Roman colony. Okay, so this is under the auspices and administrative oversight of Rome. Of course, Rome was all over the place. All right, then subsequent battles occurred in 41 and 31 BC, which resulted in Philippi receiving an even higher status And the citizens enjoyed something we're all looking for here today, autonomous government, immunity from taxes, how about that one? And treatment as if they lived in Italy. So this is kind of a special, special city that because of its recent history and some of the battles that took place, lived a pretty special life. So if you will, it's kind of a culturally developed place, right? And then Luke's description of Philippi was as a leading city in the district of Macedonia.

That's recorded in Acts 16.12. I didn't post the verse, although we'll have a few verses that I'll cite today.

And it really, I think, probably refers to this being a cultural status, which was really one of the leading cities in at least the Eastern Roman Empire. So this was a Roman colony. But they had a lot of freedom, a lot of autonomy, as if they in fact existed within the country of Italy. The Via Ignatia, which is the main highway from Rome to the east, ran through Philippi. and brought much in the way of commerce and travelers to Philippi. It was kind of maybe a resort type of city. It's not on the sea, but it's about 10 miles inland from the sea, so they had access to the water, in fact, if they wanted.

So that's that's kind of Constable's view historically of the city itself, its origin, how it got its name, and ultimately the fact this was kind of a culturally refined place for people to not only live in but to grow and a lot of freedom there for the people who lived in Philippi. Bob. I also heard that Philippi was a city that the Roman military retirees And they kind of hated the Jews. That's why you never found the synagogue. Well, we're going to kind of get into that a little bit, but it really was a military colony.

There's no doubt about that. I'm going to mention that a little bit more going forward as we look at the church in terms of its development. Good, good point, though. So let's look at the history now of the epistle. And this comes from a wide variety of sources.

And on the last slide, I'll cite for you all the sources I utilized. Many sources here, and they were useful, somewhat duplicative, a little bit in contrast, but really pretty accurate, I think, for the best that we could do in 2024, right? Okay, the letter was written to the believers in Philippi in around 60 to 62 AD. I see dates of 60, 61, and 62 all quoted, while Paul was under house arrest in Rome awaiting a trial before the emperor Nero at that time. Now, I thought this was useful. And there were a number of places in script and online that I could pull this. But I thought this might be the most accurate and easily portrayed. Let's put this into perspective of Paul's history. Paul, the Road to Damascus was around in, what, 35 AD, something around then. And his first missionary journey took place somewhere between 45 and 47 AD.

And ultimately, no letters were written at that time. Then a secondary missionary journey occurred between 51 and 54 AD, and the two books that were written from Corinth were the letters to the Thessalonians. 1 and 2 Thessalonians are the first epistles that Paul wrote.

Yeah, that was at the time of his second missionary journey. And by the way, that's one, the second missionary journey is kind of when he went through Philippi. So we'll come back to that. The third missionary journey occurred from 54 to 58, and four books resulted from that missionary journey.

The letters to the Corinthians, both first and second, letters of the Galatians, and finally a letter to Rome. Some of them were written from Ephesus, some from Macedonia, which is a big area. It's not totally clear where those came from, I presume, and several from Corinth itself. So Paul's letters. to the Ephesians and to the Romans were written from Corinth. Now, the first Roman imprisonment was between 61 and 63. These are the prison letters.

In fact, included in those are Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians, and Philippians. And likely, the letters were transported by Epaphrodites both to Ephesus and to Philippi in his journeys back to Philippi. We'll come back to that. And then between the first and second imprisonments, he wrote to the letter to Timothy, the first letter to Timothy from Macedonia, and then the letter to Titus from Ephesians.

And then he's imprisoned again in Rome, and that's his final letter, 2 Timothy. So I thought it was kind of interesting to kind of look at the history of the letters. and that the letter to the Philippians was relatively late. It was not the last letter, but it was probably the last letter he wrote when he was in prison in Rome.

Have any of you been to the Maritime prison in Rome? And Margaret and I have been there. I've been there several times. And the last time when we went with Mike and Courtney and Brian and Julia, it was closed. We couldn't get it. Yeah, we don't know why it was closed, but we couldn't go there. So this prison, you go down about, what, 12, 15 steps. It's kind of a curly staircase, and it's a very small chamber. And remember, in those days, prisoners were chained to the guard. And I guess meals were dropped down. I mean, he survived. What they said also was, you know, the only way they were fed is if they had family or... Same as Mexico. Yeah, who would bring the meals for them. And so, of course, he was in Rome.

And at the time, there was really just a hole. It's a hole in the ground. Now they actually have a staircase that goes down because so many people want to go down and see where this is, you know. And that's been going on for many, many years. But it's a small chamber. I would say it's no bigger than this area, right in here, over to the edge of this monitor here, over to the wall, and maybe back here. So I would say it's about four by three and a half or something. I mean, it was a very, very small place.

So that's where he was for three years. Incredible that the Lord sustained him, and he was really a very, very special person in terms of the history of the church. But it seems to me like one of the things they said was, because he was literate, they would bring him out of there to teach even the guards and other people there because he knew how to read and write. And so he was very educated compared to a lot of his caregivers. And so they would bring him out of his cell to teach and to read.

I'm not sure where it is in scripture, but it says that Paul was ultimately totally educated and learned about the ways of Moses. I mean, he was really probably an incredible man, both as Saul, fairly intelligent, well-informed, and then as Paul, now the ability to be a new believer and spread the word like he did. I mean, he's clearly the foundation of the church in terms of its doctrine and application. All right, after several roadblocks in his travel, this is during the second journey, Paul went to Troas, where he was given the vision of a Macedonian man to come to Europe. And on his way, Paul went to Philippi on that journey. And Luke joined both Silas and Timothy there. So ultimately, they all hooked up together. Ultimately, Luke was no longer present later on when he was back in Philippi.

The letter must have been written after the three other epistles in the jail were sent from Rome, because Luke was likely no longer with them. And I think that's the evidence people use the fact that Luke, because Luke wasn't there, was probably the last letter, whereas Luke would have been there during the earlier letters that were being transcribed. And I'm not so sure how documented that really is. But I didn't find a lot of evidence to support that. But I did list it as the history of the epistles.

And when Paul arrived in Philippi, he discovered that the man of Macedonia was a woman, Lydia, holding a prayer meeting by the riverside. So that's well stated in Acts 16, 13 through 16. No, the church was founded around 53 AD during his second missionary journey when Paul and Silas were with him, and presumably Luke joined him.

So here's the map. So let's look at this fairly carefully. This is the second missionary journey. You see this starting in Jerusalem, up through Asia Minor, And then across the sea, the Aegean to Philippi, which is now Europe. So we're looking at the area of Macedonia. And so Philippi, you see, is a little bit inland. Remember, 10 miles from the Aegean Sea, but yet inland.

And then ultimately the second missionary journey carried him to Thessalonica, to Berea, to Corinth, and then back through Ephesus to Caesarea, and finally back to Jerusalem. So that's the second missionary journey. And if you want to know what Philippi looks like today, here it is.

Margaret and I had the privilege of, in fact, we've been to Athens. We haven't been to Corinth. We're very close to Athens, actually. I would miss that. But we have been to Ephesus. And I think Ephesus, I mean, there's much more preserved at Ephesus than here, although this is just one. Well, we've been to Ephesus twice. Yeah. So Ephesus really is an incredible place.

I mean, what we've learned there is not only was it a well-developed area, but in fact, they probably had toilets. I mean, they had adequate sewage. Yeah, they had actual rainwater and tiled bathrooms with big bathtubs. And the fact that Philippi was really a cultural center and maybe a military retirement place for Roman soldiers probably was pretty well developed too. Although I think the ruins there are, I mean this was just one photo I pulled online to show this to you.

All right, in part, after casting a demon out of a girl who was demon possessed and making money for her owners, Paul was in prison. So one of the first things that happened after he got to Philippi was, in fact, he, in fact, cast the demon out of a girl who was, in fact, making money. And that was one of many things that I think related to Paul's imprisonment. When we studied the book, we're getting the details of all this. But remember, you know, that he was released from the prison and people came to the Lord through that whole story. So we'll be studying that in our studies of Philippi, the letters of the Philippians. I wondered about his imprisonment. How long was Paul actually in Philippi before he kind of got ran out?

I don't think for very long. I don't I don't I can't like he He taught a lot of people and established a church. From the scripture, it seemed like he wasn't there very long. That's my opinion, too. But from the church that got started, in the back of my head, I'm thinking maybe he was there longer than we think. Possibly. I did not find an accurate description as to how long he was there. So if somebody else knows that, I'd love to learn about that.

Thanks, Bob. It's possible, likely, that Paul visited Philippi at least one other time, and the Church of Philippi kept in close touch with the Apostle. And ultimately, Philippians 4.15 points to this.

Now, the 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 he only. So we have lots of evidence that the church at Philippi was really, I'm going to cite other references for that in a few minutes, but for supporting him. you know, pretty regularly. And I don't have the interval, but at least Paul was thankful for that. He did mention his visit to Philippi and the return as he traveled from Greece to Macedonia during his third missionary journey. So presumably, his third missionary journey shows him going through Philippi. So presumably, he touched base with the church there while there, although we have no details about that particular trip.

2016, and we sailed away from Philippi. So that's the evidence. We sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread and came unto them in Troas in five days where we abode seven days. So that's the evidence in the third journey that at least They may have sailed away from Philippi.

Philippi was not on the coast, but 10 miles from it. You get the sense that he must have been through there. Troas is just across the Aegean. It's not that far. So I'm presuming from that scripture that he was there, but we, I mean, it's just, there's things like that that we just don't know for sure, but this is probably relatively unimportant.

I mean, we're just trying to look at the book and kind of what relates to the book, why it was written, and we're going to come to that in a second, and ultimately how Paul ultimately related geographically and timely to this whole development. I think it's important to identify up front that her plephrodites played a major role in Paul's life.

When the church heard that Paul was in prison in Rome, they immediately dispatched Epaphroditus, their pastor, presumably, to Rome with words of sympathy, a gift, and many expressions of love. And Epaphroditus then was the person to transport Paul's letter, likely also to Ephesus, after he went to Philippi. So that's kind of the history that relates to Epaphroditus.

Now, looking at the history, the history of the city, the history of the development of the epistle, Paul's travels related to that, now let's look at the evidence that, in fact, relates to this particular epistle. I think the invention of Paphrodite's journeys between Rome and Philippi and back and forth really provides evidence that this epistle really is well-founded in terms of its history. The style and manner of thought are consistent with that of Paul.

If you look at his other epistles and you read the letter to the church at Philippi, it's all Pauline. You know, Hebrews, we debate, Bob, we have Roger on Tuesday studies whether Hebrews, who's written, Wayne, who wrote Hebrews? And I don't, my personal opinion is Paul did not write Hebrews, but others feel that he did. I think the style of Hebrews is somewhat different, although Paul would be an appropriate person to write it, for sure. But here, this epistle is consistent with all those other epistles. So that's another line of evidence that this is a valid source of scripture.

The reason for Paphrodite's journey to Rome and back to Philippi, I think, is somewhat redundant in terms of the other one I just mentioned. So here in verse 25 of chapter 2, yet I consider it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my need. So Paul's acknowledging, again, the importance of Epaphroditus coming from Philippi. And in verse 18 of chapter 4, he says, indeed, I have all and abound, I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. So again, documented several times, this Epaphroditus was from Philippi, this back and forth mission that he had in terms of furthering the ministry that relates to the letter.

All right, and I think we've alluded to this, the contribution of the church to Paul's support is more evidence of the validity of this. In chapter four, again, verse 10, but I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last, your care for me has flourished again, though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. So we'll again be looking at that in more detail. I think that Timothy had been with Paul at Philippi during Paul's second missionary journey is additional evidence that this epistle is well-founded historically. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state. So this ultimately anticipates the fact that Paul would join Timothy at one point at Philippi.

Now, you know, if we look at some of the patriarchs of the faith, and Polycarp is one. You don't have to know too much about him. He was probably taught by John the Baptist, but his time lasted until the late first century. But the letter of Polycarp to the Philippians, which was written about 50 years later, wherein it refers to the blessed and glorious Paul who wrote letters to you, and that Polycarp knew this epistle seems clear from the distinct references to it in his letters. So if you look at Polycarp's letter, I did not go pull the original letter, but he mentions Paul and the Church of Philippi multiple times, I guess, in that letter.

Now, Arrhenius is kind of an interesting guy. He apparently was another. They called these people bishops. Polycarp was a bishop, and Arrhenius was a bishop. But Arrhenius went kind of more into northern Europe. And apparently, his ministry, by the way, both believers, both part of the new church, was in southern France. So Arrhenius and his work against, heresies, I guess chapter, I don't know if it's chapter or pages, what age, quotes from every chapter of Philippians and unhesitantly ascribes it to Paul.

So I think, you know, having individuals who were not part of the content of the letter itself, I think helped document the fact that this letter is really valid and the evidence is entirely support of this. All right, so now let's get more to the scriptural value of the epistle. So I've listed a number of things that I think are consistent with the purpose.

The first is that the church at Philippi was formed in a Roman colony, as Bob mentioned, a military colony, with a relatively more developed cultural level, and was less Jewish and more Gentile than all the others. Moreover, this was the first church established in Europe. Okay, so that's the purpose. First church, and really the first evidence that Paul's ministry was to reach out to the Gentile world instead of the Jew. Now Paul spent plenty of time with the Jews too. We go through Acts, we find that historically the Jewish ministry was his initial ministry, but ultimately he and Peter split up a little bit in terms of where they were going to direct the information about the new church.

The importance of women, I think, in the church was already in existence. For instance, Paul first attended, as I mentioned earlier, he first attended a prayer meeting of women, not in a synagogue. This was the river. And by record, Lydia was the first convert in Europe. Moreover, other women were prominent in the church.

Now, you can interpret this as maybe there was a little bit of a problem here. But I beseech you, Odius, and beseech Sintis, that they be of the same mind to the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true yokefella, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other of my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life. Some people interpret this as maybe Euboeus and Synges, I'm not sure how to pronounce that, were not in the same mind. So they're being encouraged to be in the same mind.

I think the fact that the new church needed to have doctrine that was sound and repeatable and ultimately defended was something that's maybe referred to in this particular verse. We'll come to that in more detail when we study it. I think the third purpose is to exemplify the generosity to support the work of the Lord, and the Philippian church probably is one of the best examples of ongoing support.

And there's evidence from 2 Corinthians and also from from Philippians, and I'll read these verses. 2 Corinthians 8, 12. Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, how that the great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded into the riches of their liberality. And in Philippians, how about, in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded into the riches of their liberality.

Not because I desire a gift, but I desire a fruit that I think is really interesting. Not that I need the gift, but I desire the fruit that may abound is to your account. I mean, that's really acting out of himself in terms of his own support to that the word would be spread. And finally, the epistle is practical, and its theme includes joy, Christian experience, unity, and thankfulness.

And it's interesting, the soundness of doctrine is really assumed here. Now remember, Philippians is one of the last letters written. It's not the last, but one of the last letters written. And ultimately, I think the fact that the doctrine has been well articulated already, it may not have been totally available to the Church of Philippi. But I think he's assuming that this knowledge is well founded there.

So I'm going to end by showing the sectional description of the book that we're going to be starting next week. Chapters 1-30, Schofield calls the introduction, Macaulay calls it Paul's circumstances. 1-7, salutation at Thanksgiving. 8-30, Christ the Christian's life. Remember, for me to live is Christ. 8 through 30, rejoicing in the spirit of suffering. I had some redundancy there, forgive me for that. And Paul's expectation of deliverance in 19 through 30. So that's chapter 1.

Chapter 2, entitled Christ the Christian's Pattern, Rejoicing in Lowly Suffering. Exhortation to meekness and unity in verses 1-4, 5-8 the humiliation of Christ, 9-11 the exultation of Jesus, 12-16 the outworking of salvation, 17-30 the apostolic example. Chapter 3, 1 through 21, described as Christ, object of the Christian's faith, desire, and expectation. And the verses sequentially, warning against legalizing, warning against legal righteousness.

Christ, the object for the believer's faith for righteousness. Christ, the object for the believer's desire for fellowship and resurrection power. And finally, the appeal, not finally, appeal for many among believers. And no compromise for the sake of unity, and Christ objects to the believer's expectation. And chapter four, Christ in Christian strength rejoicing through anxiety, exhortation to be of sound mind, the presence of the God of peace. the believer's sufficiency through Christ and concluding remarks. So that's the content of the book of Schofield sees it.

I could have gone back and redeveloped that, but I thought he has more wisdom than I do. So I'll just cite what he says. Here are the sources of the lesson today that I turned to Constable, to Jason Fossett Brown, to Schofield, to Macaulay, to Weiss, and several online references for the photos that I pulled here today. So I want to give credit to them. I didn't document each and every bullet point, but that was the source of the material.

So hopefully I have some sense of the history of Philippi as a city, the kind of steps that related to the epistle being written, the timetable for that, and ultimately the purpose for the book, and ultimately now we have an outline to look at going forward. Raja, I mean we're taking out smaller sections and versions than what's described here.

Questions? Again, I felt this could be a whole, you know, class in biblical history that we could take on for weeks and weeks and weeks. Thoughts, questions, comments? When can we go? When can we travel there? Well, we've not been here either, so maybe the old church should... Maybe not right now, although I don't know. Not right now is probably not a good word. All right, let's close in prayer. I'm sorry, close in prayer. Father, we're thankful for what we gather here today.

I trust and hope that it's been valuable information for us as we set the stage to study one of the most important epistles that Paul has given us. There's so many practical aspects of this. We're uplifted. The Church of Philippi was fairly mature. There's a lot to learn, but also there's a lot to learn, too, in terms of things that we should watch along the path. We're interested in unity, we're interested in Christ being central in our lives, and Paul exemplifies all these points in this particular book. So may the Spirit lead as we continue week by week to unravel this book and apply it to our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.