Pauls connection to the Philippians

Philippians chapter 1, and when we left off week before last, we left off having read through verse 18, but I want us this morning just to backtrack just a little bit and to read beginning of verse 12, and we're going to read actually verse 12, 13, and 14 in your hearing this morning and want to kind of go back and look at a little bit of history concerning so that we can understand a little bit more as we move along through Philippians the context of the book of Philippians itself, the context of what

Paul, where he's coming from, where he's writing from. Remember he's writing from prison, likely from prison in Rome when he's writing this letter to the

Philippian believers. He's no doubt one of the many times that he's been persecuted and tortured for the sake of the gospel.

In the book of Philippians, we see the gospel, that term the gospel used,

I believe one commentator said nine times, I tried to count them myself, but I lose track when

I get beyond my fingers and my toes. But one gospel commentary says that the apostle

Paul used the word, the term gospel nine times in this book of Philippians, which in and of itself is not a large book, four chapters within this book, but the gospel is his focus and the theme of the gospel is

Jesus Christ. Remember that? We preached that week before last to you. The theme of the gospel is

Jesus Christ and it's no mystery Paul is not trying to veil the gospel message, he's not trying to censor the gospel message, he's not trying to make it something that folks have to, it's going to be hard to be understood.

The thing about the gospel is that God makes it plain in his word and we interpret the scriptures by the scriptures, amen?

We can commentate, make commentary on the scriptures, but ultimately the scriptures will always back themselves up and if one scripture doesn't back another point of scripture up then there's probably going to be an issue, but there's never been a case where God has ever contradicted himself, amen?

Now plenty of times we contradict ourselves. I will say things that may seem contradictory to you from time to time and it's not intentional, it's just because I'm fallible and I'm prone to failure and prone to make mistakes, but you can mark it down that the word of God is not mistake prone, it's mistake proof by the way is what

I'll say, I'll put it that way, but the apostle Paul in just the first twenty -six verses of this first chapter of the book of Philippians uses the name of Jesus Christ either by the proper name

Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus, God the Father, or just in reference to God he uses the personal pronoun he in reference to Jesus Christ, the term the spirit is used in reference to the

Holy Spirit and as we see throughout the scriptures and throughout all of what the word of God has taught us according to the scriptures that there are three in one, amen, the

Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Three in one, the three do not contradict, the three do not go contrary to each other, three equal, co -eternal, co -existent, and co -authoritative, so there's no variance there.

So the apostle Paul just continually in just this first little bit of the chapter uses the name of Jesus Christ repeatedly in reference to the gospel and so the theme of the gospel, if anybody ever asks you this, what's the gospel about?

It's about Jesus Christ. And according to the scripture, if you want to take notes in the book of first Corinthians chapter 15 verse 3, we have the gospel defined, the gospel according to what the apostle

Paul said to the Corinthian believers is this, that Christ was crucified for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures.

Some may say well I'm not a theologian, I can't understand those things. You don't necessarily have to understand all of it, but you can know it, amen?

The Lord can give understanding, the Lord's the one that'll give a man or woman, boy or girl understanding of the gospel.

We're just called to tell the gospel. So he's writing, the apostle Paul just again recap, he's writing to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops and the deacons and then he says grace to you and peace from our

Lord Jesus Christ and we went through this verse by verse with you week before last, but again

I want to pick up this morning in verse 12 and just read verse 12, 13 and 14 and then before we move any further, that's probably all we're going to get into this morning because we're going to be going back and look at the history of why the apostle

Paul had this bond with the Philippian church. He had a great love and a great affection, as a matter of fact, another of the old commentaries said this, that Philippians may very well have been one of Paul's favorite churches.

Now that may be offensive to some people because folks may think we're not supposed to show favoritism, but I'll tell you as a preacher there's places

I like to go and preach and there's places I don't like to go and preach. Man, I remember every time we'd go to Laws Chapel and the sir would have me preach,

I don't know what it was and I'm just being honest. Laws Chapel's a good church, nothing wrong with the church itself, but I just hated preaching there.

I always felt like somebody had their hand around my throat when I got up to preach. Maybe it was just because I was young and so scared,

I don't know. But in any case, there are places that you just like to go to church. And the apostle

Paul, and one of the reasons is, is that the connection that you have with the people there, amen?

I would dare say you all come to this church because you have a connection with the people who are here, amen? Otherwise, if everybody here you dislike, would you come?

If you didn't like me, would you come? Right? Paul had a bond, he had a connection with the people of Philippi and what we're going to do in the scripture, we're going to go back and I'm going to show you just a little bit from the scriptures about that bond that he had with the people of Philippi and why he had such a great love and affection for the people there.

In verse 12, the scripture says this, but I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happen to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of what?

The gospel. So it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ.

And most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Now that goes, it ties hand in hand perfectly with what the Sunday school lesson was about, about boldness to speak the gospel.

And we shared with you a week before last why it's important to read the scriptures, why it's important to study church history, because we are given confidence to continue to tell others the gospel message.

Because, and even the scripture, if you want to go all the way back to scripture itself, go to the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, and you'll see what's referred to by many as the hall of faith.

You'll see the scriptures gives us the definition of what faith is, and men of God throughout the years in biblical history that we have it, who live lives of faith according to the gospel.

Now, did all of them have the best life, naturally speaking? No, they did not. Many of them experienced great and miraculous things.

Others were tortured, were beaten, were shipwrecked, were treated badly, were killed, were torn, were sawn asunder, but they did it in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

They took heart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, from the word of God, from the faith that comes only from God himself.

So Paul said, I want you to know, brethren, that the things which have happened to me, being in jail right now, have actually happened for the furtherance of the gospel.

So now, what is this connection? So if you would turn in your Bibles to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 16.

And this morning, for the sake of just getting a little bit better understanding of why

Paul had such a bond and a connection to the people of Philippi, we're going to see here in the book of Acts the connection that is made with the people at Philippi.

So remember, Paul and Timothy are writing this letter to the

Philippian believers. So going back historically, making the connection in Acts chapter 16, this is what the scripture says.

Luke, the gospel writer Luke, is writing the book of Acts, and he says this.

Then he came to Derbe and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy.

So this is when Paul came to Derbe and Lystra and saw Timothy there, the son of a certain

Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium.

Paul wanted to have him go on with him. So this is where they kind of connected up. And he took and he circumcised him because of the

Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek. And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the decrees to keep which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem.

So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily.

So God brought Timothy and Paul together and they went about sharing and communicating what

God had given unto the apostles and the elders at Jerusalem so that it ought to be practiced throughout the churches of God throughout all the region.

And the Bible says that the church of God was strengthened in faith and increased in number daily.

Now, here we go. Here's where we're getting to this map right here. Now you can look here or you can look back there, either one you want to look at.

And I'm going to try to guide you just to give you a little bit of a picture here. In verse 6, here in chapter 16 in verse 6, the

Word of God reads like this. Now, when they had gone through Phrygia and throughout the region of Galatia, that's about middle ways right up here in the map.

Do you see that up there, Phrygia? I know the print's a little small on this. Phrygia and throughout the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the

Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia. Now, their intent was to go up into Asia and as we're going to read here, they even wanted to go up where the map goes off the screen and it's off the screen back there too up into Bithynia.

They had said in their hearts and they had said in their minds that this was the course they were going to take.

But the Holy Spirit of God said, oh no, I want you to go a different direction. And so the scripture says this, after they came to Magia, Magia is right up there above Asia.

After they came to Magia, the Bible says they tried to go into Bithynia, but the

Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Magia, they came down to Troas.

So they, instead of going up, they went over and down just a little bit. 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.

Now, Macedonia is all the way over here. So what the Holy Spirit did, the

Holy Spirit was leading them to the place that he intended for them to go to communicate and to share the gospel because he had people, the

Holy Spirit had people there that he wanted to hear the gospel. So the Bible says this, they went from Troas and then in verse 9, a man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him saying, come over to Macedonia and help us.

Now, after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the

Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. Praise the

Lord. Therefore, sailing from Troas, the Bible says, we ran straight course to Samothrace.

Now, what you probably can't see from your seat there, it's even hard to see on that back there, is that Troas was on the coast in between Macedonia and Troas.

There was the little island of Samothrace. So the Lord sent them from Troas to Samothrace.

This is the path that they took. And then the Bible says this, and the next day they came to Neapolis.

Now, what is just to the left of Neapolis? Philippi. That is where the church of Philippi was founded.

That is where the church of Philippi was. And so Paul and Timothy, having intended to go a whole other way, but having been led of the

Holy Spirit of God to go the direction that he said to go. By the way, the Holy Spirit steals guides and directs.

Amen? He steals guides and directs. So he led them in the way that he wanted them to go, to accomplish his purpose.

It is about the purpose of God being accomplished, not my purpose or your purpose.

So this connection, are you beginning to see this connection? How it was totally, as the term is used today, a

God thing. It was totally the work of the Holy Spirit of God leading

Paul and Timothy to the place that he wanted them to be. Now, here we go.

We get in just a little bit further here. Reading on, the scripture says this in verse 12, and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost part of Macedonia, a colony.

And the Bible says, and we were staying in that city for some days, and 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.

Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira.

So Thyatira is just, I guess, just down the road from Philippi there.

But in any case, this is how one of the residents of Philippi and Paul came in contact with each other, and it was the work of the

Holy Spirit bringing them together. And the Bible says a certain woman named Lydia heard us.

She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart to hear the things spoken of by Paul.

How can a man be saved? Only by God opening your heart unto the Word of Truth.

Amen? No amount of pleading, no amount of prodding, no amount of hair -pulling, nose -twisting could the preacher ever do to save a man.

It's the work of God. So the Lord opened her heart to the things spoken by Paul.

And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful in the

Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us. Now you see the connection that's being formed here.

The Holy Spirit has brought Paul and Timothy to the place he wanted them to be, to share the gospel.

The gospel created a relationship between Paul, Timothy, and Lydia and the other people of Philippi.

And that gospel relationship is what Paul's focus on is in his letter to the

Philippians. It's all about the gospel. And folks, if we're going to be connected by anything that is bonding in our lives, it has to be the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because it is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the new birth from above, that causes a man who was formerly hateful and injurious and prideful and arrogant, and to be against everybody and everything, to be able to love and to be loved by others.

Now, I would dare say, I'm going to look around the room, let me just go ahead, this is one of them moments

I'm going to eyeball everybody. Even you Natalie. I would dare say that some of you all, and you all, includes me, have a problem with wanting our own way.

Would you agree? Can I get a witness in the church house? Alright. But you know what?

The grace of God, if you have been born again, the grace of God causes you to be able to be somewhat, as you progress through your life as a believer, to be loved and lovable.

Or to love and to be lovable. If you are still so hateful that nobody wants to love you, then the person that has the trouble loving you needs to check their relationship with God, and you need to check your relationship with God.

Because brothers and sisters in Christ will love one another through it all.

Through the good, through the bad, through the pretty and through the ugly, we'll press on together.

So you see this bond here, so Paul preaches the gospel, that it became such a bond,

Lydia and her household got saved, and I'm not just making a general inference here,

I'm not making a generalized statement. When the scripture says they were baptized, that is an evidence in the

Bible, not of, or that is an outward sign of the inward change that has taken place.

That's what you all have heard. How many of you all have been baptized? And the preacher should have told you that this, the water has no saving efficacy in and of itself.

This is an outward sign, this is a sign and a show of the work of God in you, that you are dead in your sins, being buried and brought to the newness of life through Jesus Christ.

That's what the scriptures teach. And so that is exactly what the Bible teaches to us concerning baptism.

It is an outward sign. So she begged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the

Lord, come to my house and stay, so she persuaded us. Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl, possessed with the spirit of divination, met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune telling.

This girl followed Paul and us and cried out saying, these men are the servants of the

Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation, and this she did for many days.

But Paul, greatly annoyed, what's the

King James say right there? Being grieved, means exactly the same thing there, being grieved.

Hey, preachers get grieved too. Paul, the Bible says,

Paul, being annoyed, turned and said to the spirit,

I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that very hour, but when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized

Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.

So Paul and Timothy, Paul and Silas and them, they having been as a group proclaiming the gospel, being followed around by this demon possessed girl, they finally took all they could take, they cast out the demon out of her, because by the way, that's one of the signs given to the apostles at the time for the purpose of authentication of the gospel message, was to be able to cast out demons.

And that's exactly what they did. And the Bible says this, when her master saw that the hope of her gain was gone, that she wasn't no longer going to be able to bring in the money by fortune telling and soothsaying, they got mad.

They seized Paul and Silas and they bound them up. They dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.

And verse 20, and they brought them to magistrates and said, these men being

Jews, exceedingly trouble our city. And they teach customs, which are not like lawful for us being

Romans to receive or observe. Then the multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates tore off their robes and commanded them to be beaten with rods.

And when they laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.

Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in stocks.

Now, this is something that years ago, I did not know that this was Philippi that this was all taking place at.

This was in the Philippian jail. So the city is seeing everything that's going on.

The city is aware of what Paul and Silas have done. They are fully aware of the message of the gospel that Paul and Silas continually preached.

And they were aware of the suffering that was laid upon Paul and Silas, primarily as it's given to us in the scripture here.

And so having been made aware of these things, understanding that later on when we're reading the book of Philippians, the letter to the

Philippian church, this was part of that bond because they saw the suffering of Paul.

They saw the sadness and the physical torment that he went through for the gospel sake.

But Paul, remember, told them that know this, that what I'm going through is simply for the furtherance of the gospel.

Remember, he basically, we can consider it, I would say, consider it this way. Think about it like this, that Paul is saying, you remember when

I was here before? You remember how I was tortured before? You remember the gospel message that we preached to you beforehand?

Know this, people of Philippi, I love you so much that I'm willing to continue to preach this same gospel message that you got saved under yourselves.

This is the connection that he had with these people. It wasn't a passing through town like evangelists do.

They'll come in and everybody will love them and they'll go on about their way. This was a man who lived and dwelt amongst them who suffered pains of nearly death for the gospel's sake.

That's encouraging. That's why this bond is so strong between them.

So they threw them in prison for casting the demon out of the fortune telling girl.

And then the Bible says this, it's probably a familiar verses of scripture, of a familiar passage, but understanding and making the connection to the letter to the

Philippian church there makes it that much more special to me. But at midnight, the Bible says,

Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them.

Everybody know that typically a province or a county that has a jail, most of the time the prisoners that are in that jail are probably from that area, right?

Big majority. Blount county, there's probably a lot of Blount county Maryville residents.

Sevier county, there's probably a bunch of Sevierville residents in Sevierville jail. Right? You see the point

I'm making here? It's just making that connection. They were local people and they were listening to what

Paul and Silas were doing. What they were doing, they were praying and they were singing praises unto

God. Later on, maybe next week when we get to it, you'll see that Paul says this in the

Philippian letter to the Philippian church. He says, I know that this, your prayer and the supply of Jesus Christ will turn out for my salvation or my deliverance.

And he was telling them something that he not only preached, but that he practiced himself.

Praying, the Bible says, and singing hymns to God in the jail house, in the innermost prison under the city where the sewers ran according to history.

And the Bible says in verse 26 there, suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.

So when Paul and Silas were singing and praising God and praying unto the

Lord, the Bible says the foundation of the prison shook so much so immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed at that moment.

Now I don't want, I want to be careful here because it's very easy to read into this to say that everyone in the jail house got saved.

It does not say that. The scripture says everyone's chains were loosed off of them. Physically speaking what happened was the foundation of the jail house was shaken so much so that the doors were opened.

They were not able to remain closed. The frames were moved in such a way, whatever they were made of, that the doors were opened and that even the pegs or the nails that held the chains in the wall were broke off and loosed.

So all everybody's chains were loosed in that prison. And the keeper of the prison, the

Bible says, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he was sleeping through all this, all of a sudden he wakes up.

He wakes up and the Bible says, seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled drew his sword and was about to kill himself.

Because the sentence for losing a prisoner on duty was death.

And he figured I might as well just go ahead and get this over with and done because I'm getting ready to die anyhow.

So he drew his sword, the scripture says, and was getting ready to kill himself.

But Paul called with a loud voice. Paul said, praise the

Lord. That's why quiet preaching is good if it's sound preaching.

Loud preaching is good if it's sound preaching. Sometimes it's better to speak in a low tone.

Sometimes it's good when you look out and you see people sleeping just to holler so they'll wake up. That's exactly what

Paul did. Paul said he didn't say, oh, Mr.

Jailer, I'm going to kill myself. Don't do yourself any harm, sir. We're all here.

No, the scripture says that with a loud voice, hey, don't hurt yourself.

We're all here. He got his attention. He got his attention and he said, we're all here.

Do yourself no harm. Verse 29, then he called for a light and ran in.

He said, he thought, he no doubt had to think to himself, is this a trap? Somebody's hiding in the corner.

Listen, they wasn't lighted up. It's halfway dark in here. You know what he did?

He said, turn on the lights. Let me see if what you're telling me is the truth.

And the Bible says this. He said, he called for a light, ran in, and when he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas, he brought them out and said, sirs, what must

I do to be saved? He recognized what took place there was not a work of the flesh.

It was not a work of man. It was not a work of the will of man, but it was the work of a holy

God. The creator of the heavens and the earth did something there that could not have been done by natural means.

The birth, spiritual birth, you must be born again. That's spiritual. No man can duplicate that.

No man can cause that to happen in your life. Only God can do that. So the

Bible says, he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Do you see the connection here? This jailer who no doubt, who likely lived in this city, who had gone, worked his way up the ranks to a position of authority somewhat, and having been privy to what was taking place and what was going on, this connection is made all of a sudden.

We go from Lydia. Lydia invited him to stay at their house and hang out with them for a while.

After that, they was going about preaching the gospel, got thrown in jail for preaching the gospel.

By the way, not only was Lydia affected by the gospel, but this soothsaying demon possessed girl was affected by the gospel.

And now the whole jail in some degree is being affected by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God has opened the doors. God has broken the chains off of the prisoners.

And then, and now God has done his work of regeneration in the heart of this

Philippian jailer. He got curious. What do I got to do to be saved?

And the Bible says that the apostle Paul said, so they said, believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.

Hallelujah. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him, and all who were in his house, they spoke the word of the

Lord to him. What do you think that word was? It was the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. That he was buried and that he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures.

That's why Paul said in Romans, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation.

They spoke the word unto them, spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house, and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes.

I talked about how God causes a change not only of the heart and of the mind, but he changes everything about you.

He causes the man, the woman, the boy or the girl who is so full of hate that they cannot be loved or love anybody else to a place where they are loving and lovable at the same time.

And the Philippian jailer took Paul and Silas and he washed their stripes.

He took care of them. He loved them. He showed them compassion.

And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

Now does that not make a difference to you in understanding a little bit of this connection that Paul has with them?

That he wasn't just saying, oh I love y 'all and I pray for y 'all all the time. He's saying I love y 'all and pray for y 'all all the time because we have suffered in the

Gospel together. But to know, as we'll learn next week, to know this, that having suffered in the

Gospel together and having seen the power of God unto salvation through the

Gospel of Jesus Christ, that we are going to be able to make it, that we are going to be able to endure, that we are going to be able to go on, that we are going to be able to press forward in the faith.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ. And this morning simply that was it. That was it this morning.

If you would stand with us. Lord I want to thank you and I want to praise you so much that from your

Word, dear God, we not only have these random thoughts and ideas, dear

God, that are disconnected and disjointed, but that God in your Word, if we will simply study and pray and study,

God, that you make those connections. And dear

God, having made those connections, it encourages and it strengthens us in the faith, dear

God, to press on for you, for your honor and for your glory.

God, I pray that you take the Word, dear God, that was preached today and do what you see fit, dear

God. Be glorified in your church today. For it is in Jesus' name

I pray. Amen. And amen. I love you all. I thank

God for you all. Anybody got any announcements, anything that we should do?