Being The Church 4

Lydia's River outside Philippi

Philipians 1

I thank God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Paul had a very vivid memory of the first day he met the people of Philippi. Now we HAVE, in the book of Acts, a detailed account of how the church in that place got established.

We can go back to the very day he arrived there – in fact we can go back to the days leading up his visit and the reason for it.

Acts 16.6-10 Paul and his group met circumstances that stopped them going into some regions that they had in mind to go and raise up churches. They interpreted these circumstances as the Spirit of God preventing them. As they travelled west, deflected away from their intended destinations, they eventually arrived at Troas on the coast of what is now Turkey. They ran out of road! That very night, Paul had a dream that was a vision from God instructing him where to go. It was a vision of a man from Macedonia (the region where Philippi was situated) urging Paul and his team to come across the Aegean Sea to their region. The man in the vision said, “Come and help us!” In the morning, Paul discussed this with the team and they all concluded that this was the Spirit of God’s prompting to go and preach the gospel to these people.

The immediately bought passage on a ship going to Macedonia and travelled overland to the city of Philippi. Philippi was a major city with a Roman Army Base attached. There was a lot of coming and going at Philippi – an ideal place to get the gospel established. Paul’s usual way of working was to find the Jewish community in these new towns he visited. But when he got to Philippi, there was no synagogue (Jewish Chapel). In fact, there was not a very strong Jewish presence at all. After a few days they found out that a group of Jews met for prayer at an outdoor location by a river out of town. They went there and found just a group of women, not all of whom were actually Jewish. Some were non-Jews who had come to believe in the God of Israel. Paul, Timothy and his group sat down with them, introduced themselves and began to share the good news about Jesus Christ. One of the group immediately took a very strong interest in what Paul was sharing. Her name was Lydia. She was a businesswoman – a trader in dyed cloth (a special kind of purple fabric that was sold to the Roman Army for their uniforms). She had moved to Philippi from Thyatira to do business there.

As Lydia listened to Paul, ‘the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul said’. Now this reminds us of the parable of the sower and the four grounds. Lydia’s heart was opened – like the good soil. Unlike a heart like the path, her’s was opened so she could pay attention to the message. Unlike a heart like the rocky soil, her’s was opened deeply so that the message could take root. Unlike a heart like the weed-filled soil, Lydia’s was not double-minded – she was hearing a message that occupied her entire attention. It filled her mind and heart with longing to know this Christ that Paul was speaking about.

Remember what Paul said in his letter to the Pilippians: I always pray from you because of your partnership from the first day until now. This meeting down by the river was the ‘first day’. It was the day that the church got started at Philippi, because the Lord opened the heart of one of the woman and she believed in Christ.

Very soon afterwards. Lydia was baptised – probably at the same riverside spot. No delays, no probation period, no ‘seeing if it works out’. Lydia was decisive. She heard because the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to the gospel. She believed what she heart. She committed to Jesus Christ and made a public confession of it by being baptised in water. But more than that, she brought the gospel into her home and her servants (and perhaps family members) were also converted and baptised.

Still, there was more to this… she urged Paul and others to make her home their base at Philippi. She was a wealthy woman and presumably had a good-sized house. So. the church at Philippi begins with a home group in Lydia’s house.

Get this picture in your head. THIS is church! It is ordinary people in ordinary settings meeting Jesus Christ through his message and being added to a family of people who support one another to grow more like him and expand in number.

But the situation at Philippi didn’t stop there. The next significant event was the spiritual fight that developed as Satan realised that his control of Philippi was threatened. He stirred up this young woman who in turn was being exploited by evil and greedy men. She was a fortune-teller – with evidently some success at saying how things were going to turn out. This is not surprising. God allows Satan enough wiggle room to influence his people to do what he wants. Of course God overrules all this for the good of his own plan, but Satan could conspire to make some things turn out the way he inspired the slave girl to say they would. He now stirs her up to fixate on Paul and his group as they regularly walked out to the riverside meeting place. She would shout after them. Actually what she said was fairly accurate. They WERE servants of the Most High God telling the way of salvation. However, she was a terrible advertisement for this truth. The people new her as someone mixed up with the occult and financial rip offs by her minders. This was going to give a totally twisted impression of the gospel and Paul got more and more annoyed Satan’s strategy. Finally, at the right moment, he drove the evil spirit out of the woman in the name of Jesus Christ.

Suddenly, silence. No more of her demonic screeching. Paul and the group carried on, leaving the public trying to figure out what had just happened. But one thing was clear – whatever Paul and his people had, it was stronger than the spirit of fortune-telling.

Meantime, the greedy men who had used the slave girl to make money, were furious at this sudden loss of income. They attacked Paul and Silas and literally dragged them to the place in the town centre where court cases were heard. They accused them of being Jewish trouble-makers (and here we have a hint as to why there had been no Jewish chapel and why the very few Jews who were willing to raise their heads met outside the town at the riverside). The upshot was that a crowd gathered and people nearby began laying into Paul and Silas. The magistrates (who were clearly more interested in not contradicting the crowd than they were administering justice) gave orders for Silas and Paul to be beaten with rods. They were then taken, bruised and bleeding and dumped into the city jail. They were cuffed by the ankles in a cell.

You know what happened next. It is the middle of the night. Paul and Silas are full of joy – sure their wounds ached and stung, but they could see why this was necessary. They did not feel abandoned. They knew that they had the enemy worried and that Jesus Christ would build his kingdom in Philippi. So they sang. And as they sang praises to God and prayed aloud together, everyone else in the cells nearby listened. There was no banging of cups on the bars and rough shouts telling them to shut up! The prison residents (prisoners and guards alike) were gob-smacked at the joyful confidence, the strong singing and the lively prayers. Then, boom! With a mighty jolt an earthquake struck. The stone walls of the prison collapsed and the chains were broken away. The jailor panicked, assuming that his prisoners were about to escape. Knowing that he would be held accountable to death for the loss of the prisoners, he was about to commit suicide, when Paul’s voice boomed out to tell him not to harm himself because all the prisoners were still there.

The jailor, having had his heart ploughed up by the prayers and singing of Paul and Silas, the earthquake and the feeling of despair – now falls at Paul and Silas’s feet and asks: Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Simple answer: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, along with your household.

The prison was secured, but the jailor took Paul and Silas to his home where they shared the gospel with him and his family – and the jailor had their wounds cleaned and attended to. That very night he had his family were baptised. The little Philippian church had just doubled in size.

The next day, Paul and Silas confronted the authorities with their injustice. Paul was a Roman citizen as well as a Jew and as a Roman citizen he had rights that the magistrates had violated. Paul insisted that they come down to the prison to apologise. Paul did this, not to make a personal point, but because he wanted no scandal hanging over the little church that was starting out in Philippi. He did not want them to be picked on because their leaders had spent time in jail.

Before Paul and Silas left, they went back to Lydia’s house and encouraged the little church and then moved on to the next town waiting for the gospel.

Why have we gone over this history of the church at Philippi? Because we need to understand that the church is not a slick programme, or a community service. It is ordinary people who are serving Jesus Christ in the places where they live – Philippi or Onehunga. It is a spiritual fight.

It is a joyful, confident family. It is people who are convinced that the good news of Jesus Christ is what people need to here above all else.

It is people making progress in throwing off their old ways and being remade in the likeness of Christ:

I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (v6).

This is not just about our personal individual lives – though that is important. It is also about our church. Paul’s vision was that the church at Phlippi would complete all the things Jesus planned for them to do over decades – perhaps 100s of years. It is the same for us. We should feel confident that the work Christ has begun in our church will be brought to completion and contribute to the praise and honour that is laid at Jesus’ feet when he brings the present age to a close.

It is about us having love for each other and for those still lost on the outside – love that abounds and overflows.

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Are you up for this?