All right this is Philippians for
Beginners: Maturing in Christ. Lesson #1. This introductory lesson on
this particular book. Before we actually get into the text I want to give you a
little background information on this particular letter, and speaking of
letters Paul's letters contain both content, teaching and
encouragement, rebuke, commands and emotion; for example in II
Corinthians he shows sorrow that the church questioned his sincerity when he wrote
to the Galatians for example he was surprised that the church had so quickly
turned away from the true gospel. And so the epistle to the Philippians is no
different, it has content, instructions about spiritual maturity and what a
mature Christian says and does, that's what this epistle is about, what does a
mature Christian do or look like or say. But it also has emotion, Paul mentions
the words joy or rejoice 17 times in this short epistle, so it's easy to find
the emotional theme ok. So unlike other letters that he wrote in which he was
responding to questions or problems being experienced by the various
churches he planted, the Philippian letter was written and sent primarily in
response to a gift that he had received for his support from this church and news about his and his co-workers status
in Rome and an encouragement to pursue a mature lifestyle. So he gets a gift,
somebody arrives in Rome brings him a gift and he sends this letter back,
basically is what this is about. So his attitude therefore is that of a
kind of a proud parent joyfully writing to an obedient and successful child with
encouragement and instructions to keep growing, it's kind of an attaboy letter
you guys are doing great he's saying. So let's talk a bit about Philippi, a
really interesting city. Philippi was located ten miles inland from its harbor
city, Neapolis and located on a major Roman road, the Via Ignacia. It was named
after Philip of Macedon and Philip of Macedon was Alexander the Great's father.
Now in 42 BC it was made into a Roman colony and as such was intended to be a
miniature version of the city of Rome and so to this end in 31 BC Augustus,
the first emperor of the Roman Empire, transported a large number of Roman
veterans to Philippi and he granted it the Jus Italicum status which
placed it on par with colonies located in Italy, in other words you had
advantages if you were located in Italy as a city you had certain political
advantages that cities in other countries didn't and so this city which
was not in Italy it was in northern where Greece is up in the north, was
given the same kind of privileges as cities that were located in the country
of Italy, so this meant that this city was governed under Roman rather than
local Hellenistic or Greek law; every other city around it was governed by
Greek law but this city was governed by Roman law. People who were born in the
city had automatic Roman citizenship which as you know from other
studies was very valuable. They had protection under Roman law and
they were exempt from certain Roman taxes, they didn't have to pay land tax
and they didn't have to pay the poll tax which was a tax on a person regardless
of income or property, we think we're taxed a lot but the Romans if
you were breathing you paid a tax is the only time you stop paying that taxes
when you die, and so the advantage of living in Philippi and being a
citizen of that city is you paid neither land tax for your property and you
didn't pay poll tax the personal so you got a leg up you were
really it was really an advantage to be there.
So basically Philippi was a Roman character imposed over what was
originally a Greek city, so it started as a Greek city but the Romans imposed a Roman character with Roman law Roman traditions
super imposed upon this city. The language spoken there was not Greek it
was Latin. It was ruled by two officials who were answerable to Rome and not any
local Greek governors. Philippi was an island of Roman culture, Roman
privilege and politics in a sea of Greek population history and cities. Now its
population at the time was estimated to be about ten to fifteen thousand people,
40 percent of these were Roman citizens, 60 percent were Greek, the
Greek mostly peasants and farmers service providers and slaves. Religiously
it was typical of the first century city full of various gods various
pagan temples. In Acts 16:3 Luke mentions that Paul sought out a
place of prayer where certain women were gathered and this idea suggests that
there were not enough Jews if you wish in the city because according to Jewish tradition you
required 10 Jewish men to form a synagogue, if you didn't have 10 Jewish
men in order to form a synagogue with women and children you couldn't form a
synagogue so the fact that they looked and only found a group of women praying
by the riverside means that the Jewish influence was not very strong in that
city, they hadn't been able to put together 10 Jewish men in
order to establish a synagogue. It was therefore in this kind of Roman
Greek hybrid city that Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke
journeyed in the year 49-50 AD. So Paul gives no information concerning
the establishment of the church at Philippi in this letter he assumes
whoever's reading the letter knows the history, he's writing to the
Philippians so he knows that they know their history, doesn't give a lot of
information. If you want to find the information about how Philippi was
established you have to go to the book of Acts where Luke's first-hand
experience gives us a detailed account of how this church came to be in the
book of Acts. So let's turn to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 15, we have to go to
Acts to learn about Philippi okay, so let's go to Acts chapter 15 in verse 36
and we're going to review the story where Paul decides to return to the mission
field for a second time. At this time Paul and Barnabas have returned to the
church in Antioch for a time after their first missionary journey. So in order
to find out about how the church at Philippi was established we need to go
to the book of Acts because the story of that is in the book of Acts and we
pick up the story in Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas have just returned from the
first missionary journey they've reported to the church they're taking a
rest so on and so forth and now they decide it's time to go back into the
mission field. So there's a dispute that takes place that we learn about, not going to read this whole section here
but will read parts of it, so after a time in Antioch Paul proposes that he
and Barnabas returned to the mission field in order to strengthen the
churches that they had planted on their first journey which makes sense good
strategy, Barnabas and Paul have a disagreement at this point because
Barnabas wants to bring his cousin John Mark you know Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
that Mark there, isn't the full name John Mark that was Barnabas' as cousin,
Barnabas wants to bring his cousin with them. Now since John Mark had left them
to return home before they had completed the first missionary journey
Paul was against this, so Barnabas wants to bring Mark, Paul says no way we
brought that guy with us on the first journey and halfway through he bailed on
us and he left and he went back to Jerusalem and left us the two of us to
continue by ourselves, we're not going to bring him on the second journey. Isn't that
a very human thing? We read the Bible and we think oh these men were you
know not walking on the earth but they were walking on the ground they had an
argument over strategy. So they have a disagreement,
the Bible says, eventually the issue is settled as Paul chooses Silas to work
with him and Barnabas takes his cousin John Mark under his wing and he returns
to Cyprus his original home, remember Cyprus was one of the first places that
Paul and Barnabas and Mark went to on the first missionary journey because
Barnabas was from that place. So what does he do? He gets his cousin John Mark
the young guy and he goes back to Cyprus to do more work among the churches that
they had established there and Paul with Silas, and the Bible says he was a
prophet meaning he was a teacher, they leave for the second missionary journey
together. Now this is only speculation on my part but it seems that Paul had
outgrown the mentor relationship that he had with Barnabus,
remember Barnabas was the older of the two and at the beginning it was
Barnabas and Paul that were going out on the missionary journey and Barnabas took
the lead and he was teaching Paul and then all of a sudden somewhere by the
time they leave Cyprus Paul was responsible for a miracle there all of a
sudden the Bible, Luke begins to refer to Paul and Barnabas it starts
Barnabas and Paul and then it's Paul and Barnabas meaning that Paul began to take
the lead. So it seems to me that Paul had outgrown that mentor relationship that
he had with Barnabas. Silas was a more suitable partner for him now.
John Mark on the other hand still affected by his failure to keep up on
the first journey but willing to try again he was in need of a good teacher,
he was in need of a mentor, and I mentioned another little parenthetic so
much stuff in between the lines, in Acts 13 the Spirit through the prophets
through the teachers said to the church separate for me, Paul and
Barnabas for a work that I had, in other words separate these two we
want to send them out on a missionary journey; you notice that the Holy Spirit
didn't say separate for me Paul, Barnabas and Mark, he just said Paul and Barnabas,
Paul and Barnabas decided to bring Mark and that didn't work out so well
so I'm just an argument for following carefully what the Spirit says,
an argument for following carefully what the Bible says even in
what we think are small matters. Anyways John Mark was still affected by his
failure to keep up on the first journey but willing to try again was in need of
a good teacher, well Barnabas is a good teacher, he's a mentor so he takes the
young guy along with him to another work to train him. Now through God's
providential care this incident that threatened to break up one team of
missionaries actually produce two teams and we know that John Mark
went on to serve both Paul and then Peter in later years and then
of course we know he ended up writing one of the gospels, the Gospel
of Mark that's this Mark, John Mark okay. So let's talk a little bit about Timothy
let's read chapter 15 verse 41 says, "And he was traveling through Syria and
Cilicia, strengthening the churches. Paul came also to Derbe and to
Lystra. And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who
was a believer, but his father was a Greek, and he was well spoken of by the
brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted this man to go with him; and
he took him in circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for
they all knew that his father was a Greek. Now while they were passing
through the cities, they were delivering the decrees which had been decided upon
by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem, for them to observe. So the
churches were being strengthened in the faith, and they were increasing in number
daily." So we see that the objectives at the beginning were twofold, in other
words this this second journey here that they're taking they have two objectives
with it: number one to read and explain the letter sent by the Apostles
concerning circumcision. Now I need to explain that to you, in Antioch there
were some that were teaching at that time if you want to be a Christian you
have to first become a Jew, their argument was well Judaism came first and
then came Christianity and so therefore if you want to become a Christian you
first of all have to become a Jew and if you have to become a Jew especially if
you were a Gentile you need to be circumcised. So if somebody says I want
to become a Christian, well fine we'll circumcise you, you have to keep the
Jewish law and then we'll baptize you in order to become a Christian, that was the
debate going on. And so Paul was against this he said no no no no there's you
don't have to become a Jew that that's done with, to become a Christian
you have to believe in Jesus and be baptized and so they have a big meeting
in Jerusalem the Apostles, the elders, Paul, and they debate this issue and at the end of the debate the Apostles
write a letter saying basically: you don't have to be
circumcised in order to become a Christian and they give some other
directives and encouragement and they take that letter and they send it to the
church in Antioch and Paul on his second missionary journey takes that letter and
brings it to the hand carries it to churches where he had established
throughout the empire okay so that they could get this teaching as well because
this teaching had kind of creeped into the church at that time, so that was the
number one objective. We'll go on the second missionary journey will bring the
letter we'll read it you know to all the churches that we planted so we put that
thing to bed that problem to bed and at the same time we'll encourage the
churches to keep growing and giving them more teaching all right. So for this
second journey they add Timothy to their number who was probably given the tasks
originally done by John Mark, he was a junior member what do you
think he was doing? Go for this, do that, organize the list, you know write this
letter bring it over here, he was their assistant. Note that despite
championing the right of Gentiles to become Christians without the
obligation to be circumcised Paul nevertheless circumcised as Timothy
and that would seem like a contradiction, wait a minute you argued you don't have
to be circumcised to become a Christian how come you circumcised Timothy? Well he
circumcised Timothy because if Timothy's father was Greek okay he was
a Gentile, so therefore he wasn't circumcised, this was necessary not for
Timothy to become a Christian he was already a Christian but it was required
to enter synagogues where Paul preached since uncircumcised were not allowed
entry and it was known that Timothy's father was a Greek and therefore
suspected that he had never been circumcised you get the idea, it was for
convenience sake for compromise the place where Paul was originally
preaching the gospel for the first time was inside of
synagogues he'd go from synagogue to synagogue to preach to the Jews that
Jesus was the Messiah and so on and so forth, well if he brought Timothy with
him who was well known in those part people saying wait a minute he's
bringing a Gentile he's bringing an uncircumcised man into the synagogue
which you're not allowed well that would be a distraction. So in circumcising him
and making that a very public piece of knowledge they wouldn't have that
problem when they went from synagogue to synagogue they wouldn't run into any
resistance for Timothy to accompany them all right. Let's keep reading here says,
"They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by
the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and after they came to Mysia, they
were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; and
passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. A vision appeared to Paul in the
night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, 'Come
over to Macedonia and help us.' When he had seen the vision, immediately we
sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the
gospel to them." So notice how it quickly smooths over the trip, now this
is the trip that they took here, from their starting point in Antioch of Syria
to Troas their final destination, 785 miles, you don't see that in the text, they
went here, they went there, they went here, they went there let's move on, 785 miles
covered (for those who are used to kilometers, 1220 kilometers). So Luke
describes the trip in a few verses but their overland route could have taken
them several months. Now in those days the Roman road system permitted fairly
safe travel and people like Paul walked 15 to 20 miles a day, they stayed in inns,
they stayed in homes of friends, they stayed in synagogues, they
camped outdoors when they couldn't find a place it was pretty primitive stuff.
Aside from their work in the churches they established on the first trip much
of their journey was a failed attempt to go eastward, they wanted to go east they
wanted to go to Asia he wanted to preach the gospel there, and the Bible says
the Spirit preventing them, prevented them to go
east that's all it says so prevented them how? Well it could mean
a variety of setbacks or obstacles that prevented them from successfully
preaching the gospel in the East, who knows, a washed-out bridge,
maybe there was a main bridge to take them East and it was washed out no
way to get across the river or no available synagogues to preach in or to
stay with, perhaps somebody got ill perhaps they didn't have enough money.
One surefire way that God has to tell you that this ministry you're
not doing anymore is by drying the money up, if you're all out
about a certain minister you're doing your believing in it you can't raise a
single dime for it it's not a bad idea that maybe now's not the time for that
ministry or maybe God wants you to do something else, I've always said if God
calls you to a ministry He also provides for you everything you need to do it and
that goes from preaching the gospel to mowing the grass, if He calls you to a
work He'll give you the tools to do the work. And so this was their
problem, it could also have been a message in a dream or in a vision we
don't know Paul or Luke simply writes the Spirit prevented us he doesn't say
exactly how. Well once they had headed east and arrived at the coastal city of
Troas, at that point Paul has a vision that finally provides the direction that
they were seeking, the dream is general in nature, come to Macedonia no
more details of who or where or how but Paul's faith is strong enough to act
based on this limited instruction. Again this is how God works, we like
to have all the 10 steps, God is telling
me to do something I feel God is calling you to do something and
He's shown me step one two three four five six seven eight nine ten,
all good I know the way, but sometimes He just shows you step one and He doesn't
show you step two or three or four He shows you just step one and step one
you take step one and by faith, you believe that He'll provide step two and
then step three and then step four this is the way the Spirit works it's the way
it worked in his life and it's the way He works in our life as well. So in his
vision Paul saw a man of Macedonia calling out to him for help, so Paul and
his companions they set out from Troas and they head for the city of
Philippi which was a leading city in the Macedonian region, so this is why
I talked to you about Philippi at the beginning of the class give you some
background on Philippi. So once there they seek out a place where the Jews
might gather so they might find an opportunity to preach, so let's read
about that sorry there's Philippi so he's in Troas there's Philippi up there.
Luke writes, "And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside,
where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and
began speaking to the women who had assembled. A woman named Lydia, from the
city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening;
and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul." An unusual
thing, Lydia she was a businesswoman, a seller of purple colored fabric in those
days was very very expensive only rich people had colored fabric only
people in politics people who were very wealthy and influential could afford to
buy fabric that had any color in it the the ordinary people they did
not have colored fabric. So that she was a seller of purple meant that
she was a seller of fine cloth and so on and so
forth. Let's keep reading he says, "And when she and her
household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, 'If you have judge
to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.' And she prevailed upon us."
So with these baptisms here the church was established in Philippi, that's where
it starts. Let's keep reading it says, "It happened that as we were going to the
place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was
bringing her master's much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul
and us, she kept crying out, saying, 'These men are bond servants of the Most High
God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.'
She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed," I like the
way they used the word annoyed, they could have made it sound
really nice and said he was perturbed he was vexed in his spirit, no
he was annoyed like your four-year-old can't stop whining and
crying and you're annoyed yeah that kind of annoyed okay,
so "Paul was greatly annoyed, and he turned and said to the spirit, 'I command
you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!'" Oh to have that power with
our children wouldn't it be wonderful but anyways it says, "And it came out at
that very moment. But when her master saw that their hope for profit was gone,
they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the
authorities, and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said,
'These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, and are proclaiming
customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.'"
remember I said in Philippi they were Romans right, "The crowd rose up together
against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off of them and
proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. When they had struck them
with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard
them securely; and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner
prison and fastened their feet in the stocks." So in the following verses Luke
describes an incident that resembled what took place in Cyprus
during the first missionary journey, remember in the first missionary journey
Paul struck blind a sorcerer who was trying to hinder his work, in Philippi he
casts out an evil spirit from a girl who had been following them about and
drawing attention to their ministry. Paul and here's some people say well why did
he do that I mean you know the girl was pointing to them and saying hey these
guys are with the High God they've got the gospel,
well Paul did not want a witness from a girl possessed of an evil spirit, that's
why he did that. He didn't need a demon witnessing for the gospel he didn't want
one, so he quiets her by casting the demon out and of course this led to a
riot stirred up by the girls handlers who made a living using her occult
skills, nothing new there right? Men using women for profit, here is just a little
bit of a twist they're not using and abusing her sexually for profit but
they're abusing her emotionally and spiritually for profit. So Paul and Silas
are dragged before the judges they're beaten put into prison and their feet
are locked into stocks. Now the only difference here was that their
imprisonment was not caused by the Jews usually it's the Jews that caused this
problem but in this case it was the Romans the people in Philippi. So
let's read a little more instead of you know summarizing it for you I think
Luke tells the good story here. He says, "But about midnight Paul and Silas
were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening
to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of
the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were open and
everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer awoke and saw the prison
doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the
prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Do not harm
yourself, for we are all here!' And he called for lights and rushed in, and
trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them
out, he said, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' They said, 'Believe in the Lord
Jesus, and you'll be saved, you and your household.' And they spoke the
word of the Lord to him" I want you to remember this little
passage here, "And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all those
who were in his house." Remember that line okay we're going to come back to it. It says,
"Then he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and
immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. And he brought them into
his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed
in God with his whole household." Notice that the jailer had some
knowledge of the faith because the earthquake and the fact that none of the
prisoners escaped moves him to ask the same question that the crowd on
Pentecost Sunday asked Peter, they asked him the same thing men and
brethren what should we do he's saying the same thing, well what
should I do to be saved? So Luke records only a summary of what Paul taught him
which in a few words was that faith in Christ would save him but notice that
the very first thing that the jailer does after confessing his faith is
submit to baptism just like the crowd at Pentecost. Now Luke doesn't mention Paul
teaching the jailer and his household about baptism but the fact that this is
the very first thing he does after acknowledging his belief tells us that
this is what he was taught, remember I said pay attention to that verse there
that Paul taught him, what do you think he taught him? About the second coming of
Jesus you think that's what he taught him? Do you think he taught him about the
you know all the prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the New
by Jesus? Because that would have been meaningless to this guy he was a Gentile
he wasn't a Jew, no of course not it just says he taught him and then it
says and he and his household were baptized, well that was the response to
the teaching, he taught him the same thing that we teach people today: believe
in Jesus, repent of your sins, be baptized. Nothing new, people try to
complicate this it isn't complicated it's the same cycle
over and over and over again. So an interesting post script here is that
the magistrate's sought to release them quietly, we won't read that part just
summarize it, the magistrates then come to the jail and they said you
know you guys are good to go you can leave now okay.
Paul reminds them of his Roman citizenship, he tells the magistrate whoa
whoa whoa wait a minute here, you arrested us illegally, you beat us
publicly, you put us into jail without a trial and now you want us
just to leave quietly uh-uh no no you're going to have to come
to the jail in broad daylight and you will have to release us publicly, why?
Well because Paul did not want to be accused in the future that he was a
runaway that he had escaped, oh there was an earthquake and he escaped and they
would have a reason to hunt him down and to arrest him that's, number one and
number two, the magistrates remember I told you Philippi was like a mini Rome
in the middle of a Greek culture well being a you were not allowed to beat a
Roman citizen publicly without a trial you were not allowed to put a Roman
citizen in jail I mean it was a high privilege to be a Roman citizen and they
had done this to them illegally and so Paul had them over a barrel and we
understand that they eventually came and very meekly asked them to leave. And so
the judges release him publicly and legally, remember that Philippi is in
Macedonia with the Greek history but is now a Roman city under Roman law and
jurisdiction. Paul pays a farewell visit to Lydia his initial convert in her
household and then he makes his way to Thessalonica and preached
the gospel there. So that's how the Philippian church was first established,
there's the jailer and these women that's the first church
plant, that's how it started okay. So when we go back to study the letter
you'll understand how this church was originally begun. Some more
information as far as background the letter: the author is Paul there's
little doubt that Paul the Apostle is the author of this letter since he names
himself and his co-worker Timothy in the opening verse. Also the early church
spoke often of this letter with church leaders as far back as Clement who lived
95 AD and Ignatius who lived 107 AD they make mention of his letter in their own
writing. So you have you have leaders of the church, historians of the church who
lived at that time who in their own writings mentioned Paul's letter to the
Philippians that they had read it and they had circulated, very important
because there were a lot of letters circulating that were fakes,
there were a lot of letters circulating at the time with the names
of Apostles attached to them not written by Apostles, but some guy would write a
letter and then he'd put Peter's name I tell you know Joe would write a letter
and he it wouldn't go anywhere if it was the Epistle of Joe but if it was the
Epistle of Peter oh that would get play. So making sure that the authorship was
authentic, that it was an authentic apostle was very important especially in
the early time of the church. So we know this is Paul there's lots of
historical evidence. The occasion of its writing as I mentioned before, the
traditional answer to this is that he was in prison in Rome at the time,
we know that after two years of imprisonment at Herod's Palace in
Caesarea by the Sea he had appealed to Caesar's court for a judgment on his
case since both Roman governors remember in the book of Acts, King Felix and King
Festus they refused to release him because they wanted to keep the favor of
the Jewish leaders who hated Paul wanted to kill him, they couldn't allow these
guys to kill him but they kept him in jail there to keep the Jewish leaders
happy. So what does Paul do? Well again he's a Roman citizen and because he's a
Roman citizen he says you know what I'm not waiting for a trial here because
maybe these guys from Jerusalem are eventually going to show up and kill
me anyways I appealed to Caesar, well the moment
he appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen that took the case out of the hands of
the local governors and they had to transport him to Rome and so we read in
the book of Acts his trip he goes to Rome he's in a Roman not jail
he's under house arrest so he's under house arrest for two years
while he's waiting for his trial and while he's under house arrest those two
years he receives guests and people come in and out and they bring him money to
support himself and so on and so forth it's during that two-year period that he
wrote this particular letter. Let's see, he was guarded only by one soldier
as I say during that house arrest, he was free to receive visitors and those who
came for teaching and training, this situation would then explain several
references made in his letter to the Philippians: first of all his influence
for the gospel on the praetorian guard, well he'll talk about that in
Philippians. Who is the praetorian guard? The praetorian guard were elite soldiers
who served as personal bodyguards to the emperor or to high-ranking government
officials. So he talks about them in Philippians. It also explains the travel
of both Timothy and Epaphroditus from Rome to Philippi to bring news, in other
words he had his helpers go back and forth; now if he was in a typical jail
he'd be in chains but because he was under house arrest people could
visit him he'd write letters and he'd send them off through this letter this
place or that place, he'd continued doing his ministry and
also it explains his gratitude for their financial help in the past. In other
words the Philippians had sent Paul money while he was in jail because he
had to eat he had to get clothes and he had to take care of his personal
needs. And then one last thing I want to mention here is the date: Paul is in Rome
somewhere again between 60 and 62 AD okay. Awaiting his trial before Caesar
he seemed confident that he would be released and he looked forward to
the continued ministry among them. Philippians was written during this time
period and delivered by Epaphroditus, one of the helpers, who had originally
brought the gift from the church to Paul in Rome. So Epaphroditus is in Philippi,
they take a special collection of money, he takes that money he travels to
to Rome, he brings the money to Paul so that Paul can take care of his needs,
while Epaphroditus is in Rome he falls ill, he was supposed to go back right
away but he gets deathly ill he nearly dies but he doesn't he's revived and
so Paul writes this letter to the Philippians and he even mentions
Epaphroditus who was sick and he's a great servant and so on and so forth and
he gives this letter to Epaphroditus and he says hey take this back to the
Philippians this is my way of saying thank you and I want to encourage them
and give him news of myself. Now there are other theories about the date in
place of writing some people think he wrote it from Ephesus in 49 or Caesarea
but the 60-62 date from Rome accommodates most of the additional information we
have about the church and it is the conclusion of most scholars. I said one
last thing but I was mistaken this is the last thing the outline; as I've said
to you before you can outline stuff in different ways but this
is the basic outline because it follows the thought pattern, maturing in Christ,
that's what Philippians is about, what does a mature Christian look like, sound
like, act like. So the greeting, Paul's prayer, Paul's condition, and then Paul's
request: continue maturing in Christ and he gives six examples of maturity in
Christ and then that is followed by closing remarks. So that's this is the
outline we're going to follow today this lesson here is simply an introductory
lesson giving you some background information you know so we can make
sense of that. Next time we get together we're going to do a Philippians
1:1-11 so in your Bible reading I suggest that you read all of
Philippians but at least verses 1 to 11 so you'll be familiar with that.
Alright that's lesson 1 thank you very much for attention.
