Philippi
For discussion of movement to (and including) Philippi,
watch from 0:00 to 13:50
Acts 16:11-15
11 So after setting sail from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and on the following day to Neapolis; 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony; and we were spending some days in this city. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were thinking that there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled.
14 A woman named Lydia was listening; she was a seller of purple fabrics from the city of Thyatira, and a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. 15 Now when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
Paul said, “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you” - what? - “free.” There’s only one kind of liberation. And if a person really wants to be liberated, then he comes to Jesus Christ, he is liberated from sin and death and Satan and hell, and he is free to accept all the eternal blessings of God and to accept himself as God made him and be content to be what God designed him to be. That’s liberation.
20…we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:20
John MacArthur
Now, as the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ and His salvation, arrives in Europe, the Holy Spirit focuses our attention on the inevitable dichotomy that always occurs when the gospel is presented: some who believe and Satan who moves in to try to disrupt. And it is done in presenting to us two women, one named Lydia, the other, a nondescript (that is, no name) who had a spirit of divination. These are the first two people we meet personally on arriving in Europe, two women. These two women that the Spirit focuses on really reflect back to us the portrait of every woman - or, for that matter, every man. For everybody falls into the category of Lydia or the category of the enslaved woman, enslaved by Satan.
Now, here is a lady who has been free and yet in her freedom, the one thing that dominates her mind immediately is to go home and take care of the place for those people who have need. There is no greater and more glorious responsibility than that.
She became - she was a gentile who became a proselyte to Judaism, seeking God. She was a prepared heart. All God really needs to work with a prepared heart is proper content. Right? He takes the prepared heart, He brings along Paul and Silas, and they pour in the proper information, and God has what He needs to open her heart, and that’s exactly what happened. “Whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul.” A ready vessel, the right information, and God can open the heart. That’s salvation. She was saved. She was born again. She was justified. She was made righteous. And the results? Verse 15: “she was baptized.”
Acts 16:16-18
16 It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave woman who had a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing great profit to her masters by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us and cried out repeatedly, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation.” 18 Now she continued doing this for many days. But 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!” And it came out at that very moment.
Do you know that 2 Corinthians 11 says he appears as an angel of light and his ministers appear as angels of light? A person said to me yesterday, called me on the phone, and very disturbed about a person who was saying they had a certain experience, they knew it couldn’t be of the devil because they did it in the name of Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean anything. Satan’s been doing things in the name of Jesus Christ for centuries. White magic by definition is black magic in Christian terms, that’s all.
Satan isn’t stupid. That’s why John says you better get down close and look and try the spirits to see whether they be of God. It’s not always evident on the surface. This is Satan’s most subtle avenue.
John MacArthur
There you see two women, and they really mirror all of us. We’re - either belong to Jesus Christ and are liberated or we belong to Satan and we’re slaves. You say, “What’s the difference, John?” The difference is this - listen to it. Lydia sought to know God, and Lydia listened, and God opened her heart. That’s the difference. And it’s true for you. If you seek to know Him, and if you listen to His Word and respond when He opens your heart like her, you shall be free for real.
….we had already suffered and been treated abusively in Philippi,….
1 Thessalonians 2:2
Acts 16:19–40
19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was suddenly gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities, 20 and when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, “These men, Jews as they are, are causing our city trouble, 21 and they are proclaiming customs that are not lawful for us to accept or to practice, since we are Romans.”
Paul and Silas Imprisoned
22 The crowd joined in an attack against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. 23 When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely; 24 and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 Now about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains were unfastened. 27 When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul called out with a loud voice, saying, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!” 29 And the jailer asked for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas; 30 and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
The Jailer Converted
31 They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of God to him together with all who were in his house. 33 And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. 34 And he brought them into his house and set food before them, and was overjoyed, since he had become a believer in God together with his whole household.
35 Now when day came, the chief magistrates sent their officers, saying, “Release those men.” 36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The chief magistrates have sent word that you be released. So come out now and go in peace.” 37 But Paul said to them, “After beating us in public without due process—men who are Romans—they threw us into prison; and now they are releasing us secretly? No indeed! On the contrary, let them come in person and lead us out.” 38 The officers reported these words to the chief magistrates. And they became fearful when they heard that they were Romans, 39 and they came and pleaded with them, and when they had led them out, they repeatedly asked them to leave the city. 40 They left the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brothers and sisters, they encouraged them and departed.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6
10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked an opportunity to act. 11 Not that I speak from need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with little, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. 14 Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my difficulty.
15 You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone; 16 for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs.
Philippians 4:10-16
