This is one of the many Scriptures about which I really wish that we had a lot more information.
There can be little doubt that Philip was a great man of God, whose biography would be a great inspiration to everyone who loves the Lord.
In a couple earlier messages, and then again last Sunday, we have made a quick survey of what we know.
The Bible says that he was a man of “honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom.”
It makes me think that he was a disciple of Christ even prior to the crucifixion.
Then he became a highly blessed missionary of the church in Jerusalem, leading souls to Christ beyond the boundaries of Israel and Judah.
Race, culture, and ethnicity were things that didn’t concern him very much, probably because he realized that his earthly citizenship didn’t matter all that much either.
Since Philip was full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, I guarantee that he didn’t marry outside the faith.
This lady was probably an help-meet in the true sense of the word.
And I would suspect that she was as godly and Biblical as Philip himself.
you can be reasonably sure that Mom does, or did, the same.
I think that a full biography of Philip the servant evangelist and his family would be a thoroughly wonderful book to read.
But the fact that we are only given the appetizer and not the full meal makes me hungry for more.
I am filled with questions, for which I’m probably not going to get a lot of answers before I die.
And if you don’t already have some of these questions, I’m going to be generous and share mine.
we don’t need to know that Philip had four daughters who were virgin prophetesses.
Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit led Luke to bring this apparent trivia to our attention.
Pourquoi? But why?
Because obviously, Luke was impressed with these four young ladies.
Have you ever met someone, or some family, and been immediately overcome with them?
Is there such a thing as love at first sight?
And in this case, I picture him meeting four, sweet, respectful, godly, beautiful teenage girls,
and he was enthralled, moonstruck, smitten.
You who have never been a middle-aged man, may not understand, but I think that I do.
He had an almost immediate Christian love for these young ladies,
and the Holy Spirit “permitted” him to do it.
This is not information which we really need to know.
So may I respectfully suggest that it’s because the Lord has a sense of humor?
Yes, I believe that the Holy Spirit inspired this verse of scripture, but the Spirit doesn’t tell us why?
I can picture the Lord smiling down at foolish Bible commentators, wicked heretics, and common Christians and saying, “Go for it. What do YOU think this means?”
But at the same time, there must have been something that the Spirit wanted us to learn.
I wonder what that something is?
Maybe we have to break down the verse to begin to find an answer.
A secondary question might be: why is “virgin” considered to be dirty word?
Throughout the Bible the word is used with the utmost respect.
It stands in contrast, not necessarily to wives and mothers, but to whores and other wicked women.
It is an honourable thing to be a virgin, despite what the world seems to say today.
But I think that in this case, Luke was merely telling us that these were YOUNG ladies.
They were UNMARRIED, moral, Christian young ladies who were still living at home with their parents.
The four daughters of Philip were not little children, adolescents or youngsters.
But they WERE most probably teenagers as far as their years were concerned.
but at this time they were still at home, more in love with Christ than with any other Christians.
to remain single and to serve the Lord rather than husbands.
But I need to bring to your attention that Roman Catholicism has taken this scripture and severely abused it.
They tell their young people that these girls were the first nuns.
They say that Luke called them “virgins,” because they had vowed to remain unmarried for the rest of their lives.
The husbands that they planned to have were the Lord, and their only children would be spiritual.
What’s more, in no other passage of scripture do I find this kind of idea.
We have just witnessed a most delightful and scriptural scene in the worship of Jehovah:
and we kneeled down on the shore, and prayed.”
Because they were.
But after that, we are left in some confusion.
What does it mean that these young ladies prophesied?
The venerable Dr. Gill says they did “NOT explain & interpret Scripture, or preach in public assemblies;
for these were not allowed women, neither in the Jewish synagogues, nor in Christian assemblies;
as was promised such should have in Gospel times.”
Gill interprets these young lady’s prophesying as the God-given ability to look into the future.
And Matthew Henry agrees.
On the other hand there is A.T. Robertson, another of my favorites, who disagrees – sort of:
“Philip had the honour of having in his home four virgin daughters with the gift of prophecy which was not necessarily predicting events, though that was done as by Agabus here.”
Robertson goes on to say that it wasn’t exactly ordinary preaching either.
“The whole problem is difficult and calls for restraint and reverence.
as is shown often in his writings before this incident.”
Some think that they were divinely empowered teachers of women and children.
Some think that they were given more than average abilities in personal evangelism.
They went out knocking on doors and the Lord enabled them to lead other women and girls to Christ.
Some think that they had the ability to foretell the future, but that their prophecies were expressed only within their family or in very limited circles.
But all these are educated guesses.
What do we do know for sure?
We know that they were prophetesses, whatever that means.
And we know that if Luke had meant to say that they were excellent Sunday School teachers,
That leads me to think that they were more than just teachers, and yet they certainly weren’t pastors.
Unfortunately, it still doesn’t describe the kind of prophesying being done.
For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.
And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.
And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.”
But I Corinthians doesn’t close the door on some kind of female prophesying.
It doesn’t forbid them to teach women or children, even boys.
I think that as a rule of thumb when a boy becomes a teenager, he needs to have a male teacher.
Women can have a ministry in music, singing and playing instruments, but I draw the line at leading the congregational singing.
And certainly, these young ladies served the Lord in such a way that Luke was great impressed.
This is most likely the reason that the Lord put this reference here in our Scripture.
It appears that in the early days of the New Testament era,
God authenticated His word before families and women’s gathering,
But it did need to be managed properly for the glory of God.
There is one other thing about this situation which we know for sure:
Despite the fact that these four women had been given the gift of prophesy,
the Lord sent Agabus to make the public prophecy.
And then before the church, or at least before more members of the church, they were quiet and the Lord used Agabus to say the same thing.
Philip, the evangelist had four virgin daughters who did prophesy.
And now I close with three verses from Numbers 11: –
“And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.
And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.
And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!”