In Acts 16 we see Paul and his little band of missionaries sailing northeast from Troas to Neapolis. As I said the other day, Neapolis was the port city of Philippi, but there were about nine miles between them. Today that might seem like nothing, but it was something back then. Luke tells us that Philippi was the chief city in that part of Macedonia and that it was a Roman colony. Even though it was not exactly a Roman city, it had been given certain Roman privileges. It was also required to follow Roman, not Macedonian laws, and this touched on Paul’s treatment there. After their arrival, Paul, Silas, Luke, Timothy and possible others, “on the sabbath… went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.” A short while later, Paul and Silas got into trouble by freeing a young slave from a demon spirit which possessed her. The woman’s handlers lost their connection to the spirit world, and so their evil enterprise disappeared. Causing an uproar, they forced the city officials to have Paul and Silas arrested and jailed.
One of the interesting back stories is that part of the early history of the church in Philippi involved a prison. And now, this letter is being sent from Rome where Paul is once again under arrest. Paul, having some time on his hands, tells us that his mind often returned to his Philippian friends. “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
My primary point this afternoon is that even while Paul was miles away from his friends, he was still engaged with them in their ministry. You and I, for one reason or another, may not be able to be on the front lines in the Lord’s fight for souls. But even if we are incarcerated in some way, we are not completely incapacitated.
I’ll start with an applicable, but perhaps inappropriate, illustration – America’s penal system. One of the problems with America’s prisons is that even when a powerful crime boss is put behind bars, he often doesn’t lose control over his criminal organization on the outside. It is impossible to say exactly how often criminal enterprises are run from inside prisons. But it is known to be a pervasive and persistent problem. A 2022 government report estimated that 1 in 5 organized crime groups were operating out of prison. It is only the new cartels, syndicates and gangs that are headquartered down the street. Prison can actually strengthen the crime boss’s position in the underworld by providing a new and somewhat safe base of operations. And among the inmates, through various means, new recruits can be won and even trained. Then when they are released they go out carrying out the wishes of the boss on the inside. And again, I have read that contraband cell phones are common in major prisons, and with them crime bosses can continue to bark their orders to their people on the outside. Not only on the outside, but from behind bars, gangs oversee the illicit prison economy, which includes drug trafficking, extortion, and violence. This control reinforces their power and provides a revenue stream. And when a minor criminal is protected by a gang inside, he feels loyal to that gang when he leaves.
Why do I bring this up? Because Paul was doing the same thing but in a positive way. He may not have been a crime boss, or a boss at all, but he remained one of the Lord apostles. He still had power with God, and he had connections with the outside. He was incarcerated, but not incapacitated. And the grease which kept the machinery running was his memory.
Sanctified memories inspire GRATITUDE.
“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.” We can only imagine what Paul and the others endured in those few first days in Philippi. What a joy it must have been to meet Lydia and find that the Lord had already opened up her heart to the gospel. There was no synagogue in Philippi and perhaps she wouldn’t have been welcome if there had been. She wasn’t married when the Bible introduces her to us; she either widowed or simply unmarried. Lydia was originally from Thyatira, Asia, so there is the possibility she wasn’t Jewish by birth. Whether she was a Jew or a Gentile, she had been lead by the Holy Spirit to the Old Testament scriptures and to other women like herself. Because the sovereign God had already prepared her, when the gospel was presented she quickly believed and put her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then she besought the missionaries to stay in her spacious home, and they agreed. For years, whenever Paul thought about Philippi, this gracious lady came to his mind.
But his history in Philippi was not all pleasant. There was another woman – a slave to some wicked men and a slave to the demonic gods of Delphi. When she began disrupting the ministry and grieving Paul, he turned “and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.” I wish the Bible told us that this young woman, freed from her spiritual slavery, trusted Christ, but it doesn’t. That would have certainly made Paul’s memories of the next few events more joyful. For their kind deed to the woman, Paul and Silas, were caught and dragged into the public marketplace. The crowd was stirred up against them, and the city magistrates commanded that they be beaten. “And when they had laid MANY stripes upon them, they cast them into prison.” Later in II Corinthians Paul describes how he was beaten with 39 stripes on 5 different occasions by Jews. Then he added, “Thrice was I beaten with rods…” Was Philippi one of those three? How severely was he beaten? Were there any broken bones? There were certainly open, bleeding wounds, because his jailer later washed and treated them. But our apostle apparently didn’t dwell on these things. These weren’t foremost in his mind. When he thought of Philippi he pictured Lydia, the jailor and others.
“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.” Acts tells us that when the city officials learned that Paul was a Roman citizen they became fearful. They had broken the law in treating Paul they way they did. They assumed things that weren’t true. They didn’t do their due diligence, investigating the accused. “And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city. And they went out of the prison, and entered into th house of Lydia, And when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them, and departed” – Acts 16:39-40. The word “brethren” suggests that there had been other people brought to the Saviour beside the two we know, but we don’t know how many others there were.
But here is the thing – here is the lesson – Paul, from his current prison in Rome, looked past his pain, through the blood, and beyond the chains. He didn’t consider the earthquake and physical danger from falling rocks and crumbling walls. They were nothing but painful thorns in his flesh and not to be set beside the joy of those few converts. Interpreting our Saviour’s words: the value of those few souls was greater than an equal number of worlds. “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.” Every time he pictured the beautiful face of Lydia or the once terrified face of the jailer, he was filled with thanksgiving to God for bringing them together even the painful way in which He had.
And to whom has the Lord brought you? Who can you see in your past whom you have introduced to the Saviour? “Thank you Lord, for giving me the privilege of serving you in bringing someone to the cross.”
Memories inspire GRATITUDE and they provoke PRAYER.
“Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy.” Come on now – isn’t this hyperbole – isn’t this an exaggeration beyond belief? If I had to make a guess, I’d conclude that Paul couldn’t say this about everyone and every place. “Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy.” “ALWAYS in EVERY prayer?”
Let’s remember that Paul didn’t have much liberty during his incarceration in Rome. He wasn’t out seeing the sights, debating in the market, visiting the synagogue in Rome. Sometimes there were people who sought him out and visited him, but he wasn’t constantly entertaining. He became, by necessity, a man of prayer, perhaps unlike he had ever been before. He was probably praying without ceasing, just as he encouraged the people in Thessalonica.
But about what sort of things did he pray? With what did he ask the Lord to bless them? A few verses down he tells us about three things. “I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment.” We may spend more time on these things in the weeks ahead. At this point, let’s just say that at the top of his list was love on the highest and holiest level – not brotherly love but Godly love. No Christian and no church can love too much, and we cannot exhibit the characteristics of love too much. Not only do we feed and feast on love ourselves, but it is one of the highest testimonies we can give to the world around us. We live in a world starving for love, and we have access to ultimate love. It is important that our love “may about yet more and more.”
He also said, I pray that “ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.” A Christian might sincerely love a neighbor who is bound in sin or demon possessed. But our love must not be corrupted by compromise for the sake his soul. We must not condone sin in our neighbor and more particularly in ourselves. Third, Paul prayed that they might be “filled with the fruits of righteousness.” He might have been thinking specifically of the “fruit of the Spirit.” Or it might have been something more general – the results of righteous living.
In these three things he made his requests to God with joy, knowing that the Lord was willing to bless. He also anticipated the Philippians’ willingness to receive and employ those blessings.
A third thing Paul’s memories provided was CEMENT on their FELLOWSHIP.
“I thank you God upon every remembrance of you… for your fellowship in the gospel from first day until now.” Upon his release from the Philippian jail, he and Silas went back to Lydia’s house. Try to imagine the turmoil that was running through the minds of those new believers. You and I have probably never experienced anything like it. With joy they had received the good news of the gospel of their salvation. They knew the peace and joy that you felt when you first understood what the Lord had done for you. But then, the rug was pulled out of from under them – figurative and literally. Not only was their evangelist taken away and beaten nearly to death. Then he was locked into jail with little hope of release. But then the ground under their feet was sent shaking and shimmering to the point of buildings collapsing.
It was somewhat similar to that day in Jerusalem after execution of James and the arrest of Peter. “But prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto for him” – Acts 12:5. And then Peter was miraculously released from his prison. “When Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me… And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John… where many were gathered together praying.” When Rhoda, the servant girl, didn’t let him in, he continued knocking, before the door was finally opened. “Then he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison.”
By the grace of God, on this occasion, it was Paul who appeared at the door. And re-applying Acts, “When they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished. But he beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out the prison.” He also explained how everything together had glorified God in the salvation of a few more souls. I can just imagine how the next few hours were spent in rejoicing, praying and encouraging. But there were also tears, because it was obviously the Lord’s will that he and the other evangelists leave. Acts 16:40 says, “he comforted them and departed.”
They never forgot each other. Their souls were eternally linked. Rome and Philippi may have been connected politically, but they were bridged spiritually as well. How could Paul forget those good people when they refused to forget him? How could they forget Paul who brought to them the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? As time and distance separated them, they didn’t have opportunity to pick up the phone to ask him, “When are you coming to see us?” But what they did have was even more costly and difficult.
“I thank you God upon every remembrance of you… for your fellowship in the gospel from first day until now.” The Greek word translated “fellowship” is the very common “koinonia.” In addition to “fellowship” it is translated “communion,” “communication,” “contribution” and even “distribution.” These people in Philippi stayed in touch and fellowshipped with Paul through prayer and financial support. Philippians 4:15 – “Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church COMMUNICATED with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.” And verse 10 – “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; where in ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want; for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”
This reference to “communication” was more than just talk, it was action. Every time he picked up the coffee cup they sent him and saw the heart symbol, he was reminded to pray for them – as they were praying for him. Every time he noticed the scar on his leg – the one that was cut into him by the stocks there in the Philippian jail, he prayed for his friend and brother, the jailer, whom he knew was praying for him. Whenever a Macedonian “care package” reached him, it carried a note describing how the Lord was blessing the ministry which he had started there a few years before. The ministry in Philippi was also linked to the ministry in Thessalonica and the work in Berea, and finally the limited ministry of Rome.
As often as we picture ourselves as remote and alone in our service of the Lord, remember – we are not. Our service for Christ her in Post Falls is linked to the ministry in Oklahoma, and California and North Carolina. We have missionary links in Australia, Ohio, Romania and even in Siberia. Paul told the Philippians, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you… for your fellowship in the gospel form the first day until now.” Our fellowship with others began with a church in Wichita Falls, Texas, which helped to start a church in Calgary, Alberta.
Today we are in Paul’s “now,” still furthering the fellowship of the gospel to other places. But one of these days in the near future, we will come to the conclusion, and the “now” will become “then.” One of these days we come to the “day of Jesus Christ” – verse 6. And we will find “that he which hath begun a good work in you will have performed it perfectly.”