Take your Bibles and open them
to Acts chapter 16, put something there to mark that
place, Acts chapter 16, and then turn with me to Philippians chapter
1. Philippians 1, verses 1 and 2. Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at
Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, grace be unto you and
peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. As God permits, I hope to bring
several messages from this small letter of Philippians. It is
one of those four letters that the Apostle Paul wrote while
he was a prisoner in Rome. And the approximate date of the
writing of this letter is 60 to 62 A.D. And this is believed
to be about ten years after Paul visited Philippi. About ten years
later, he wrote this letter to the church at Philippi. The city
of Philippi got its name from Philip of Macedon, who was the
father of Alexander the Great. Secular history records two very
important battles that were fought near Philippi by the Romans. We read in Acts chapter 16 that
it was a Roman colony, and it was believed it was populated
by older Roman soldiers, retired Roman soldiers. We see in verse
1, by Paul addressing this letter to the saints. That's plural,
isn't it? Saints. But do you notice that
they are saints in Christ Jesus? They were living saints. Living
saints. They had not died, and after
many years, some church proclaimed that they were saints. No, they
were saints in Christ Jesus. They were set apart. That's what
the word saint means, to be set apart. They were saints in Christ
Jesus. All of God's children are saints
in Christ Jesus, set apart in Christ in eternal election from
before the foundation of the world. God chose his people in
Christ. And we're set apart in Christ
in the sense that he redeemed his people at the cross. And in time, we're set apart
by God the Holy Spirit working in our hearts and bringing us
to know Christ, to trust in him, to believe in him. So the letter
is directed to the saints and then to the bishops, the pastors,
and deacons, but both of these words are plural words as well. And that makes us believe, or
leads us to believe, that since Paul had been here, since Paul
first came to Philippi, that the church had prospered, that
God had blessed this congregation of people. The key word of the
letter of Philippians is the word rejoice. It's found ten
times in every chapter, the way the scripture is divided, four
chapters of Philippians. In every chapter, we find the
word rejoice. In fact, the Apostle Paul exhorts
us two times in this letter, rejoice. And again, I say unto
thee, rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. But now I want us to
go back to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 16. And I want us to look at what
took place when the gospel was first brought to this city, to
this Roman colony. Acts chapter 16. And I have three
points I want to bring to us today. First of all, the gospel
came to Philippi in God's purpose. That's the first thing I want
us to see, that the gospel didn't just accidentally end up in Philippi. The gospel came to Philippi in
God's purpose. Look in verse 8, and I'll read
verses 8 through 12. And they, that is Paul and Silas,
passing by Mysia, came down to Troas. And a vision appeared
to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia
and prayed to him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help
us. And after he had seen the vision,
immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly
gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto
them. Therefore, loosing from Troas,
we came with a straight course to Samotracia, that's an island
there, and the next day to Neapolis on the shore of Macedonia, and
from thence to Philippi. which is the chief city of that
part of Macedonia, and a colony, and we were in that city abiding
certain days. Now, I have no doubt in my mind
that God directed, God led the apostles everywhere that they
went preaching the gospel. In the book of Acts, for instance,
in Acts chapter 8, we are told that God the Holy Spirit directed
Philip into a desert because one of God's elect, one of God's
chosen, was crossing the desert in a chariot, Ethiopian eunuch,
and God sent a preacher to him to preach the gospel to him.
He didn't end up in that desert alongside the chariot of the
eunuch by chance, but on purpose. God sent him there. And then
in Acts chapter 10, we read that the apostle Peter was sent to
the house of Cornelius by God the Holy Spirit. He didn't just
knock on Cornelius' door. He was sent there by God the
Holy Spirit to preach the gospel to that household. And then in
Acts chapter 13, it was God the Holy Spirit who told the believers
in the church at Antioch, separate unto me these two men, that is
Paul and Barnabas. And they were sent out from the
church and eventually went into the area known as Galatia. And though we have the letter
of Galatians in our Bible as a result of that. But turn back
to Acts chapter 13 just a moment. Let me bring this to us, point
this out to us. In Acts chapter 13, now there
were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and
teachers as Barnabas and Simeon that was named Niger, and Lucius
of Cyrene, and Manaan, which had been brought up with Herod
the Tetrarch, and Saul. And as they ministered to the
Lord. Now that's where God calls men
to preach. That is, they're in a local church
and they're serving the Lord. And God calls men to preach the
gospel and to take the gospel to other places, as we see here. As they ministered to the Lord
and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me, Barnabas and Saul,
For the work went to, I have called them." Who called them? God the Holy Spirit called them. God called them to preach. And
when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them,
notice they sent them away. The church sent them away. But
then notice in the next verse, so they being sent forth by the
Holy Ghost, departed. There was a sending by the Spirit
of God, these two men, to go out and preach the gospel, but
the church also sent them out. And that's what we do when we
send out men to preach the gospel. We send out men that God has
called and anointed to go forth preaching, but we have a responsibility. And I don't even like to use
that word responsibility. It is a responsibility. But it's
an opportunity, more than a responsibility, it's an opportunity, it's a blessing
to think that God would use us, that God would ever use us in
sending out the gospel, the gospel that he has ordained by which
he will save his people. What a blessing, what a privilege
it is to have a part in the work of the Lord, in the preaching
of the gospel. Well, back to our text in Acts
chapter 16. God sent Paul and Silas now to
Philippi. Paul saw in a vision a man of
Macedonia. And notice this man of Macedonia
said, Come over and help us. A man without the gospel. cities,
countries, towns, without the gospel. They need help in the
worst of ways. And we see, as we read here in
this passage of scripture, they came to this island, first of
all, Samotracia, and then they went to Neopolis, a seacoast
town. But we're not told that they
preached the gospel in either of those places. I'm not saying
that they didn't, but we're not told they did. And this reminds
us that God doesn't send the gospel everywhere. He doesn't send his gospel everywhere. He sends it where he purposes. And when we live in a place and
in a congregation like this where God has sent the gospel, let
us never take it for granted. And let us never grow cold and
indifferent to the gospel, the precious gospel of Jesus Christ
by which sinners are saved. They came to Philippi on purpose.
God sent them there on purpose. And I like the way Luke, he's
the one who wrote the book of Acts, I like the way he said
this. He was a companion of Paul and Silas. He said, We gathered, since this man of
Macedonia said, come over and help us, we gathered. We got this idea that the Lord had called us to
preach the gospel to them of Macedonia. That's the way they
would help them, by preaching, by taking the gospel to them. God sent the gospel to each one
of us. He didn't have to. There's many he's passed over,
many in this world right now have never heard the gospel,
never will hear the gospel. And yet God in his mercy and
grace, we should never take this for granted. He sent a preacher
our way one day. He sent the gospel to us, just
as he did to Philippi. The Lord Jesus Christ, we know,
is the surety of God's covenant people. And as our surety, he
has accomplished the work of redemption. He has redeemed his
people with his blood, and he will call his people through
the gospel. Salvation, and that's what we're
talking about, salvation from sin, it always begins with God. Salvation didn't begin with these
people at Philippi sending a message, a telegram or a message over
to Paul and Silas. No, the gospel always begins
with God. God spoke to these men. God sent
these men. God purposed the gospel to go
to Philippi. The Father, God, I said salvation
always begins with God. The scripture says salvation
is of the Lord. It is of the Lord. God the Father
planted, God the Son purchased it, and God the Holy Spirit applies
it. And God calls and sends men to
preach the gospel, and God calls men to receive the gospel. So that's the first point. The
gospel came to Philippi in God's purpose. Now second, the gospel
met opposition in Philippi. Let's read on in verse 16. The gospel met opposition in
Philippi. And it came to pass, as we went
to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with the spirit of divination
met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The
same followed Paul and us in cry of saying, These men are
the servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way
of salvation. And this did she many days, but
Paul, being grieved, 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. And when her masters saw that
the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and
drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, and brought
them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly
trouble our city, and teach customs which are not lawful for us to
receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude
rose up together against them, and the magistrates ran off their
cause, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid
many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging
the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the
stocks. You know, some people imagine
that if God leads in a matter, that there will be no opposition. If God is leading in some work,
There will be no opposition. But we see here very clearly
that's not the case. The gospel met opposition in
Philippi. Satan. Now there is a being called
Satan, the devil. And we don't make jokes about
him. I've never understood how anyone who calls himself a Christian
could make a joke about Satan. Because the Word of God declares
that he is as a roaring lion, or goes about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. And our Lord taught us to pray,
deliver us from evil, that is, from the evil one. Lead us not
into temptation, and deliver us from the evil one. Now, it
is important that I say this, he's powerful, but he's not all
powerful. And I'm not here today or any
other day to preach about Satan. I'm here to preach Christ and
him crucified. But we do recognize that there
is such a being called Satan, and he is spoken of in the Word
of God. Christ spoke of him, and Christ
told us that he keeps his palace, his goods, in calm or in quiet. And we're talking about here
his palace that is the soul of man. Man's soul, as John Bunyan
would say. He keeps it in peace. And when
Satan recognizes, and he's not the only one. We know he has
many demons also in this world. But anytime Satan or his demons
recognize that the gospel is coming near, the gospel by which
he may lose. If it's God's purpose, he will
lose. One that he has in captivity. And the scripture makes this
clear. All men outside of Christ are prisoners. And we are prisoners to the law,
to sin, and yes, even to Satan. And we cannot loose ourselves. We cannot deliver ourselves. from underneath the power, the
authority of any of those things I just mentioned. Christ is the
Savior, and he came to set the prisoners free. And when Satan
realizes that the gospel is coming to a place, yes, he's going to
oppose it. Many times men and women, they
don't understand the opposition They make a decision or a purpose
to go and hear the gospel preached and all kinds of problems happen.
And for many people, that's all it takes. That's all it needs.
You get up on Sunday morning, you feel just a little under
the weather, the very same thing that would not keep you from
going to work on Monday will keep you out of church on Sunday.
I remember reading one time about devilitis. Have you ever heard
of that disease? Devilitis. I believe some people
have it. Just so easy to hinder some people
from coming to hear the gospel of Christ. Well, there was a girl in this
city of Philippi, and she was a fortune teller, soothsayer. Now, anyone who can foretell
the future is not of God. God controls the future. God
can foretell the future. But any person who tries to foretell
the future, if they have any ability whatsoever, it's from
the devil. You see these signs sometime
alongside the road, the fortune tellers that read the palm of
your hands, they read the cards, and they read the horoscope in
the newspapers. Some people are just taken in
by that. But remember this, that is all
under satanic power. And here's this young girl, And
she begins to follow Paul and Silas. Now what she says, I'm
sure she had heard Paul and Silas say. We're servants of God. They were servants of God. And
I'm sure they had told the people that. We are here because we
are God's servants and he has sent us here. We're not here
to serve any of these false gods, but we're here as servants of
the true and living God, He who has created the heavens and the
earth. We're His servants. And then
she also said, they preach unto us the gospel, the way of salvation. I'm sure she had heard Paul say
that. We're here, we're God's servants,
and we've come here on one purpose. We've not come here to reform
the city. We've not come here to straighten
out the politics of this place. We've come here with one desire,
one purpose, and that is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's
why we're here. So she starts following them.
She'd heard them say, we're servants of God. We're here to show you
the way of salvation. She starts following them, crying
out. These are servants of God. These
men are servants of God. They're here to show us the way
of salvation. And Paul, recognizing that this spirit by which she
was speaking was a demon spirit, And Paul, as an apostle of Jesus
Christ, he had the gifts of an apostle, and one of those gifts
was to cast out demons. And so he cast this evil spirit
out of this girl. But the opposition, you see the
opposition. Well, the men who somehow owned
this servant girl, slave girl, they realized their hopes of
gains was gone. With that demon spirit, this
girl would serve them no purpose as a fortune teller. And so they
bring Paul and Silas up before the city council, the magistrates,
and accuse them of things which were not true. They were Jews,
but they were not teaching them customs which they were not allowed
as Roman citizens to observe. The most law-abiding citizens
in any country are believers, God's children. God's children
obey the laws of the land as we are taught in the word of
God. All power is ordained of God. We are subject to the laws
of the land. We pay our taxes. We want to
live peaceably and quietly and worship and serve God. We're
not here to disturb or disrupt society. These men were falsely
accused and then they were beaten. It says many stripes were laid
upon them. And they turn them over to the
jailer. Now this jailer probably was
an old, I'm talking about in age, Roman soldier. And he's about as rough as they
come. He's about as rough as they come. And he takes these
two prisoners that were in his charge, and he thrusts them,
the scriptures say, into the prison, into the cells. and put
their feet in stocks. Now, I want to ask you something.
Can you picture that in your mind? Here are these two servants
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their backs, no doubt, are bleeding,
been beaten. This old rough jailer takes them
and puts them in the prison, the lowest part of the prison,
I suppose. Puts their feet in stocks. There's
no way they're going to get out of here. What do you think that
man would have said if someone had approached him and said,
before this night is over, you're going to be bathing their stripes? I would imagine he would have
let loose a string of oaths, swearing and cursing. That's not going to happen. Forget
about that. You're not going to catch me
washing the stripes of these men. But the gospel is still the power
of God under salvation. Notice the third thing. The gospel
made conquest in Philippi. It made conquest here. The first
conquest we read about was a lady named Lydia and her household. Look back to verse 13. And on
the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer
was wont to be made. That tells us there was probably
not a synagogue in this city. And so most of the people that
lived there were polytheists. That is, they worshiped many
gods. And this group of women who recognized
and knew there's only one God. They had to go outside the city
to pray whatever they were doing there. And on the Sabbath, we
went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made,
and we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither.
So I read that this past week. I could not help but think again
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Meeting that woman at the well,
the well of Syker. Oh, she was an outcast, wasn't
she? She came to draw water in the
heat of the day, which was unheard of. But society had cast her
out. Had five husbands, the Lord told
her, and she was living with a man at that time who was not
her husband. And his disciples, when they
came back and saw him speaking with her, they marveled that
he would speak with a woman, and especially a Samaritan woman. Here's Paul and Silas, the great
apostle Paul. Silas, his companion. And they
found there was some ladies outside of town that worshiped the true
God, and that's where they went. That's where they went. And the
scripture tells us, and a certain woman named Lydia. Now she was
not from Philippi. She was from Thyatira, as we
see here. She was a business lady, a seller
of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard, whose
heart the Lord opened. I can't open your heart. I can't
even open my heart. The Lord opened her heart. And when God opened her heart,
she attended. She had interest in what Paul
and Silas had to say. Most people, they don't have
any interest in the gospel, and none of us would lest the Lord
open our heart. The Lord opened her heart that
she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. Well,
what was Paul speaking? He was speaking the gospel. We've
already seen that. They gathered, the scripture
said, they gathered that God would have them preach the gospel
in Philippi by that vision. So here they are preaching the
gospel and God opens up this woman's heart. I think of what
Paul may have been saying. First of all, that all men need
to be saved from sin. From sin. Christ is the Savior
of men from sin. A lot of preaching today, men
talk about prosperity, you know, how you can have a better job,
and larger bank account, and better clothes, and a finer car,
and a bigger house, and all of that. Health. Wealth. Prosperity. But let me tell you
something. Christ came to save sinners. That's what they were talking
about. That all men have a need of salvation from sin. And no
doubt they spoke about the fact that God sent his Son to be the
Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ came from
heaven. The righteousness of God that
is needed in order for God to justify a person. The blood of
Jesus Christ that cleanses a person from sin. All of these things,
no doubt the Apostle Paul was speaking and teaching, and God
opened her heart and she attended unto these things. It says, and
those of her household, they were probably servants or workers. because she was a seller. She was a businesswoman. Now,
the next conquest, look down to verse 25. And at midnight,
Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. Oh, wouldn't
you have loved to have heard the praises of these two men? Their voices, I don't know, they
probably were not all that melodious, but my friends, they were singing
praises to God. that they had been counted worthy
to suffer for Christ's sake. Most of us will do everything
we can not to suffer. They were, like John and Peter,
they were praising God that God had counted them worthy to suffer
for Christ. And at midnight, the prisoners
heard them and suddenly there was a great earthquake. You see,
their God is the one who can shake this earth. Their God that they were praising
is the God who created this world, and he can shake it, and he can
send the lightning, and the rain, the flood, the tornadoes, the
hurricanes, all things in creation are under his power. And yes,
there are natural laws, but remember, they're his laws, and he can
use them as he so wills. And at midnight, he sent an earthquake. The prison, the foundation of
the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and
everyone's bands were loosed. and the keeper of the prison
waking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open. I guess
he looked out the window and the doors wide open. Oh my, I'm
responsible for all this? Where's my sword? I'm going to
destroy myself. But Paul cried with a loud voice
saying, Do thyself no harm? Are we all here? Then he called for a light, and
sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and
Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sir, sirs, sirs. You think he ever said, Sirs,
I want you to go into this cell. Sirs, I want you to put your
feet in these stocks. Oh no, but something's happened
now. Now he recognizes that yes, these
are serpents of the Most High God. And yes sir, God did shake
the earth and open the prison doors. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And
you know we have the clearest, simplest, plainest declaration
here as anywhere in the Bible. Believe. It's already done. What must I do? It's already
done. The work's finished. It was finished at the cross.
What must I do? Believe. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. The gospel conquered Lydia and
her household. And now here's the jailer and
his household. You know the people that like
to sprinkle babies. They love to grab these two instances
and say, well, there had to have been babies in those households. Well, we're not told there were
babies in these households. But I tell you what we are told
about the household of this jailer, look with me if you will, about
his household. In verse 32, it says, And they
spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in
his house. We've got some babies in the
nursery today. Oh, it'd be a job to try to preach
to them. They're busy crawling around
on the floor. They're busy playing with their
toys. No, these that heard the word
of the Lord, they were old enough that they could be instructed
in the things of God. And then in verse 34, it says,
they believed in God. And when he had brought them
into his house, he said, meet before them and rejoice, believing
in God with all his house. In other words, those who were
baptized, they also heard the word of God and they believed,
and that's God's order. That's always God's order. Preach
the gospel. That is, we hear the word of
God, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then confess your
faith in baptism. And so that's what we see here.
Now I said a few minutes ago in the introduction that the
key word of this letter, Philippians, is the word rejoice. And you
notice how we read here that this jailer along with his household,
they rejoiced. They rejoiced. Let me give you some lessons
for you and I. What are some lessons for us
from this passage of Scripture? Number one, our need of the Holy
Spirit. Our need of the Holy Spirit.
Pray. pray, bombard heaven, that God
in his mercy would pour out his Spirit upon us, or we preach
in vain. Number two, ask and look for
opportunities to speak to others about Christ. It seemed like
a small thing, didn't it? And that was my third thing.
Don't despise the day of small things. Here's these great big
preachers, these apostles, servants of the Most High God, but they
were not too big and not too important to meet with these
women outside of town and preach the gospel. And number four, the gospel is
still the power of God unto salvation. God has a people, and he uses
his gospel. It's called that word powers,
the word from which we get our word dynamite. The gospel is
the dynamite. God uses the gospel in calling
and saving his people. And the last lesson for us is
As God's people, we have cause to rejoice in Christ every day
in every situation. Now, our circumstances may not
call for rejoicing, but Paul said, Rejoice in the Lord. And
since he doesn't change, he's the same yesterday, today, and
forever. We always have cause to rejoice. As God called you, have you heard
the gospel? Has God given you faith? Do you
believe in Christ as your Lord and Savior? That's what Paul
and Silas said. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. If you believe in Christ, then
confess Him in baptism. Speak to me after the service. Anytime. Call me. Speak to me. I want to confess Christ. I want
to identify with this gospel, with this Savior. I trust and
pray that God may be working in some hearts here now. God's speaking to you. Nobody
knows it but you and God. Don't be afraid. Don't be ashamed. I'm ashamed if I'm ever ashamed
of Christ. Aren't you? I'm ashamed if I
would ever be ashamed of him. Don't be ashamed of Christ. Boldly
confess him. We'll sing a verse or two of
a hymn and we'll be dismissed.