The Gospel Comes to Philippi

Driving home: For it is indeed a long, formal, and instructive letter. But it's difficult for us to really get the feel of the fact that this is a letter.

Martin uses the common humorous saying 'phew, what an epistle' for a long letter to illustrate the general understanding of what an epistle is.

Well, the word is defined in the dictionary as a long, formal, instructive letter. And we will often humorously say, if someone writes us a letter that is rather lengthy, we will say, phew, what an epistle. Now if it's just a short note, we never say that. So most of us have, as it were, sort of a gut feeling for what an epistle is.

1:47 - 2:13 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Using a physical letter as an object lesson, Martin emphasizes that Philippians is a real letter from a real person (Paul) in a real place (Roman prison) to real people in a real…

Martin uses a physical envelope with a postmark and return address to demonstrate the reality of a letter, its sender, recipient, and origin, drawing a parallel to Paul's epistle.

And that whatever it may be to us, and has been to the Church of Christ throughout the centuries, it was originally and primarily a letter, by the Apostle, to a group of people who lived in the city of Philippi. Now in order to enforce the reality of that, I want to use a very simple object lesson this morning. Now, most of you will readily recognize what I hold in my hand. It is an envelope.

2:51 - 3:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Using a physical letter as an object lesson, Martin emphasizes that Philippians is a real letter from a real person (Paul) in a real place (Roman prison) to real people in a real…

He describes English mailboxes as 'exploded cigar stood on end' to add vivid detail to the setting of the illustrative letter.

Now that return address tells me immediately, before I ever look on the inside, that this particular envelope was sent by a real person who lives, or at least put it in a box. And those strange English mailbox, they look like an exploded cigar stood on end. They're round red drop boxes. Some of you have seen them in pictures if you've not been there.

4:22 - 4:46 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Using a physical letter as an object lesson, Martin emphasizes that Philippians is a real letter from a real person (Paul) in a real place (Roman prison) to real people in a real…

Reading a letter allows one to 'enter into the very thoughts and feelings' of the sender, illustrating how the Philippian epistle allows believers to enter Paul's heart.

Well that tells me something, that there's a real person to whom this particular envelope is being sent. Now what happens when I open it up? Well I open it up and out comes two pieces of paper with some ink arranged in the form of words, words arranged in the form of sentences, by which a man by the name of Pastor A. Blaise, has oozed his thoughts and feelings through the tip of a pen, forming words, put them on paper, and that paper being sent to me enables me by reading those words in their connection with each other in sentences and phrases, to enter into the very thoughts and feelings of t...

5:05 - 6:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: This is one of the most, if not the most intimate and personal of all of the apostles letters.

The degree of intimacy in a letter is directly proportional to the depth of friendship, explaining why Philippians is so personal.

In fact, a Roman colony called Philippi. Now, all the commentators agree, and I hope it will be your conviction as we enter into a study of this letter, that this is one of the most, if not the most intimate and personal of all of the apostles letters. And when we write letters to people. The degree to which we express our deepest thoughts is generally in direct proportion to the level of the friendship.

7:53 - 8:28 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin establishes that Paul wrote Philippians from a Roman prison, prompted by Epaphroditus bringing gifts from the Philippian church, and that it is one of Paul's most intimate…

Paul was not idly 'stroking his beard' or writing a 'theological treatise,' but responding to real needs in a real prison, emphasizing the practical origin of the letter.

So I'll send them a letter. Nor was he sitting amidst a mass of theological treatises saying, well, the church in years to come will need something to preach from, so I'll construct a treatise that preachers can expound line by line and phrase by phrase. No, here was a real man with real temporal needs. And while he is there in a real prison with a real chain upon his hand, though he is given what we might call some house liberty, he has this Roman prisoner by his side day and night attached to him with a chain.

11:31 - 12:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A certain woman named Lydia a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira one that worshipped God heard us now notice the language whose heart. Heart. The Lord opened to give heed to the things that were spoken by Paul

The same power that made a deaf man's ears hear, so that sound vibrations registered, moved in Lydia's heart, opening it to the gospel.

A true inquirer after truth who when she hears the truth will simply as it were under the pressure of those previous inclinations embrace the gospel but it's interesting that it's in the case of this woman who seems to be the most natural and likely disciple that Luke says in language that cannot be misunderstood. It was the Lord himself. Who opened her heart and it's the same word used when Jesus said to the deaf man be opened and his ears were opened the same power that made a deaf man's ears here so that the vibrations of sound that never registered would now register by that power so moved...

35:40 - 36:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: A certain woman named Lydia a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira one that worshipped God heard us now notice the language whose heart. Heart. The Lord opened to give heed to the things that were spoken by Paul

The prisoners staying in jail after an earthquake and open doors is presented as a 'moral miracle' demonstrating God's power beyond the physical.

Different to the fact that he had a privilege denied the people in Asia denied those in Bithynia when the spirit of Jesus suffered them not to preach in that place and here he had the unspeakable privilege of having these two servants of God in his midst who could tell him the way of salvation and here he is sound asleep on the brink of hell and destruction utterly indifferent and careless until God says I'm going to get my man. And so the Lord sends an earthquake and shakes the prison and all of the bonds fall off the hands of the prisoners and the doors are opened and when he comes out of hi...

38:43 - 39:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the three specimen conversions in Acts 16 (Lydia, the demon-possessed slave girl, and the Roman jailer) as evidence of the Spirit's mighty power, highlighting how…

Lydia's conversion is like Jesus 'silently crept up to the back of the house' and 'gently opened hearts'; the slave girl's is like a 'mighty warrior' binding the strong man; the jailer's is like Jesus 'riding majestically upon the wings of an earthquake'.

In the case of Lydia it's as though the Lord Jesus in the stealth of night silently crept up to the back of the house found his way through an open window and came into the parlor of Lydia's heart. In the case of that demon possessed girl he came as a mighty warrior and he bound the strong man and put his foot upon the neck of the evil one and said you're through. And in the case of the jailer he came riding majestically upon the wings of an earthquake he came in the majesty and splendor of his mighty power to restrain the natural inclinations of wicked prisoners and in these variety of ways w...

41:50 - 43:04 Read in full sermon