Founding the Church at Philippi

When, how and why. Also, the occasion of this letter.

So how was the church at Philippi founded? You can read about it in Acts 16. Most Greek and Italian cities of the time had enough of a Jewish population to support a synagogue, but Philippi was a city so completely non-Jewish that there was no synagogue at all. Paul's habit was to go preach in the synagogue, from the scriptures, preaching Christ from the Old Testament. All they had in Philippi, thought were a few women who met down by the river on the Sabbath day to pray, and probably to read scriptures. Paul found these and soon there were converts.

Chief among these converts was a woman named Lydia, who was a seller of purple—a lucrative business in a city like this. I've often said that you could compare what Lydia is to the owner and CEO of a Neiman Marcus, because that's what she is involved in. The Holy Spirit opened her heart to believe the words of Paul, and she, in turn, opened her house to Paul and his team as a base of operations.

Soon there was an incident with a slave girl and an exorcism, and, well, you probably know the story. Paul and Silas find themselves imprisoned after being beaten without a trial. But at midnight they prayed and sang praises to God. There was an earthquake. All of the prisoners were let loose, and before morning a jailer and his household had been baptized and added to the church. Soon, Paul and Silas and Luke and Timothy left, but when they left, they left behind a church.

To tell the rest of the story would require my recounting the rest of the book of Acts, which I won’t do. But if you read it, you'll know that Paul is eventually arrested under false pretenses, which leads to an extended imprisonment and an appeal to Caesar, because he, too, is a Roman citizen and has this privilege. Acts 27 records his harrowing journey to Rome, including storm and shipwreck and recovery, and leaves him in Rome under house arrest awaiting his day in court before Nero. This is where tradition and the majority of scholarly opinion believes that he was when he wrote this epistle.

But why did Paul write this epistle? Or what was the occasion of the writing?

Philippi had a history of giving. Many times this church had sent Paul money to support him in his missionary endeavors. Paul speaks about some of that in this letter. And it seems that in this instance they had sent a gift to Paul while he was under house arrest, and they had sent a young man named Epaphroditus. The only place in the Bible that Epaphroditus is mentioned is in this book.

With that gift, Epaphroditus had evidently also been told to stay with Paul and provide for whatever other needs he might have, as a sort of errand boy. This letter, then, serves in part as Paul's thank you letter for the gift. It's also considered, by many, a classic friendship letter, which was a genre of letters in that time period, as well as an explanation of why he sent Epaphroditus back to Philippi. After all, they would want an explanation as to that once they saw him again.

Writing this letter also provided Paul with an opportunity to provide the Philippians with some instruction and encouragement.

So now you have the setup for what we’re about to get into in this wonderful epistle. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about Paul’s writings in general and look for a theme, if there is one, in this letter.