A person’s story tells us a lot about who they are. As we go into the book of Philippians, it is wise to understand the story around the city, the church Paul is writing to and Paul’s relationship with them.
Philippi was originally named Crenides, which means “fountains” because of all the natural springs in the fertile plains. It was originally settled by the Thasians who also discovered gold and silver nearby, making it a wealthy colony. When the city came under pressure from Thrace, they went to Philip of Macedon for protection, which is how it got its name. Philip built a mint there, and it remained as an autonomous city within Macedon under Alexander the Great.
Eventually Rome conquered Macedon, and when Julius Caesar was assassinated, Brutus and Cassius fled to Philippi, and the Battle of Philippi was fought on the plains nearby. Octavian (eventually Augustus) won the battle, and eventually integrated Philippi more directly into the new empire. It became a “miniature Rome” under the municipal law of Rome, with comparable rights and nearly identical culture to Rome. It was tightly connected to Rome, along the Via Egnatia, and their Roman identity was core to their self image and culture.
It was also the first place in Europe that Paul preached, as described in Acts 16, and the first convert there was Lydia, a wealthy merchant. It is a dramatic story of dreams, prayer, demons, trials, imprisonment, earthquakes and vindication.
The story closes with the Philippian church set on a solid foundation. They would go on to be one of the most generous churches mentioned in the Bible, sending Paul gifts at multiple times, including when he is imprisoned in Rome, which is when the epistle to the Philippians was written.
The book is basically a thank you note to the Philippians, combined with strong encouragement founded in deep theology. It contains some of the most well-known verses is Scripture, and is seen largely as a book about joy in the midst of hardship, with the word used 16 times.
But a more careful study shows that this is a sub theme, a byproduct of the grander theme. Other sub themes include community and hospitality, unity in Christ, gospel participation, humility, self-sacrifice and warnings against Judaizers.
The overall theme, though, is the source of all that joy, unity and humility – namely, the theme is death to self and life in Christ. Even the opening calls out Paul and Timothy as servants of Christ and specifically highlights all the other leaders with him as servants in Christ.
Paul wants the lives of the Philippians to be so intertwined with the life of Christ that it is impossible to tell the two apart.
There are four ways we may struggle with Paul’s words in Philippians. The first is a mindset of independence and isolation, rather than living in community. Another is believing that joy comes from our circumstances. Third, a prioritization of the things of earth rather than those of heaven. And most notably, our tendency to put our comfort and desires ahead of the life in Christ that we are called to.
It is easy to say “death to self and life in Christ,” but it is difficult to actually live it out. The second half sounds good, but the first is very difficult. But true living only happens when we do this, we’ve that will be our focus over the next few weeks.
– Sermon Notes, Jeff Krabach, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, July 15, 2018