Paul's Greeting to the Philippians

Alright, let's take our Bible. Let's turn to the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter 1, and we will deal with a couple of verses. We will deal with verses 1 and 2. Now I am going to mention a whole lot of other verses, and when we get to the end of the message, I'm going to package all of those verses, and I'm going to give you some verses that I want you to study, and this is in preparation for getting into the teaching of the book. Obviously, we're going to get into some of the teaching tonight, but I think you know I've been making the announcement.

Tonight we start our verse by verse study through the book of Philippians, and if you've ever read Philippians or you pay attention to it, it's just four chapters, but we have four chapters that are loaded, loaded with teaching, loaded with some spiritual principles, and some great examples, and all of these things will apply to us in some way, shape, form, or fashion. And also we have four chapters that are all about this unique relationship between Paul and the Philippian church.

Sometimes I'll say Paul and the Philippian church, the Philippian church, and Paul, and there's a lot about their relationship that does apply to us, and we need to see that we cannot let certain things keep us from taking this book serious. Let me explain what I mean. Some may discount this book because it is short. Some may overlook this book because Paul hardly addresses any problems in the church. The one problem that Paul does address is a serious but minor problem compared to some of the other problems that we see in other churches. Some can overlook this book because Paul really doesn't give any of his theology.

We see Paul give a lot of theology in Ephesians and Colossians and Romans, and there's some that can overlook it because that is the case. And also we need to see that Philippians was written by Paul, and it is commonly called a prison epistle. It can be called a prison letter. You might not have heard that of that. That could be something that's new to you, and that is because Paul wrote the book of Colossians and Philemon and Ephesians and Philippians from prison. And we will see that Paul's imprisonment here was a big part of why he wrote the letter, and his imprisonment had a major influence on what he writes to the Philippian church.

So keep that in mind. Paul was writing this letter from a Roman imprisonment. Now there's some that'll get into the outline of the book. I'm not opposed to that. I'm not going to get into the outline of the book, but I want us to see some major purposes from Paul's writing. These things can be called four purposes of the letter from Paul. First of all, this is a letter of thankfulness. I don't remember who said it, but one commentator that I read this week compared this letter to a big thank you note. You know what a thank you note is? There's a lot of truth in that.

We will see that Paul was very thankful for the Philippians and their relationship, and we will see that he was very thankful for certain specifics, but I will wait to mention those specifics. We'll get to those in the verses. And then second, this is a letter of instruction and teaching. We will see that Paul, as always, gave the Philippians some much needed guidance and instruction, and it is interesting that Paul does not offer any rebuke in this letter, but he did give some much needed teaching and guidance. Third, this is a letter of homecoming. That might sound funny to you, but this is a letter of homecoming.

We will see that Paul sent a member of the Philippian church back home. The Philippians had sent one of their best men at Papertitis to minister to Paul while he was in prison, and after some life-threatening difficulties that a Papertitis faced and some productive ministry together, Paul sent him back home to the Philippian church. And then fourth, this is a letter of joy. We will see that Paul was filled with joy, filled with thankfulness, filled with gladness for many, many reasons, and the reasons that Paul was filled with joy are very, very important.

Some say that joy is the theme of the book, and you will see that if you do some study on your own. I encourage you to do that. I do not have a problem saying that the theme of this letter is joy. In fact, I do think that joy is the major theme of the book, but I think it is much more than that. Now, that leads me to a question. What is the theme of the book of Philippians? A better way to ask that question is this. How do I see the theme of the book of Philippians? Warren Wiersby says the key theme of the book is the joy of the Lord.

He says the key verse in the book is chapter 3 verse 1, "Finally my brothers rejoice in the Lord." Well, I do not think that Wiersby is wrong. In many ways, I think Wiersby is right. I agree with Wiersby and those who say something that's similar, but I don't think we can stop there. Joy in the Lord is the theme, but we have to see what this joy in the Lord is connected to or rooted in. Let me repeat that. Joy in the Lord is the theme, but we have to see what that joy in the Lord is connected to or rooted in. Now, let me explain this. It is going to take a little time, but we need it. And this is going to show you my approach to the theme.

Although the Philippian church was doing good, they did have some difficulties. They were very poor people. We see that in 2 Corinthians 8 verses 1 to 5. They did face some persecution for their faith. We see that in chapter 1 of Philippians. They did face attack from false teachers. We see that in chapter 3 verse 2, in chapter 3 verse 18 and 19. There was a conflict between two well-known women in the church, and that conflict jeopardized the unity of the church. We see that in chapter 4. And then there was Paul. He was strong in following the Lord's will for his life, but he was in a Roman imprisonment.

Paul was allowed to have visitors and to preach the Gospel even though he was chained to a Roman soldier night and day. We see that in Acts chapter 28 in Philippians 1 and 4. And Paul was in grave danger. At the time that he wrote the letter, he had been a prisoner for almost four years. And he was waiting on the Emperor Nero's decision on his faith. And I think we know this. Nero was not too kind to Christians. And then we have the relationship. Paul and the Philippians had a one of a kind relationship. The Apostle did not have a relationship with any other church like he did the Philippian church.

In fact, the Philippians were the only church to give monetary support to Paul. That might surprise you, but that's correct. The Philippians were the only ones to give money to Paul for his needs and for his ministry. And their relationship went beyond money. In this very personal letter, we will see a strong love for one another and a strong devotion to one another. Again, we do not see any kind of a relationship that Paul has with another church like this one. And this is what I think we must do here with the theme. Yes, the theme of the book is the joy of the Lord, but it is much more. I see it as two-sided.

I'm going to connect it to the circumstances. First, the theme of the book is the joy of the Lord in all of the circumstances of life, no matter what. We see that by looking at Paul's circumstances and the Philippians' circumstances. And then second, the theme of the book is the joy of the Lord in their great and wonderful relationship. We see that by carefully examining this one-of-a-kind relationship between Paul and the Philippians. I ran across this week one resource that I use for Ephesians and Philippians is a commentator named R.C. H. Linsky. R. period. C. period. H. Linsky.

I guess if you have that many letters in front of your name, you must be really smart. I don't have that many. But Linsky says, and I'm quoting, this is really good, "Joy is the music that runs through this epistle. The sunshine that spreads over all of it, the whole epistle radiates joy and happiness." And I say that this music of joy, this sunshine of joy, definitely runs all through the book. And this music of joy was connected to and rooted to all of the Philippians and all that they were going through. And this music of joy was connected to and rooted in all that Paul was going through.

And this music of joy, this sunshine that was shining on everything that was connected to their unique kingdom-centered relationship. So this is the theme as I see it. The joy of the Lord in all things. The joy of the Lord in all things. Now here's where I connect it. I add to it especially difficult circumstances. We're going to see that Paul and the Philippians had some and especially gospel relationships because they definitely had a gospel relationship. Now at this time I want to give just a little bit of background information before we get into the verses that I want us to cover.

Now I want to say to you, you can get a lot of this background information in your study bibles, maybe some of your study resources. If you do any reading at all, this will come to you very easily. So I'm going to just zoom through this. But we need this. We need this before we get started. First the city of Philippi. Philippi was named after Philip II. Many of us don't know who that is, but when I tell you who his son was, you will know who he is. Philip II was the father of Alexander the Great. And Philip conquered the region because of the gold and silver mines in the region. He needed the wealth for all of his military conquests.

But the city of Philippi really wasn't put on the map until one of the most important events in Roman history came about. Simply this is what happened. A very decisive battle was fought at Philippi between rival Roman generals, and history tells us that that battle effectively ended the Roman Republic and brought about the Roman Empire. But after the battle, that is when things really begin to change for the city. Philippi became a Roman colony, which is very important to know for understanding this church and this letter that Paul wrote. Basically when the Romans colonized the city or region, they did many things.

One of the first things they did was this. They would settle many veterans from the Roman army and their families in those areas as well as others. And they made every effort to make the city in the area Roman in every way. Their philosophy was to import Roman culture. And so when Paul went to Philippi, it was a Roman city in every way. Philippi was even a very important and strategic city in the northwest region of the Roman Empire. Now we will revisit this off and on through the study of the book. It has a bearing on things. It has a bearing on what we're going to learn. Then second the church at Philippi.

The church was the first church founded on European soil, and this church was birthed during Paul's second missionary journey. We see these things in Acts 16 starting in verse 12. Soon after Paul arrived in Philippi, he went to a popular meeting place for worship along the river because there was no Jewish synagogue for worship. And it was along the river on the Jewish Sabbath that Paul preached the gospel to a very wealthy dealer in purple fabrics named Lydia. And when the Spirit of God opened up her heart, she was converted to Christ. And that's when the church at Philippi was born. We see that in Acts 16.

Of course there was more that took place in those early days of the church. There was the demon-possessed girl in the city who was set free when Paul cast a demon out of her. Of course things didn't go well. Because of this Paul and his companions were beaten and they were thrown into prison. Well that led to the conversion of the Philippian jailer. You can read all about those things in Acts 16 as well. And then Paul seems to have revisited the church at Philippi two times during his third missionary journey. He seems to have visited once at the beginning of the journey. We see this in 2 Corinthians 8, 1 to 5.

And again at the end of the journey. We see that in Acts 20 verse 6. And then some 4 or 5 years after his last visit to Philippi, Paul received someone from the Philippian church while he was in that Roman imprisonment. They had heard of his situation. After they heard that Paul was in prison, the Philippians generously sent support to Paul. Both men and money. They had supported Paul in the past. They had lost contact with Paul. But they resumed their contact with Paul and they resumed the much needed support. Now there is much more I can say here but I don't have time. As a matter of fact you need to go study some of this on your own.

But the point of this, it is important to see the birth of the church and the fact that Paul continued to have this relationship with the church. And not just any relationship, a one of a kind relationship. And again we will study, we will come back to this as we go throughout the book. Now with all of that said and in our minds, let's get started in this letter that has the music and the sunshine of joy running all through it and shining all over it. And I want to look at the first two verses by asking three questions. Real simple. Who wrote the letter? Who received the letter? And then what is this greeting? Because verse two is a greeting.

Now I'll go ahead and give you the title of the message. I simply call this Paul's greeting to the Philippians. So let's go and let's look at the verses. Two verses. Real simple. Paul and Timothy bond servants of Christ Jesus to all of the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi including the overseers and deacons. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's start with our first question. Number one. Who wrote this letter? We see this at the beginning of verse one. Now you may not realize it but we need to take note of who wrote the letter. We do this in our personal lives all the time.

You think about it when we get a letter we want to see who it comes from. If it's junk mail what do we do? We throw that junk mail away. Isn't that right? If it's a bill what do we do? We throw that bill away. No we don't. We don't do that very long. But if it's a personal letter we take note of that. Isn't that right? I mean we can tell when it's a personal letter. Well that's what we have here. Now right away we see that this letter was from Paul but notice it's also from Timothy and it says they're servants of Christ Jesus. And here we see who they were and what they were. So first who was Paul?

Most of us know who Paul was before he was known as Paul. He was also known as Saul. Before he came to faith in Christ he violently rejected Christ as a promised Messiah of God. He was the great persecutor of the church until he met Christ on the road to Damascus. As Paul was traveling to Damascus to arrest more Christians Christ Jesus by his good grace revealed himself to Saul. We see his conversion to Christ in Acts chapter 8 and chapter 9. And then after in Acts 13 we see that Saul was known more as Paul unless someone was referring to his previous life. Now scholars speculate and debate about why the name changed.

But no matter the reason this points to the fact that Saul was the great persecutor of the church, the Christians and the church and Christ. Then he became Paul the great servant of Christ and the father of the Gentile church and much more. So his name represented his conversion to Christ. Think about that. And Saul who became Paul was the apostle of the Gentiles. An interesting verse for you to see in his conversion. Acts chapter 8 verse 15 God told Ananias that Paul was his chosen instrument to take the gospel to the Gentiles to the Gentile kings into the children of Israel. Part of your assignment will be to read Acts 8.

Notice how Ananias reacts to the Lord when God calls him to go meet with Saul. But a question here what was an apostle? Was an apostle different than a disciple? The apostles were the chosen men of God in the New Testament who were uniquely chosen of God to be those who laid the foundation of the church. They were the chosen men of God who received and taught and gave the final revelation of the scriptures. Of course there were others who penned scriptures who were not apostles. You had the original 12 disciples who became the apostles along with Matthias who replaced Judas. We see this we see this in Acts 1.26.

And then we have Paul who was untimely born. Paul says that in 1 Corinthians 15.8. This speaks of how he was added as an apostle later than the others. So Saul the great persecutor of Christ and Christians in the church became Paul and he was appointed as an apostle to the Gentiles to their kings and then also to the children of Israel. But then second who was Timothy? Timothy was a younger disciple of Paul who was many things to Paul. He was Paul's friend. He was Paul's traveling companion on many missionary trips and journeys. And he was his best trained minister. Other than Timothy, Titus was the best. Timothy was the best.

Timothy was first mentioned in Acts 16 verse 1 when Paul visited Lystra. Timothy was the product of a mixed marriage and a broken home that might surprise you. His father was Greek and his mother was a devout Jew according to Acts 16.1 and 2 Timothy 1.5. But he was raised in a godly home although it was a broken home because it seems that his father wasn't in his life. From his childhood he was instructed of the Old Testament Scriptures according to 2 Timothy 3.15.

And when the apostle Paul came to town on his first missionary journey he taught this family that Jesus was in fact the promised Messiah of God that is found in the Old Testament Scriptures. And as a result his grandmother, his mother, and Timothy came to faith in Christ. And these things took place on Paul's first missionary journey. And then Paul revisited Lystra on his second missionary journey. Timothy joined Paul and Silas as an active member on that missionary journey. And it was then that Timothy went with Paul into Europe and to Philippi and then later to Thessalonica.

Of course there were many other things that took place during that second missionary journey. And Timothy did quite a lot of ministry with Paul and without Paul. Sometimes he was not with him. And we see these things begin in Acts 15.36. That's when the second missionary journey starts. And then on Paul's third missionary journey Timothy was again with Paul. And Timothy ministered with Paul at times like in Ephesus. And at times he was sent to other towns and other churches by Paul. He was in close contact with Paul during his first Roman imprisonment. He was with Paul later in Ephesus and he was placed there by Paul as the pastor ultimately.

It was while he was there in Ephesus that Paul wrote those two letters, 1 and 2 Timothy to him as instructions for him and for the church circumstance. And according to tradition, church tradition, after the Apostle Paul's death he settled in Ephesus where ultimately he was martyred. And that's of course what tradition tells us. I ran across a good description of Timothy's spiritual character, who he was. But listen to what this says about Timothy. Timothy was Paul's spiritual child in the faith. Yeah, he helped bring him into the faith. Paul brought him to faith in Christ and mentored him as a young man and a young minister.

His character was a mixture of great faithfulness even though he was naturally timid. Paul dearly loved and admired Timothy and that can be seen in Philippians 2, verses 19 to 22. And Paul mentions no other traveling companion as much as he mentions Timothy. Simply Paul loved Timothy. He depended on Timothy. He could count on Timothy and in many ways Timothy was Paul's successor although he was not an Apostle. Now question, besides just understanding the background and this biographical information, what can we learn here? Let me tell you one thing we can learn. First we see that Paul was not doing all of this ministry on his own.

First missionary journey, second missionary journey, third missionary journey. There were a whole host of other men involved and see seeing this helps us understand that Paul was not alone. And we also see that today. The church is built on the shoulders of the pastor. The church is built on the shoulders of just the elders. The church and the ministry of the church is everyone's ministry. It takes us all. Paul never could have done all that Paul did without Timothy. And I can't do what I'm called to do without you. But then third, what does this mean? That Paul referred to themselves as servants.

Now the English Standard and the King James read servants of Christ. The New American Standard reads bond servants of Christ. And actually this word in the original it reads slaves. Some of you have the legacy standard bible comes out of MacArthur's seminary. It reads slaves of Christ. And in their day this word slave basically spoke of someone who was owned by another so they were subservient to another in every way and dependent on another. They were owned by another. And it is important for us to understand what Paul is saying in using this word.

He was saying that he and Timothy were bought with a price and they were owned by their master. That would be Christ Jesus. He was saying that they were completely dependent on their master. That's Christ. And they owed him their undivided love and allegiance. Now I want to speak to something that almost always happens in our day, in our time. Most of the time when the word slave is mentioned most immediately have a negative thought. Rightfully so. We should. Most think of our American history with the slave trade. Of course the slave trade was almost worldwide. It wasn't just in America.

Most think of the horrible mistreatment of slaves and their involuntary forced subjection. We should think negatively about that. But that is not what we have here. We must not confuse the two. Paul and Timothy saw themselves as slaves of Christ. Yes. They saw Christ as their master and they saw that they had been bought with a price. But their slavery was a voluntary slavery. Their slavery was out of love and a devotion to Christ. But a question. Why do most of the English translations render this word servant or bond servant? That's a legitimate question.

I believe and other writers say the same thing mostly because of the negative feelings we have with the word slave. It just doesn't taste good in our mouths does it? And although language scholars will tell you that slave is a better translation and that servant is not fully adequate most of our English translations do not use the word slave. And that's why good study notes can help us. But beyond that what can we learn here? And what should we learn here? I think we should not see ourselves as servants. I think that we should not see ourselves as bond servants. We should see ourselves as Paul and Timothy saw themselves.

We should see ourselves as having been bought with a price. What was that price? Christ and his life on the cross. We should see ourselves as being owned by the master, our master, the Lord Jesus who paid our sin debt. We should see ourselves as completely dependent on our master, owned by our master, and completely devoted to a love and an allegiance to our master. We should see ourselves as slaves to our master and to his work. Now what is his work? Kingdom work. The work of the church. And then number two who received the letter? We see that at the end of verse one. Who received the letter?

Now whereas there is some debate about who received some of the letters in the New Testament there is no debate here. So I'm not even going to touch that. But I want us to see that there were actually three recipients. And this is very important. First the saints at Philippi. Now we may not be accustomed to this word saints in its meaning. But this is simple. This word refers to someone who is set apart. The word holy can be used. This is especially applied to Christians and they are seen as set apart by God and unto God and for God.

It is sad when we hear the word saint we usually think of some special high order of Christian who has accomplished exceptionally good deeds and lived an exceptionally holy life. In the Roman Catholic Church we see their saints who were revered individuals and they are officially recognized and set apart as saints after their death because of their accomplishments. I'm not sure but is Mother Teresa has she been canonized as a saint? If she hadn't she will be soon. I always think of this example. Years ago when I did student ministry when I was at First Baptist Church in Ellisville, Mississippi we did a lot of ministry in New Orleans.

And we would go to a homeless shelter that was right across the street from Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church. Yes, Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church. So what were they saying? Well John the Baptist was canonized as a saint but we don't find that in the scripture. We do not find that in the scriptures anywhere. The saints are nothing more than true believers, regular everyday Christians because they are set apart unto God by God and for God. So this letter was written to the believers. They're the saints in Philippi. Second we see that the letter was written to the overseers of the church.

Now the overseers are those who were called and equipped to lead God's church. In the New Testament scriptures the overseer is just another term for the elder and the term for the elder is the most common New Testament name for the office. Sometimes in the New Testament elders are called pastors or shepherds. We see that in Acts 20-28, 1 Peter 5 verses 1, 2, and 3. At times they are called pastor-teacher. We see that in Ephesians 4, 11 and at times they're also called bishops depending upon the translation. And then the qualifications for the elder, the overseer, the pastor-sheper, the pastor-teacher, all of those terms refer to one office.

Those qualifications are seen in 1st Timothy 3 and Titus 1 starting in verse 6. So the letter was also written to the overseers, the elders, the pastors, plural of the church there at Philippi. And then third to the deacons of the church. The deacons were not gifted and called to govern the church. Theirs, is, and was an office and a calling to practical service. Simply they met the physical, practical needs in the church. And the qualifications for the deacon are seen in 1st Timothy 3 right before we see the qualifications for the elder. And we also see this in Titus 1. So this letter was written to the deacons of the church.

So notice Paul is addressing this letter to all the church, to the saints, to the governing leaders, the elders, and to those serving. Now what can we learn? This is written to all of us too. Now why would Paul list the elders, overseers, and the deacons? I think Paul understood that it started with the leadership of the church. So what that tells me is as the pastor and the one studying here, it's got to start with me and then I've got to deliver it to you. And then we've got to get all of this together. So the point is those who receive this letter were all of the church and we as the church, all of us should receive this letter.

But then number three, finally, what is this greeting? We see this in verse 2. Here in verse 2 standard greeting of the day. It's different for you and me I'm sure, but this was the standard greeting of the day. "Grace to you and peace from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ." Now I know that we do not greet people this way in our day. We're from the south, so we would put y'all in there somewhere, isn't that right? We would butcher the king's English, isn't that right? We would slur some words and combine some words. That's just what we do.

But if we pay attention in our Bible reading, we will see that Paul normally writes a greeting at the beginning and he normally uses these two words, "grace and peace." Now this is not what we are accustomed to, but we need to see what this means. And this is loaded. This is good. First this word "grace." Most of us could define the word "grace," but we would miss a lot of what Paul is saying here just with our good basic definition. Yes, Paul is talking about God's grace gift given to us by his son. Simply our salvation is by grace through faith, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. But there's more here.

In the original language, the word Paul uses for grace is connected to the word "joy." The idea is that when someone experiences God's grace and salvation, that is what brings them joy when someone is converted to Christ that produces joy in them. So when Paul greets them in the grace of God, he is calling their attention to that which they all share, God's grace gift of salvation, and to the one thing that brings them joy. And then second the word "peace." Whereas most of us could guess the basic definition of grace, most of us would miss the meaning of the word "peace" here.

Our definition of peace would probably mean the absence of conflict or fighting. We think about peace, we think about the peace in the Ukraine. We want peace in the Ukraine, right? We think about peace, we think about peace in our home. You know if there's a little fussing and fighting in our home, we want peace, the absence of conflict. You understand that? Well that is not what Paul's talking about here. He was not talking of a peace which is the absence of some kind of a conflict. This peace is referring to the presence and the possession of the blessing of God in the life.

This peace is the possession and the presence of the Holy Spirit of God working in a person. So when Paul greets them in the peace of God, he is reminding them of the wonderful blessing and the presence of God in their life. And then third, the source of this grace and peace. Notice what the verse reads, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Now we do not need to see this as two different blessings. One blessing from God and one blessing from Jesus. But I like to see this blessing in two ways. First from God the Father, second from God the Son. Now let me explain because I've kind of contradicted myself.

It was God the Father who sent his one and only son to die for men. It was the one and only son who died the substitutionary death on the cross for men and men. Yet all of this came from God. God's grace is the gift of salvation in man. God's gift of salvation brings joy to a man and God's peace is what comes from God to man as a result. You see, it is all by God, all from God, and all for God. So this greeting is and was nothing like we see today. It has spiritual meaning of the substance. Paul is greeting these faithful saints, the elders, the deacons, all to the church. And he knew all of them well, remember?

He is bringing up the joy of their common salvation in the wonderful peace and blessing of God that they all had and they all enjoyed in their life. This was a common thing that they all shared and they can all see this in each other's lives. Paul knew them. And we need to see that this greeting should have meaning for us today. You see, we either possess this grace which brings joy and peace or we're left out. I never forget years ago I baptized a young lady in the life of the church and she talked about her family being converted to Christ and she described how she always felt left out. They were enjoying the things of God.

They were enjoying church. They were enjoying the Word and prayer. They were enjoying the Christian life and she was left out. I never forget years ago I had a friend who was a missionary in China. He since passed away and I was at an event one night where he gave his testimony and he talked about coming to faith in Christ and he explained how God had changed his life. And after the event a young man in the life of the church came up to me and came up to Keith and he said, "I don't have that. I don't have that." And we need to be honest here.

Some may have their name on a church roll, some may embrace proper theology and doctrine, some may perform all sorts of religious deeds, some may be even very very religious and they may be may be very good at it. But the question is this, have you experienced the saving grace of God whereby you receive a heavenly joy, a joy from God? And do you possess the peace of God and a blessing from the leading and the presence of God in the life? If you don't have joy and you don't have peace from the grace of God you might not be a Christian. So look at what we've seen tonight.

We have looked at Paul's greeting to the Philippians but I know much more. We looked at a lot more before we got to the greeting. We have looked at some much needed introductory material. We have zoomed through some basic background information. In much of this we will revisit throughout the book. We have laid out the foundational information and understanding that we can build on and you can go get more. And I'm going to tell you how. And I think we have gotten started in the book by examining Paul's greeting. Now I want to close out the message by giving you an assignment.

This will prepare us to get ready to really get into the book because starting in verse 3 it just gets good. Verse 1 and 2 are good now but I cannot wait to get to verse 3. So get out your pen, get out your way to take notes because I want us to study a few verses together. Acts chapter 8 and 9. Let's read about Paul's conversion. Paul's writing the book. Paul's the central figure. Acts chapter 16. We need to read about the birth of the church there in Philippi. If we're going to study the Philippian church and the letter written to them don't we need to go and see how it all began?

In Acts chapter 13 and on we need to read about Paul's first missionary journey. And then we need to start in Acts chapter 15 verse 36. That's the beginning of Paul's second missionary journey. We need to read about the first missionary journey so we can see how he came in contact with Timothy. Timothy's a central figure in the book too. And then we need to read about the second missionary journey and we'll see about how they got to Philippi. And then if you read a little later you'll see how they left Philippi and went to Thessalonica and Berea and you'll see how their support sent them on down the road.

They funded the rest of the second missionary journey. Now I'll say this and then I'll make a few concluding comments. If you'll study these verses and you'll study your resources the foundation that I've given you will be broader and deeper and it'll make all that we're going to study really really come to life. Now let me say this and then we'll close. We're starting a new book. We're still in Ephesians but we're starting a new book. So let's be responsible. Let's be disciplined. Let's study these things all together as long as it takes and I believe we'll grow immensely because of it.