PAUL THE APOSTLE ( PART 23) | THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY | LESSON FROM PHILIPPI ( PART 1 )

Pastor Christopher Choo

Lesson 3123

PAUL THE APOSTLE ( PART 23)

THE SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY
LESSON FROM PHILIPPI ( PART 1 )

*Acts 16:12 *   

1. Paul travels up to Philippi

From the port of Neapolis, Paul, Silas, and Luke travel inland along the Via Egnatia to Philippi.

Philippi was an old Greek city that was conquered by Philip of Macedon in 300BC and was re-founded over two hundred years later as a Roman ‘Colonia’ by retired Roman soldiers and their families 

Its wealth came from the gold of the surrounding mountains. Thus it became an important gold-mining center, and gold coins were minted there. 

In Paul's time, it was a busy commercial settlement on the Via Egnatia (the ‘Egnatian Way’) – an important routeway leading west along the coast and, eventually, across the Adriatic Sea to Rome.

Until today along this stretch of Via Egnatia, tourists can see for themselves markings of wheels  embedded on the pavements among the ruins of this once-proud city

2. Paul meets Lydia who becomes the first Christian convert in Europe

Read Acts 16:13-15

As there were few Jews and no synagogue in Philippi, Paul and his companions went to the riverbank just outside the city on the Sabbath day and began to speak to the women gathered there. One of them, Lydia – from Thyatira in the Roman province of Asia (now Turkey )– was a wealthy dealer in expensive purple cloth (which only the most important Roman citizens were allowed to wear).

The expensive purple dye was made from thousands of tiny murex shellfish

The city of Thyatira was well known for its dyeing and garment making, and Lydia may have been an overseas agent for a Thyatiran manufacturer.

Lydia ( who is probably a wealthy widow who has inherited her husband’s business) and all her household become believers. They were baptised, and her large townhouse (or ‘villa’) became Paul’s headquarters in Philippi.

ABBA FATHER, Paul would later recall with great fondness and affection this house church at Philippi in his famous epistle to the Philippians. Even when he was finally imprisoned in Rome awaiting trial, this church ministered to his needs by sending financial support. The bond of love that started in Philippi will always be remembered as a touchstone of ministerial partnership in the spread of the gospel to the then known world.