What is the history and significance of the church in Philippi?

The city of Philippi was built as a military position by Philip the Great of Macedon to keep the wild Thracians in check, which were the neighbors of the Macedonians. Later it became a Roman colony by Augustus, as a memorial of his victory over Brutus and Cassius. It was not a very important city. The Jews had not settled there at all, so that the city did not contain a synagogue. In Acts 16:12 Philippi is called "the chief city of that part of Macedonia." This does not mean that Philippi was the chief city of all Macedonia, which Thessalonica was; but Philippi was the chief city of that district and the first city to which Paul and his companions came. The historical record of the apostle's visit to Philippi and how the gospel was preached there, for the first time on European ground, is found in the book of Acts (chapter 16). The conversion of Lydia, her hospitality to the servants of Christ, the demon possessed girl and her deliverance, the suffering of Paul and Silas on account of it, their prayer and praise in the prison, the earthquake, the conversion of the jailer and of his house, are the interesting and blessed incidents connected with the beginning of the church in Philippi. The apostle probably visited this city twice after this (Acts 20:1 and 6), though the details of these visits are not reported in the book of Acts.

The church in Philippi was greatly attached to the Apostle Paul. He had no need to defend his apostleship and authority, for the Philippians had not been affected by the false Judaizing teachers, who had wrought such havoc in Galatia and Corinth. This must have been due to the fact that there were few Jews in that city. But the apostle evidently feared the invasion of the Philippian assembly by these false teachers. This we learn from the warning given in chapter 3:2. The church itself was poor and had much trial and affliction; yet did they minister out of their deep poverty to other needy saints (2 Cor. 8:1-2; Phil. 1:28-30). They had also ministered liberally to the apostle twice shortly after he had left them (Phil. 4:15-16); he received their fellowship in Thessalonica. The third time they had remembered him. Epaphroditus was their messenger who brought the love-gift to the prisoner of the Lord. In return the apostle sent to the beloved Philippians another gift, this beautiful Epistle, dictated by the Spirit of God.

City in the east of Macedonia. It was founded by Philip the father of Alexander the Great, from whom it derived its name. It was the first European city visited by Paul. His preaching was blessed to the conversion of Lydia and others. On his casting out a spirit of divination from the young woman who followed him, a tumult was raised, and Paul and Silas were scourged and cast into prison; but this happily led to the conversion of the jailer and his household. Acts 16:12-40. Paul visited the place for a short time afterwards. Acts 20:6. To the church gathered there the Epistle to the Philippians was written. Phil. 1:1; 1 Thess. 2:2. Extensive ruins are all that are left of the ancient city, now called Kavalla. It was the chief city, not of all Macedonia, but of that part of it.

The Epistle to the Philippians was written to the Christians in Philippi, the chief city of Macedonia, and a colony of Rome. If you will look at the map that may be found in most Bibles, marked: "The Missionary Journeys of the Apostle Paul", you will find Philippi in the North East corner of the great Province of Macedonia, just north of Greece. Indeed Macedonia was a province of Greece, and most of the people there were Greeks, and spoke the Greek language. About 168 years before Christ, Macedonia was conquered by the Romans, and some years before our Lord lived on this earth, large numbers of disbanded Roman soldiers were sent to Philippi to live. These soldiers were very loyal to Rome, and very proud of Rome's victories: and the Roman Government made Philippi a "Roman Colony", (Acts 16:12). This honour freed the city from the tribute usually paid by conquered states to Rome, and its citizens enjoyed all the rights and privileges of Rome: indeed, it became a miniature "Rome."

The first mention of Philippi in the Bible is in Acts 16, where we find the Spirit of God had brought the Apostle Paul, with Silas and Timothy, down to the seaport of Troas, (or, Troy), in the western end of Asia-Minor, just opposite Europe. Until this time the Apostle Paul had only preached the Gospel in Asia: for you must remember that Jerusalem and Antioch and most of the other places mentioned in the Bible, are in Asia: but Philippi and Rome and Corinth and such places are in Europe. Paul was minded to go to some other parts of Asia, as Bithynia, to preach the Gospel: but the Spirit of God closed all the doors in that land. It was not that the Lord did not care for those in darkness in Bithynia, and we know from 1 Peter 1:1 that He sent the Gospel to that land by some other messenger, but now the time had come when Europe, as well as Asia, was to have the Gospel, and the Lord chose His servant Paul to preach it there. You will remember that "strangers from Rome, Jews and Proselytes" heard Peter preach in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost. (Acts 2:10). And it may be that they carried the Good News of the Gospel back to Rome and other parts: for we know there was an assembly of Christians in Rome before this time, to whom Paul had written the Epistle to the Romans: but until this time Paul had never preached in Europe: nor, indeed, as far as we know, had any of the other Apostles.

Philippi was a prosperous city in the northern part of Greece (Macedonia). It was founded by King Philip of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great) around 300 BC. Later it became part of the Roman Empire. Unlike other Roman cities, only a small number of Jews lived there. There was no synagogue in Philippi; when Paul wrote his epistle, most of its inhabitants were Roman citizens. Luke gives us some interesting details about Paul’s first visit there (Acts 16:11–40). This was during his second missionary trip when he and his companions came to Europe for the first time and stayed in Philippi. He met with great hostility, but after one night in prison he was released and some of the Philippians accepted Christ as their Saviour.

Philippi was a Roman colony in New Testament times and the centre of eastern Macedonia. The city had already been founded by the great king Philip of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great, to whom its name also goes back.

A missionary team arrives in Philippi

So, the team arrives in Philippi, ‘the first city … a colony’ (16:12). Philippi was named after Philip II of Macedon (the father of Alexander the Great). It became a Roman colony in 31 BC, so it was an important city that enjoyed certain privileges. It was on the Egnatian Way, a busy Roman trade route (see the map on the inside back cover). The verse goes on to say ‘we were staying in that city certain days’, so it is evident they wanted to get an impression of the city to find out how to reach the people there with the gospel. Entering a new area of service, it may be helpful ‘to look and listen’ before doing anything else. Perhaps Paul was also looking for a synagogue — he usually tried to speak to the Jewish community first. But Philippi seems to have had no significant Jewish population, at least not enough men to form a synagogue. In such cases, a place of prayer under the open sky and near a river or the sea was adopted as somewhere to meet. Paul had seen a man in his vision, but the first people he met were women. He and his companions shared the gospel with them — another indication of the value Christianity puts on women (in contrast to many religions). No Greek philosopher would have ‘wasted’ time speaking with women about their ideas. How different is the good news of Jesus Christ — a message for everyone who wants to hear: women and men, children and adults.

'Having therefore sailed away from Troas we took a straight course to Samothrace, and on the morrow to Neapolis, and thence to Philippi, which is a city of Macedonia, first of the district, a colony. And we were in this city staying certain days' (vers. 11, 12). The description is most exact. It would not have been true to call it the chief city or capital of Macedonia; but of that part or district it was: a Roman colony too, not a Greek, which had a somewhat important bearing on the incidents that follow, of which we have so graphic a sketch. There Roman armies had engaged in deadly strife, not with strangers, but with one another. There the fate of the moribund republic was decided. There the coming empire of the world began to dawn, an empire which was to last as no predecessor had done, though it had the unenviable distinction of contact with the Lord of glory not only in His despised birth but in His crucifixion of shame; as it alone, after succombing long and notoriously, is destined to live again for a brief but awful space of lawlessness closing in a vain, blasphemous and destructive opposition to His appearing from heaven in glory.

But there were far other and happier reasons which made the entrance of the gospel and the founding of the church in Philippi full of holy interest. The work began in face of an ensnaring spirit of evil and of an adverse unrighteous world, with singular simplicity, with joy rising high and loudly above sorrow and shame, with a display of divine grace no less than divine power. There was nothing exactly like this at Antioch, Corinth, Ephesus, Rome, Thessalonica, though each no doubt had characteristics of admirably suited and special favour. Philippi too went, not without severe trials and peculiar difficulties but as a whole in spiritual power, to ripe experience beyond known parallel without so painful a brand of declension as we know befell the once fair and bright assembly in Ephesus. God would have us learn how the good seed took root and bore fruit at Philippi. Let others boast in the old almanac of man's tale as vain and unreliable in the ecclesiastical as in the secular sphere. Here the believer can rest in the certain truth of God and profit by that which He Who knows all gives for our refreshment or our admonition. We see alas! how fading was that which grace made so good and true and faithful in its measure, for where is that assembly now? how was it in the next generation after Paul's Epistle to all the saints there? If it had stood as the Latin church, it had like Rome been but a pillar of salt with every truth falsified (save perhaps those elements which the Athanasian creed owns), and every way of grace changed into judaizing. This would have been but deeper dishonour of Christ; and the assembly at Philippi, as in almost all the apostolic plantations, has passed away, that men might learn, were they not blinded by worldly wisdom and the fleshly mind, that the power and even the truth of the church of God rests not in an ecclesiastical succession, but in the living energy of the Holy Spirit working in the bond of Christ's confessors who are worse than nothing as a witness if untrue to Him, who are just of price in God's sight as they do His will and reflect His grace.

Philippi

Setting sail from Troas, they made a straight course to the island of Samothracia, now Samothraki; and the next day they reached Neapolis, now Cavallo, to which they were bound. Leaving there the vessel, they set forth up the country by land to Philippi, distant some eight to ten miles. Now in ruins, it was then a town of importance as the first city of that district of Macedonia, taking that place as the capital of Macedonia Prima, which had once belonged to Amphipolia. Connected in profane history with the overthrow of Brutus and Cassius by Octavius and Antony, it became a Roman colony with the Italicum jus . This carried with it immunity from public taxes, [70] with municipal government. It was governed by Roman laws.

This marks a distinct epoch in the history of the church the history of Paul, and the progress of Christianity. Paul and his companions now carry the gospel into Europe. And here we may be forgiven if we rest for a moment and recall the many interesting historical associations of Macedonian conquerors and conquests, and to dwell a little on the plain of Philippi, famous also in Roman history. Here the great struggle between the republic and the empire was terminated. To commemorate that event, Augustus founded a colony at Philippi. This was the first city at which Paul arrived on his entrance into Europe. It is called "the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony." A Roman colony, we are told, was characteristically a miniature resemblance of Rome; and Philippi was more fit than any other in the empire to be considered the representative of Imperial Rome.

Philippi had the status of a Roman colony, so the Roman element was strong there, and perhaps correspondingly the Jewish element was weak. No synagogue existed, and all that was to be found was a spot outside the city by a river where prayer to the true God was offered. That spot they sought out, and finding only some women assembled they sat down and spoke to them. That did not seem a very promising beginning, but Paul was the kind of man that accepted and utilized small things. He attempted no formal preaching but just sat down and talked in an informal way. This humble beginning had a great ending. A church was established which above others was filled with grace and was a comfort to him.

The work began in the heart of Lydia, which was opened of God. The words, "which worshipped God," indicate that she was a seeker, and had become a proselyte, and now in the Gospel which Paul preached she found the full thing which she sought. The work was quiet but very real, for she was baptized and her household, and she at once identified herself with the Lord's servants by opening her house to them.