Paul Confronts Roman Culture In Philippi
If you have read Shakespeare’s play, ‘Julius Caesar’, you already have a piece or two from the history of Philippi. After the assassination of Caesar in Rome, the main actors, Mark Anthony and Octavian, met their opponents, Brutus and Cassius, in a civil war fought outside of Rome at Philippi. Their battle in 42 BC amassed the largest number of Roman troops ever on a single field of war. (These things are referenced in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Act IV).
Because the Roman battle to succeed Julius as Caesar played out at Philippi, that city became more important than just another outpost of the Roman Empire. Philippi was honored by being named a Roman ‘colony’ with a special relationship to Rome itself. Philippi’s constitution, coins, government and streets all echoed that of Rome. The Roman citizens of Philippi dressed in Roman fashions. Many of the families in Philippi came from the Roman troops that remained after the battles, and other military families from around the empire joined them. With this history the city Philippi had many loyal citizens who were thoroughly Roman.
Not too many years after these storied battles, Paul was called to Macedonia in a vision (Acts 16:6). He and Silas stopped in Philippi first as the ‘leading city’ of the district. There, Lydia came to faith. Then Paul and Silas were accused of ’disturbing’ the city, by advocating ‘customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice’ by delivering a slave girl from demons. Looking at the opposition they experienced, we can still feel the connection that Philippi had to the laws of Imperial Rome.
In the uproar the authorities publicly stripped and beat the apostles, then threw them in jail. Yet, hours after being beaten and jailed, Paul and Silas rejoiced and sang hymns to God. Miraculously God sent an earthquake to free them. When they stayed rather than run, the distraught jailer believed Paul’s gospel, came to Jesus and was baptized. So the church in Philippi began with Lydia, with an exorcism bringing much public opposition, and by this miraculous jailbreak with the jailer’s remarkable conversion. Now that is church planting!
About 10 years later, around 61 AD, Paul wrote to this church at Philippi that loved him and had partnered with him for many years. Even as he is in another Roman jail, he writes to a church that was formed with a miraculous jailbreak. And though there is no earthquake this time he addresses the Philippians without any shame. Instead, he is rejoicing in jail just as he and Silas rejoiced in that Philippian jail years before. And though he may not be released this time, though he may die in prison, Paul is not ashamed, instead he brazenly asserts the rule of Christ over all, and he calls the Philippian believers ‘citizens of heaven’ rather than citizens of Rome.
Paul identifies the Philippians and all believers as part of Christ’s unseen, global gospel kingdom with a risen Lord and a global mission. What a remarkable and bold identification! And you will find Philippians is a joyous book filled with hope showing that Paul’s expectation was that one day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.