Gilliland, David: The Gospel For A New City 03 Philadelphia ~ Acts 16

Today is from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter sixteen. Acts chapter sixteen, first of all, then we'll read a little from the epistle to the Philippians, but Acts sixteen and verse, let verse ten. And after he had seen the victim, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Therefore, loosing from Troas, we came at a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis, and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and at Haloneth, and we were in that city abiding certain death. And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made. And we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither, and a certain woman named Lydia. Verse 16, came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us. And then we have Paul imprisoned and the jailer and so on. I don't think we need to read that, we know it well. So over to the Epistle to the Philippians, for a few verses here. Philippians, chapter one verse twenty seven. Philippians one and verse twenty seven. Only let your conversation, or it may say in the margin of your Bible, only let your citizenship be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel as in not being terrified by your adversaries. And then we know the precious portion of chapter two and chapter three. and we read from it verse twenty: For our conversation, again, it's the same word group as chapter one. our citizenship is in heaven. From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our fine body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and long for my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Verse six, be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. I think perhaps that will, that will do for our reading from the scriptures. Now, you've already been remarking very much the tendency to urbanization that marks our modern world, and the great masses of human population that are gravitating towards the great metropolis centers and the great cosmopolitan cities of the earth. It really seems to me as if there is a great work to be done in those cities. We are not under any illusion but that it will be a very difficult and a very, very demanding work. And yet, I don't think it's a work from which we should run away. There was a Bible man, was once upon a time sent to a city. He didn't like the idea. He was a country boy from the villages of Galilee. He thought he would go in the opposite direction, and the thought of being an inner city preacher wasn't one that appealed to him. And of course, the Lord had to deal with him very fiercely in order to change his name. Being an inner city preacher, it certainly doesn't appeal to a country boy like myself, or maybe to many of us. As you know, Lisburn has now become a grand city at 3 years old, and it will increase, and the demands will increase, and I hope that God will enable us to rise to the challenge. As part of our incentive and as part of our encouragement, we have been very pleased to observe that much of the work of the New Testament, especially in the case of the Apostle Paul, it was done in city. Christianity began in villages because the Lord preached around the circuit of the small hamlets and the villages of Galilee. It began in villages, but it expanded rapidly in city. So there may be a hint that that is also where a great part of our work can be done. Cities are not only places where there is a large representation of people, precious souls, but you know that cities can also be very lonely places. People often come with grandiose ideas of immediate wealth, of success, of psychological fulfillment. When they arrive at the city, they oftentimes discover that the space has all been taken up by other people. They haven't the heart to go back and admit defeat. Some of them end up in slums, living in shanty towns. Nobody cares whether they live or die. In a village, there can often be a close community. People know their neighbor. In the cities where people throng by the million, every man's a stranger, and hardly one cares about the other. One of the features of the city life which was tackled by the Apostle Paul was the language, the Greek language was known in all of those city. In the villages, it would have been different. Indeed, I'm told to the present day, I haven't tested it, I have no intention of testing it, that if you went to these cities that we have been looking at, and when we look at tonight, and some of the other cities that we haven't time to look at, you could almost follow the path of the Apostle Paul with English, and you could get by. When he was there, he could go to those cities with Greek, and he could get by. If he had gone into the villages, the dialects and the local vernacular, he would have needed to know a thousand languages. So he concentrated on the cities as great centers, cosmopolitan centers of culture, and as well centers of people. You remember that very startling claim that he made, which indeed has puzzled people sometimes in Romans fifteen, when he's writing to the Christians in Rome and he tells them that he's going to head to that city. He says, I'm nowhere else here to preach. And he said, from Jerusalem to America, that is right from Palestine, right across to the American coast of the Adriatic Sea, what we would now call Albania. He said, right across that arc, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. Now, if you thought that the Apostle Paul was claiming that from Jerusalem to the Boot of Italy, the heel at the bottom of Italy's boot, that he had preached the gospel to every single person, in every single street, in every single village, in every single hamlet, you would be mistaken. What he meant was this, that between Jerusalem and Italy, he had touched all the big center. Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi, some of the old towns of Galatia, even Tarsus, the cities of Arabia, because when Paul went for three years to Arabia, people think he went into seclusion. I don't believe that at all. I don't know where the brethren got this idea. Paul spent three years in Arabia, and Moses spent forty years in the desert, and they think Paul was a kind of a monk in the desert for three years after he was saved. I think that Paul began to preach immediately, and he went to Arabia to evangelize the cities of Arabia. Arabia was not a desert, at least the Arabia, the Damascus Arabia to which Paul went. So he was preaching the gospel in cities right from the very beginning, and as we said on another night, it was a city in which he met his. Cities are not only large and lonely places, but, you know, cities are very unequal places. The layer of society in cities, it's, it's very, very strange. At the top of the social pyramid, you get the elite. At the bottom of the social pyramid, you get the expendable. By the expendables, I mean the people who, when they die, they never even get a funeral. They just die like a dog, and their body has just become the carcass in the dirt of the street. And every city of the world, it has the pyramid elites, and at the bottom it has the people who count for nothing. Now, that's another reason why people tend to reach, because in cities generally there are a great number of poor people, and as things have gone down the centuries, the poor have been more welcoming to the gospel, generally speaking. So I don't think we should avoid cities. I don't think we should feel that we need to run away from them. Certainly, as I've emphasized, plenty of dangers and all that, but nevertheless, there's fruit to the scene. Now we're coming to a city tonight well known. The streets of this city have often been traveled by gospel preachers, and the stories are very familiar. But I want to mention some things about the city of Philippi. When Paul took the gospel to Athens, Christianity was confronted by intellectualism, and Paul preached the message of creation in that city to those high brow gentlemen, and he was able to hold his head high and to represent the interests of God and of Christ. It met the challenge of intellectualism. Last night we discovered, at least I hope we discovered in part, that Christianity, when it went to Corinth, it could meet the challenges of idolatry. And with that polluted and pervasive idolatry, it could also meet the challenges of immorality. And there could be left behind in the city of Corinth a company which the Apostle Paul could describe as one of the churches of the saints. People that have been made holy in such a polluted environment. So it could also answer the challenge of idolatry as well as the challenge of intellectualism. Now today, when we come to Philippi, the gospel is confronted by the challenge of imperialism, because Philippi was not a city that was noted for its idolatry, although there was plenty of it. Neither is it a city that was notorious for its immorality, as Corinth was. It certainly wasn't a university city like Athens, noted for its academia, nothing like that. But Philippi was one of the great showcase imperial cities of the Roman Empire. It was a prized product of the great Caesar himself. And we want to look at, well, I think we'll maybe cover three areas. I want to think something about the character of Philippi. I just told you what it is, but I'll elaborate upon that. Then I want to say a little bit, because it's well known it will only be a little bit, about the converts at Philippi, and then I'll say something about the correspondence which the Apostle Paul sent to Philippi about 10 years later. Now we're told here, and I've come into it right away, that when he moves from Troas, that is, Troas was the last town in Asia, the Apostle Paul crossed the Hellespont. He spent the night, according to this verse, at the island of Samothrisha. He disembarked at a city called Neapolis. That journey is covered for us in graphic detail. Leaving Ponos, for the meantime, he says goodbye to the continent of Asia. He puts his foot upon European soil at Neapolis. As far as I can see, he does no preaching at Neapolis at all. He heads for Philippi, ten miles inland. He had probably heard about this city. He had set his heart upon it. He thought that this is the next great challenge, and I'm going to go to Philippi. It tells us, Luke gives us the information here that the city of Philippi, it was a chief city of that part of Macedonia and a colony. Now, what we spoke about, because we're actually moving back ways, uh, Paul was at Philippi before he went to Corinth, but we went to Corinth first for reasons that I have not explained to you. But Corinth was also a colony. But when we begin to read about it in chapter eighteen, it doesn't say Paul came to Corinth, a colony. Luke never mentions that. Because when he comes to Philippi, he wants to emphasize there's something about this that he wants to draw attention to, that this city was a colony. Now you'll immediately ask me, a colony of what? A colony of where? And why a colony? What was a colony for? And what's the whole business? Now, Philippi wasn't built as a colony. You know, when we come to this idea, and do give me your best to bear with this for a minute or two, it'll be important for what I want to speak about in the last fifteen minutes of the meeting. When we come to this idea of a colony in Acts sixteen, we have to try and rub out of our minds the idea of English colony. People going out of England into areas that weren't inhabited and starting new communities and the colonization of the British Empire. Now, the colonies of the Roman Empire were altogether different to the colonies of the British Empire, so that we need to adjust our thinking here. When Paul arrived at Philippi, it was a city of about four hundred years old. In fact, both it and the city that I want to speak about in the will of God tomorrow night, the city of Thessalonica, both it and Philippi had links with Alexander the Great. Philippi got its name from Alexander's father. Thessalonica got its name from Alexander the Great's half-sister. So both Philippi and Thessalonica, they were created back in those days of the Macedonian Empire, about hundred and BC, roughly speaking. It didn't really make much headway. It was situated in a very nice area. Eventually it was taken over by the Romans. I'm jumping over a good bit of history now that's not relevant to our story tonight. It was taken over by the Romans. They held it for a quite number of the days of the Republic, and then after the death of Julius Caesar, there was a very important battle that was fought just on the outskirts of Philippi. This is where it really becomes important. The assassins of Julius Caesar, Cassius and Antony, in the Battle of Philippi, they were defeated by two men. Octavian, Brutus and Cassius, I mean, were defeated by Octavian and Antony. As a result, Anthony made Philippi a Roman colony as a reward, a reward for being the site where this victorious battle was fought. The Philippian people, they supplied the army with some supplies, and Anthony was so pleased with what they had done that he made this a Roman colony. Now, it's not that there were people there. It was a thriving concern. It was a well populated city. It was a center of commerce and all that goes with it, a center of agriculture. There was a beautiful plain and so on, but he made it a Roman colony so that it suddenly, in about AD forty four, it suddenly got a jumped up stamp, and it rose to the occasion. But then, of course, Octavian and Anthony, they fell out themselves. Anthony got very friendly with a, a good looking girl down in Egypt, and there were wonderful things happened and so on, so that the two men who won the battle, one of whom made fun of by economy, these two men started to fight, and old Antony, he was knocked out as well. And Octavian became the sole ruler. He was the great nephew of Julius Caesar. He became the first emperor of the Roman Empire. He changed his name to Caesar Augustus, and you know what he did? He made Philippi a colony the second time within about fifteen years, so that it became a Roman colony in BC forty four, and it again became a Roman colony in BC And And the man who made it, and the man who created it, and the man who instituted it, a Roman colony, Octavian. He was a man who, in a short time, took a seat in the imperial palace at Rome, and he became the lord of the whole empire. So that this city, this city, when he became emperor, this city had a feather in its cap, and they could say, well, now the man that made us colony and gave us special status and made us what we are the second time. Do you know who he is, people? Do you know who the man is that has given us and made us what we are? Do you know who he is? He's no less than the great Caesar himself. And they said it with an expanded chest, and they thought it was great that here we are, a colony, and we are linked with the big man up there in the capital, in the headquarters of the whole business. So, when Luke tells us here, just in a little sentence of his, he says they came to Philippi, a chief city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. It seems to us just to be a little bit of a throwaway remark, but I can tell you it's anything but a throwaway remark. Now, because it was a colony, of course, it had, I've already talked about its status. You see, one of the things that a general did when he made some of these cities a colony, the soldiers who had served in his army through their twenty-one-year service on that was the full term for a Roman soldier. Those who had their twenty-one-year year service done, they were allowed to go and live in a colony like this. They got good retirement posts, they got good jobs, they were absolutely free of tax, no tax to pay whatsoever. Other cities around the provinces, they were paying taxes, and they were struggling, struggling their levels to the bone to get the money to pay the taxes to Rome. But one of the perks of being a colony was tax-free. You had status, you had liberty, and you had special privileges. But for those privileges, you had other things to do. In a Roman colony, they had to live as like Rome as they could. They had to wear these citizens of the colony and the officials of the colony, even though this was Greece. Now, don't forget Macedonia is a part of Greece, but because it was a colony, if you had gone there, you'd have seen these gentlemen walking across the streets with, with Roman dress on. When you went down the road to the next city, and got here to the next city, and we went here to that city, everybody was wearing Greek dress. Because this is northern Greece. But here's a little cell that has been planted here by Caesar of Carian, who has now become Caesar, and this little cell is different to all the other things, even in the way they dress. They're wearing Latin dress, the togas and all that, that goes, and then you go to a shop to buy your Mars bar for your morning bread. And when you give him, when you give him your serving, you get back euro. You don't get back Greek coin. You'll get back Roman coin. And when you walk down the street that day, you'll call into the court just to hear what's going on, and you'll say, well, uh, I'll understand what they're talking about here because I know my Greek perfectly, and I'm here in the good land of Greece with this great heritage, and as soon as you go through the courthouse door, you say, there's nobody talks Greek around here, this is all Latin. So they have Roman times, they have Roman clothes, and they have Roman conversation in their courts and in all their official correspondence, and you say to yourself, tell me this, tell me this, tell me this, sir. Where am I? Where am I today? You say, I'm at Meshtoki. Am I, am I, am I in Rome? Or am I in Greece? This place is so like Rome, I have lost my mind. I must be in Rome because everything you look at and everything you listen to and everything you touch, it smells of Rome. And yet am I? I say, no, sir, you're in Greece. You're in Greece. You're all right. Your geography hasn't got mixed up. You're still in Greece, my good man, but you're here in a colony of Rome. This is a colony. Do you not know that we have got special status from the Caesar, and it's our responsibility. He has given us privileges, but it's our responsibility to represent him, and it's our responsibility to reproduce his characteristics. We are here for this purpose, and we are a colony. Now, just when we get into this chapter, you notice when Paul is arrested and they bring him here, and this after he's stoned the demon out of the, out of this girl. Those who arrest him, these men whose money, whose money has gone wrong because the girl has been delivered, this is what they say, and I can just hear the thrill with which they say it. They say these men being Jews. You see, they knew from Paul's dress that he was a Jew. These men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city. Mm, our city. That's the way you'll be talking about this part, surely. These men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe. Being Romans, and I tell you they expanded their chest, and these scrubs of Jews coming to try and change us, and we are living in the land of Greece, but we are not Greeks, we are Romans. And they were really proud of the line. You see, with colonial status in the Roman Empire, there were privileges, there were certain responsibilities, but there was also a great sense of pride. You really thought, we are the special people in this whole district. Now, Roman power was really felt there. This was the first real brush that the gospel had with Roman imperialism. And when the gospel came up against Roman power, of course, you know very well, I'm not going to this part of the story, the two preachers of the gospel landed in prison, and when the jailer tightened down the stocks of the inner jail, and when he bolted and he barred and he locked the doors, he said, that's it. These two boys came to upset our city and to try and change us from being Romans and to try and turn us and make us into Christians, and he's going to change us, and they're going to throw their weight around, and they're going to leave this city completely obstin. We put them in there, and that'll stop. And the power of Rome has taken on itself to silence the message of the gospel. And of course, God just treats it as a joke. He gives Rome, he gives Rome its first, its first bit of a shake. And even the old healer, who was probably one of those veteran soldiers, well worn and proud in the army, he shoots to the very soles of his boots. And he said, I thought I was here as a symbol of power. He said, I'm up against a power tonight that I never faced before. And the crumbling cry of that jader was a symbol of the cowering, the cowering of the mighty Roman Empire in front of the power of the gospel. You see, dear brothers and sisters, let us always remember that we have a message. We have a message that we can take to every city, whether it is imperialism, political or external persecution, whether it is idolatry, whether it is intellectualism. Thank God the power of the message that we preach is superior on every count. First of all, the message goes to the religious sector of the city. And there's a devout woman, see. Then the message goes to the commercial sector of the city. And this poor girl who has just exploited, and her personality has been invaded by this demon possession, and these men who are capitalists as an outlook, the power of politics and the power of religion and the power of commerce, just using people as things to make money. You know, that's a thing that's endemic to city. People are just used. People are exploited. People are manipulated just as machines that have no soul. That's what the men were doing with this girl, and when their, when their evil exploitation was exploited by the gospel, they were very aggrieved about it. So whether it's the religious sector of the city, the devout woman state, and the commercial sector of the city, the demonized girl is saved, and then you go to the justice sector of the city, into the jail itself, and this the dungeon, he himself is saved. And you have preached it all, I'm not going over it here in detail, brethren, they say, tell me this, and the girl was a Greek, and the man was a Roman. And they tell me in gospel meetings that this lady who sold her purple was at the top rung of the social mobility ladder. This poor girl that was going about selling her soul for sordid gain, she is at the bottom rung of the social ladder. This man who has been given a retirement post as a veteran of the Roman army, he's at the middle sector of the social ladder, and yet the gospel touches every single sphere. It doesn't know any social barriers, it doesn't know any national barriers, and it's great to see how the gospel can prosper. Brethren, let me say again, let us not be afraid to tackle the city because we have a message that can touch every class and can touch every type of person. You may be surprised when you ask yourself the question, why was this gear being employed? In, in a colony of Rome where everything was straight lace, and they learned to use a mixed metaphor, they ran a very, very tight ship in a Roman colony. Everything had to follow the line of Roman government and justice. What was a girl like this being tolerated for? Going about with this spirit of Titan. Titan was the Greek goddess that sat on a three-legged stool and stared into space until she was transported into a trance and was supposed to be able to tell the future. This girl was supposed to get a spirit from the Titan goddess so that she could tell the future. I think it's most revealing. It's most revealing that that was to be found in the very heart of the mighty city of Philippi, you see. Sure, sure, boys like you with your armies and with your battles and with your empire, men like you are afraid of the future. You know, there's something in all men that fears the future. That's why even some members of our own royal family slip away and decide to have an interview with some of these media. The uncertainty of the future, it casts a spell on people, and they will pay any amount of money just to know what will happen next week. The cities of the world, I can see, not that I'm widely traveled by any means, but in any little bit of traveling I've done, and the cities that would be fairly close to here, London and so on. I can see that the cities of the Western world are being invaded by spiritism. I was amazed in one of those shopping malls recently to see that they had a whole thing for a medium set up in the very middle of it. How many years ago, it would have been a man in the market square with his Bible in his hand. Now we have turned away from God, and we have become a people who are held spellbound by horoscopes and fortune tellers and meteorites and things like that. Here it was in the very center of Philippi, a city that you would have imagined didn't have a field because it had the mighty power of Rome to sponsor it, but it was filled with the fear of the future. You know, the little man that came that day, he had a message that could guarantee the future. You want a starting point? You want to know how to get into the city? You want to know how to penetrate its commercial and its capitalistic interests? Let us remember, dear brethren, that there are always points of entry into people's hearts, and one of the points of entry here was just taken by these apostles, the fear of the future. Maybe I should just mention another thing here before I leave this whole business of, of, um, the gospel of the converts. You know that very well. I don't want to start preaching about the Philippian jailer, or you might imagine I thought half of you weren't saved, and I'm not just as skeptical as that. How did it all begin? You know, the small beginnings of God's mighty works just amaze me. When you say I know how it all began, it began the brethren, the brethren sent, sent an organizing team six months before them, and they took a blitz around the city, and they circulated well with, with very, very well organized advertisement, and then the follow-up team came, and out of this great Operation Philippi, they managed to pave a way for the mighty Christian campaign. That's, uh, that's reading, of course, twenty first century nonsense back into the... follow, follow those. You see, get your G'd up, get your G'd up. You have to get the thing going, and you have to get it worked up, and you have to get it, you know, psyched up. You know why people think, even for gospel meetings, people think you need to get psyched up and get people just all G'd up. No, it says, I love this. It says he looked from Troas, came to Minneapolis, thence he went to Philadelphia, chief city and a colony, and we were in that city abiding certain death. She should have had a meeting the first night. What are you doing? You're wasting your people. You want them to get going and see you, you two men with you to preach. And there's better be a servant somewhere amongst the three of you. I just, just stay there for a few days. Take it easy. Assess the situation. Remember Monday night when he went into Athens, he took a look around. Just stay for a few days. You know, the word of God never needs excitement, and the word of God never needs sensationalism. On the Sabbath day, he didn't even stay in the city, he went out to just a little quiet prayer meeting. Now you say this boy hasn't a clue about evangelism. Hasn't a clue. I could do better myself. Actually, evangelism is a word that never occurred in the Bible. Did you ever notice that? We have great, we have a great praise about evangelism. We have introduced an ism that the Bible never mentioned by that name. You see, by using the word evangelism, we have become sold on techniques, and we have become sold on methods. The only thing that Paul was sold on was God. And he says, we'll just, we'll go to the, he says, about her right now here, few women. Yes, there's no marriage in that. Yes, there's no marriage in that. A young kid may see a woman say it, for sure. Forgive that chauvinistic remark. I want you to say it to the end of the meeting. Some lady she became. She became the home base for the great work, and he didn't even, he just, I think he just sat down and just thought. You say, my dear, get going! I need to get something moving. No, no, just stop with the woman, just say. Just, that's just it. When he went to Corinth, you know what he started to do? He, he got a job making tents. What you say this man? I never saw a man as this. I never saw a man who was under the gospel preaching as this. Instead of getting a job making tents, well, he could make tents. You know what? I believe as Paul worked at those tents from morning to night, in the first few weeks of his time at Corinth. Remember I said last night about all the people coming to the games in AD fifty one, and Paul was there in the spring, and the tent state was a roaring business, and they were all looking tents made to get ready for this influx of two hundred thousand people that would be coming to see the games. You see, in those first few weeks where Paul was making tents, I leave you three folks just to decide how many people he made contact with. And I imagine if you were buying, buying, buying a tent of Paul when you were putting down your last old denarius, you maybe got value for money before you went away. And you say, but is that how the whole bit, just going out and sticking to a few women? And out of that small and auspicious thing, the mighty work of Philippi flourished, just making tents for a few weeks and making contacts with people doing business with them, and the mighty work. The Bible doesn't talk about evangelism, but the Bible does talk about witnessing. Not every Christian is an evangelist, but every Christian is a witness. Can I ask some of you folks, just you tell the gospel to some of the women in the city, some of the women you meet for a cup of coffee, doing the shopping. Can I say to some of you men, start the gospel, people that you do business with, people that you're making tents for. Start the gospel. You see, what I want to say is that these massive, mighty works that within a short time resulted in assemblies being thrusted in the very, very teeth of Heathendom and imperialism. They all began in a very quiet and simple way. It's amazing how it can spread if we have a heart to spread it. Now, I've had a, you've got the flavor of a colony. People really proud of their stuff. People really feel the fact that we belong to this place, that we have got links with the great capital, that we are here to represent all that belongs to Caesar, and so on. That's the idea. Now, just for a few minutes, and I'm not, I'm not prolong it, I promise. So much for the coming to Philippi and the converts of Philippi and the character of Philippi. Now a little bit about the correspondence of Philippi. You notice that verse that we read, because when Paul writes to these Philippians in his letter, his letter is full of political talk. And you notice especially the verses, two verses, but one I just mentioned now, I'll come to the other in a second. In verse twenty seven of chapter one, he says to these Philippians, this is ten years later. He says, let your citizenship, the word is conversation in our translation, it's the word citizenship. Let your citizenship be as they cometh, the gospel of the grace. And then he'll say in chapter three, using a sister word, our citizenship or our conversation is in heaven. Now, I want to tease that out just a little bit for this few minutes as possible. Now, let me go back to draw on something that I said there briefly, just recently. What was a colony for? Now, Paul tells these Christians, you're a spiritual colony. He says, I know, I know that you're a physical colony, and I know that you're a political colony, but he says you're also a spiritual colony. Now, the political colony, it was calculated to represent a person and to represent a place. That's as simply as I can put it. Um, Philippi was here in the land of Greece, northern Greece, in the province of Macedonia. The most of the people in that province, there's a person that they would never see, and there's a place where they would never go. And the reason that Caesar put a colony in one of the outposts of the empire, because Philippi was the gateway to the eastern provinces, and the reason that Caesar put a colony there was this. He said, look, I want the people that live around there to get an idea of what I'm like. And he said, I want the people that live around there to get an idea of what Rome's like. So he said, you're a colony of Caesar, and you're a colony of Rome. You're representing a person, Caesar, who these people haven't seen. You're representing a place, Rome, where these people don't go, for many of them wouldn't have. You know, dear brothers and sisters, can I say, I just think because of where we are, I just think for a minute about the assembly at Wallace Avenue. You know, the assembly that meets in this building is a colony of heaven. There's a person whom the people of Lisburn haven't seen. And there's a place where the people of Lisburn haven't been. But you're expected to show what both of them are like. So that when people see us, they're expected to see something of the character of Christ reflected. And when people see us, it's expected that they'll see something of the character of heaven reflected. Now, he said to these people, as a colony, not just a room, but he said as a colony of heaven, he said, let your conduct be consistent with your connection. And he said, let your behavior reflect the place and the person to whom you belong. I wonder, as I asked the question just now, I've already been applying it partially. I wonder, in our everyday behavior, are we giving a fair representation of the land to which we belong, the Savior whom we represent? That's why. That's why they have Roman coin. That's why they had Roman clue. That's why they had a Roman calendar. That's why they had a Roman quote. That's why they had Roman conversation. Because the surrounding people of Greece, through these people, were expected to get some flavor of what the big capital was like itself. And I would love we would achieve our purpose if the assembly that meets in this building would give the people of Lisburn a flavor of what heaven is like. I just, now you'll go back, you let me go back to the thing that I also said earlier. I said that the man that made Philippi a colony, he was Octavian then, right? In thirty one BC. But he soon became the lord of the whole empire. And what do you think? How do you think they felt when it dawned upon them that the person who has given us our status and has made us what we are, do you know where he is? He's not now down here fighting battles in Philippi. Only those a day that he was here, and he was in the thick of the battle, and he won the battle, and he has made up the count. Do you know where he is now? He's not fighting battles. He's sitting on the throne in the power. You see, you know what gives us great encouragement, brothers and sisters? You see the person that has made us into what we are. He's not down on earth tonight fighting. He was here once, and when he was here, he fought a battle, the benefits of which we will reap forever. But you know where he is tonight? He's at the right hand of God in the highest place of heaven. That's why Paul says, he says, I want to tell you. He said, God also hath highly exalted him, given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. He says, you people are a colony, not a colony of Caesar. He says, you're a colony of Christ. He said, people everywhere bow to Caesar. As soon as Caesar's name is mentioned, he said they just drop down onto their right knee immediately, and they confess Caesar is Lord. But he said there's one whose kingdom and form outstretch and outstrip Caesar. And he said, God will never rest until every speaking, breathing human being in every corner of this universe, they have to bow to thee, and they won't be saying Caesar is Lord. They will have to say Christ is Lord. Now he says, you're a colony of such a glorious person. He says, conduct yourselves. Conduct yourselves in keeping with the glorious Christ who you represent. Some of you ladies that go into an office tomorrow, all I say is this, remember your links with Christ. Some of you girl in a new business, if you do a shady day and you fiddle the pointings. Will it give a good impression of the Lord whom you confess? Will it represent the capital country? We are a colony of a great country. We are a colony of a great Christ. I say in all our dealings, social, material, religious, domestic, in all our dealings. So, says Paul, let your citizenship be such as becometh the gospel of Christ. He said, be loyal to Christ. Stand fast. Now, this is where the problem came in, you see. This is where the difficulty would arise, because if you lived in a Roman colony, as I've already said, there are a great number of perks, but problems bubbled up. Maybe, maybe three or four times every year, at special times of the year, there would be very, very large festivals held in the market square, and those festivals would be held in honor of Caesar. Now, all the citizens were expected to come, and when the priest raised up his blessing in the name of God Divine Caesar, all the citizens bowed, and with a unanimous voice they said, Caesar career. Caesar Seater is is lost. law. But now, but now, what are these Christians going to do? When it comes to some of these public occasions, very prestigious, and this proud colony is going to announce its identity to all the surrounding spikeres, and there are a few Christians there, and they can't say, they can't say Kaiser Karina, because in their heart they have said Christa Karina. If you don't bow, you will have to go to jail. What are we going to do? Will we bow? No, says Paul, let your conversation be such as they come in the gospel, and he says, stand fast. He said, don't be bowing and don't be bending. Stand fast and be loyal, not to Caesar. He says, be loyal to Christ in your confession. He said, you've got life from Christ, and be loyal to Christ. But you say, if we go to jail, what's going to happen? That's an awful thing to have to go to a Philippian prison. Well, of course, they already had a trial long, because the first time the gospel came to Philippi, the men who preached it went to jail. And God showed them that if it was his mind, he could get the men out of jail. So Paul can write to these people, and when Paul said to them, stand fast no matter what it costs you, he was a man could write about it because he stood fast. And he proved the power of God in that very same city. I know there are many things that would invite us in this day and age to compromise our loyalty to Christ, to cave in, to bow, and I'm not going into those details at this time. Then secondly, just quickly. He said, you don't only have to be marked by loyalty to Christ, but he said you have to be marked by likeness to Christ. Now, I have said enough already tonight to let you know that one of the marks of a Roman colony, and especially Philippi, was pride. Boys, they loved it. A bit of status and quite a bit of uniform stuff. And they all had got Roman titles, and they'd all got Roman tunas. And every man walked about Philippi as a chief, and he loved the stuff. Anybody that wasn't a Roman citizen. Paul says, that might be, that might be the way it works in a colony of Rome, but he says that's not the way it'll work in a colony of Christ. He said, you see, in a colony of Christ, he said, you'll not only be loyal to him, but you'll be so like him that you'll be prepared to stoop. And you'll stoop. And instead of standing on your status, he says you'll be a serving people, and it might mean stooping, and he says as far as he is concerned, the one whom you are following, he became obedient even to death on. Pardon? Never, never, never! That's one of the guarantees that Caesar gave to us when he made us into a colony. The guarantee that is written into the constitution of a colony is this: no Roman citizen will ever suffer crucifixion. We have a status that protects us from ever having to go down as low as that. Yes, says Paul. Yes, says Paul. A colony of Caesar can avoid the cross, but he says a colony of Christ has to accept the cross. Dear brethren, you know, some of our biggest problems are through people seeking status and loving to wear uniform and to order other people about. Now, there is authority. I'm not against that. May God grant that we'll forget about our status, and we follow the one who became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. He said there's more, just two things to mention, and we pray. He said there's, there was one big day. Oh, a colony just waited for this. This was the news that lifted the Roman colony and just sent it into bustling activity. When the news got through to the Roman colony, he's coming. What? Eh? Who's coming? From the capital, the Caesar's colony. Get the ship shield, everything as it should be, everything nice, everything just because, and everything's just exactly as represents the interests of Caesar because we have very and every man is post and every person standing to attention and every single citizen looking his or her very best. And then the day arrives when the great captain himself arrives down the Ignatian road. It was a direct road to Rome. And once he would come within a few miles of the city, the citizens would march out to meet him. It would be someday. I'd not elaborate upon it, but I could. You know, dear brethren, one of the biggest days that we have in front of us is not that Caesar will come, but Christ will come. And may God help us to be on the tiptoe of expectation. May we live. We have heard the news. We have heard the news that he's coming, and he's coming soon. May God grant that we live to serve his interests so that when he comes, we'll be in our best behavior. We'll be in our brightest array. And when he does come, he will do for us what Caesar never could do. He'll change these vile bodies. You know, some of you Christians are needing a change. We all need it. Some of you don't look the same as you did when I first met you. I can see serious signs of wear. Isn't it great to know, dear folks, that we have become linked to the Commonwealth of Heaven, and the glorious Christ himself will shortly come, and the job which was commenced in grace, it will be consummated in eternal stainless glory. May we not only be living in Christ, and loyal to Christ, and lonely like Christ, but we may we be longing for Christ. And finally, there was one great advantage that a colony had. Because they were linked with Caesar, they had the promise, and this was a very big thing, a very big thing in the ancient world, because in the climate of those days, and the fact this had happened just at this very time, but the provinces were often stricken by famine and so on. And they were guaranteed that if you're a colony of Caesar, if famine should threaten your colony, or even if invading armies should threaten your colony, all you have to do, send a message back to Rome. And do you see, as soon as your message reaches the ear of Caesar in the capital, you know what he'll do? He'll open, he'll open the glenaries of the tower. He'll turn the grain ships, and as soon as you send your request, they'll be on the way to bring relief. And he said if there are invading armies, he said as soon as you send down up to Caesar, Caesar, we're in trouble, the enemy's coming in. He said, Caesar is dispatching ours. And he said he'd restore peace and security immediately. For these Christians, he says, be careful for nothing. But in everything, with prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known unto Under God. God. And the peace of God. Not the peace of Caesar, not the Pax Romana, the peace of God, which hath of understanding, shall garrison your hearts. There may be some trouble seen here tonight. I want to tell you just as I stop, because you're a member of one of Christ's colonies, it's your prerogative to send a message to headquarters, and you can get a garrison immediately that will give you a peace through prayer that nothing else could ever afford. Paul says, I have proved it. Are you sure, Paul? Are you sure you get supplies? Are you sure that the supplies come? Paul says, don't be talking. Am I sure that the supplies come? He says, I have abounded and I have been obeyed. And he says, I want to tell you over all the troubles of my life in the past twenty five years. He says, I can cope with all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Living in Christ, loyal Loyal to to praise. Christ. Louing at praise. Longing for praise. Leaning upon praise. That's what Christianity meant in a Roman colony. It's great that we can say our citizenship is in heaven. You tell me, people, tell me, have we a message for the city? Take the message of Athens to you. Take the message of Corinth to them. Take the message of Philippi to them. We have something to say. May God help us to tell it faithfully for his glory. Shall we pray? Our Father, we commend to thee thy precious word. We thank thee for its encouragement. We thank thee for its challenge. We pray that thou will enable us to conduct ourselves as those who have links with a, with a bigger and with a brighter and a better world. We thank thee that the one who has given us all and made us what we are, he has found his place at thy own right hand. We are looking for his coming again, and in the meanwhile, whatever problems arise, we thank thee that prayers presented in his name, they receive their full attention at the throne of grace and at the headquarters of full executive activity. Remember us in all these matters. We thank thee for our links with thee, and we ask thy blessing as we leave another meeting and commit our homeward travels to thee in the Lord Jesus' precious name. Amen.