PBCC Small Group Study Notes For March 22nd, 2009 1 Study Notes for Philippians 1:1-3 JOYFUL SERVANTS AND BELOVED SAINTS

defeated Brutus and Cassius, the assassins of Julius Caesar. They had also settled veterans of the victorious Roman armies in Philippi (Brown, 483). Establishment of the church at Philippi: Paul travelled to Philippi during his second missionary journey. Luke gives us an account of Paul’s stay there and some of the events that occurred in Acts 16:11-40. From Luke’s description we can assume that Paul was traveling with Silas (Acts 15:40-41), Timothy (Acts 16:1-3), and Luke himself1. On the Sabbath, after their arrival in Philippi, they went out to the gate by the riverside where they thought they might find a religious service. (Usually Paul would go to a synagogue so we can infer from this that there were few Jews in Philippi.) There they meet a Gentile woman, Lydia, who was a God-fearer. After listening to Paul speak, God “opened her heart ” and she and her household including her servants were baptized. She then invited the group into her home and they stayed with her “many days.” During their stay a slave girl who was able to tell the future kept hounding them and shouting “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation ” (Acts 16:17 ESV). Eventually Paul became so annoyed at this that he commanded the spirit of divina