One legend says the thieves crucified with Jesus had stolen the gold given him at birth. It was impersonal at best and, for most, not understandable. The two new inmates began to sing. God not only established the church in Philippi, He did so in a way that insured its safety in the days to come. So often today, men “split” ministries in a way that creates animosity and division. At that moment, it must have looked as though they might spend the rest of their lives in that terrible place. What would they learn about the Christian’s response to suffering? 16 Now as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit that enabled her to foretell the future by supernatural means. Finally, here’s one way, among many, to pray for Catholics. in 1971. Also, Vatican II has produced a heightened emphasis on Catholics reading the Scriptures for themselves. When there is mention of Paul’s imprisonment, I can almost hear one of the inmates as he punches the jailer in the side, and with eyes rolling says, “Wow! W hatever happened to Mary, the mother of Jesus, after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ?. The age-old danger that Protestantism has faced from the Roman Church has not diminished; in fact, it may well have increased. It is celebrated on the Sunday that falls on the 50th day of Easter. We’re on a mission to change that. Paul indicates in this letter that the Philippians were the only ones to stand behind him financially in his times of need (Philippians 4:10-19). Barnabas is already there with Mark, and so Paul must now decide where to go from Galatia. He was not about to let these magistrates get away with their violation of the law. And because Paul could have made things very unpleasant for them, they would certainly think twice before they harmed any members of the church in Philippi. I wonder how many would be drawn to Christ by the way we suffer? July 4, 325, was a memorable day. Can’t you see him sitting there in church, beside a few of the inmates from his prison? It was not just singing that these inmates heard on this occasion. Apart from the Lord opening his heart, we know that he would not believe the message Paul preached. No way! He certainly seems to have realized that the prison doors had been opened. It is a book that, if taken to heart, can radically transform our outlook and sweeten up some sour saints, not to mention pointing others who have not yet met Him to Christ, the source of all true joy. Having witnessed more than one earthquake, I can imagine what it would have been like to experience this event from deep within that ancient prison. . The first convert in Philippi seems to be Lydia. It prepares us for what we are about to read and study in the Book of Philippians. Without a doubt! Most obvious were changes in the mass, which had been said in Latin, with priests facing away from the congregation, often speaking quietly (even mumbling). Luke then informs us that Paul explained the gospel more fully, not only to the jailer, but to his entire household (16:32). Perhaps Paul had already witnessed to this man. The idea of the virgin birth was included in the two most common Christian creeds, the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed.The Nicene Creed says … It now was to be conducted in the language of the people, and participation was encouraged in new ways, with new possibilities granted for music and singing, and women allowed into upfront roles as readers, lectors, and Eucharistic ministers, as well as altar servers in some places (though some bishops and priests still discourage it). There are legends, stories. An official document, “The Constitution on the Church” prepared by the Council and approved by the Pope, reaffirms basic Catholic doctrine precisely as it stood before the Council met. But the gross errors concerning salvation still remain. It was on one of their trips to the riverside place of prayer that a demonized young woman encountered Paul and his colleagues. Before I go any farther, I'd better apologize to those readers who are intelligent, dedicated teachers who do not think theirs is the hardest job in the world, that they receive the lowest salary of any employee ever, or that they are uniquely vulnerable to the Wuhan virus despite evidence that classrooms are not dangerous virus spreaders. I don’t know for certain that the slave girl was saved and became a member of that church, but Lydia and the jailer surely did. Had Paul and Barnabas not separated, they would likely have retraced the steps of their first missionary journey. Firstly, the actual birth day of Jesus was not December 25. They had completed their first missionary journey some time before, and Paul felt strongly that they should now make a return visit to the churches that they had established. This young man had a Jewish mother and a Gentile father. The jailer not only fed these two men, he also attended to their wounds. I would understand her to be an Old Testament saint. She brought her owners a great profit by fortune-telling. If you or I were to hand pick those whom we would like to see saved and used as the nucleus of a new church, I doubt we would select those whom God chose.4. Were there prayers of petition, asking for their release? By and large (despite the apocryphal additions), the Catholic Church has the Christian Scriptures and reads from them in the mass. We might even think that for a person like her, conversion was virtually automatic. Moreover, the Council did nothing toward removing the more than one hundred anathemas or curses pronounced by the Council of Trent on the Protestant churches and belief. What does the Bible say to the church, and to the individual Christian, about the role of politics in the church? Question: "What happened in the intertestamental period?" This would well explain why so few Jews were to be found there, so few, in fact, that the city did not even have a synagogue. At most, they expected merely to return to those churches they had established on their first journey. Barnabas took along Mark and sailed away to Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and set out, commended to the grace of the Lord by the brothers and sisters. In a day when “homogeneous grouping”7 is the watchword for churches, the church at Philippi is a refreshing contrast. True “koinonia” or fellowship will be defined in Philippians. Or perhaps the other inmates were gathered about Paul in the inner part of the prison, asking him what they must do to be saved. From what Luke has told us, we know that Paul and Silas were being kept in “maximum security.” Security was so high that even though Paul and Silas were deep within the prison, their feet were still placed in stocks (16:24). Paul had him circumcised so that his ministry would be more broadly accepted. The birth pangs were getting worse. An infallible church simply cannot repent. Bethlehem had a long history even before it became known as the site of Jesus Christ’s birth. 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the rest of the prisoners were listening to them. The second missionary journey of Paul would be even more dangerous than the first, and therefore taking John Mark along would be ill advised. The first debate—that of Paul and Barnabas with the Judaisers—was over the gospel itself. The nativity of Jesus, nativity of Christ, birth of Christ or birth of Jesus is described in the Biblical gospels of Luke and Matthew.The two accounts agree that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, his mother Mary was betrothed to a man named Joseph, who was descended from King David and was not his biological father, and that his birth was caused by divine intervention. I suspect that Paul’s response to the jailer’s “good news” shocked him. But it is of this woman that Luke writes, “the Lord opened her heart to believe…” This is most significant to me. While Paul is a man we should all seek to imitate individually, the Philippian church is a church we should seek to imitate corporately. Sometime between these dates, Stephen was stoned and the Believers in Jerusalem were scattered throughout Samaria, but they preached the Word wherever they went. Protestants can be summarised as follows: 30AD out, they expected to. Get out of town as fast as possible preaching of the Book of,. 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