Sunday, June 14, 2015

Philippians 4:22 - God's got this

"All the saints are greeting you, but especially the ones out of Caesar's household." 

-Two groups of people are sending their greetings to the believers in Philippi: the brethren who are with Paul (in v 21), and all the saints.  These aforementioned brethren are referred to separately from the group that includes members of Caesar’s household, which gives us an indication that perhaps the latter group of saints is the growing group of native Romans who are now following Christ, and the former group of brethren could then be folks who are ministering to Paul or with him there and helping to plant and grow the church in that city.


-It is amazing to see the truth born out that the Word of God is indeed alive and powerful and cannot be contained by chains or other designs of man (cf Acts 5.39, Proverbs 21.30, Isaiah 55.11, Hebrews 4.12, Acts 6.7, Acts 12.24, Acts 19.20).  In spite of the fact that Paul was in chains under house arrest, the Gospel was increasing and bearing fruit and multiplying so much that apparently it had even begun to penetrate the imperial family.  Turns out that the circumstances associated with Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem and subsequent appeal to Caesar had given him an audience with the most influential oikos in the then-known-world, access which he may not have been able to gain otherwise.  But seriously, if you were a 1st century church-planting strategist and you were planning a church-plant in the capital city of the most powerful empire on the planet, you would never concoct a plan that began with having your lead church-planter get arrested and transported to the capital in chains.  By himself.  By boat in winter no less.  Yet who knows that the lives he was able to save during that shipwrecked voyage did not have a hand in opening doors of opportunity for the Gospel there in Rome.  God has a plan.  He knows what He is doing.  He's got this.  Always has, always does, always will. 

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