Partners! (Philippians 1:1-11)

We want to begin our studies in the book of Philippians today and through the summer continue in what I consider the most delightful epistle of the New Testament. There is a wonderful note of joy and thanksgiving that runs through this entire epistle, and yet as you know this is one of the so-called "prison epistles" written while Paul was a prisoner. It was written to the saints at Philippi. If you have an atlas you will find it was a Roman colony situated up in the area anciently called Macedonia. It was the first place Paul preached the gospel in Europe. You remember the thrilling account in the sixteenth chapter of Acts of Paul and Silas as they came into Macedonia, in answer to the Macedonian call, and ultimately ended up in a prison cell, where in the dead of the night they were singing praises to the Lord and an earthquake came and shook loose the prison walls and they were delivered. As someone has well put it, the gospel first entered Europe in a sacred concert which was so successful it brought down the house. So we have a tremendously interesting background to this letter to the Philippians.