The Power of the Lord (Part 2)
Notes
Transcript
Paul is off on his second missionary journey. He and Barnabas have split company, parting ways, heading out in two different directions, traveling with different people.
Amid crisis and conflict, trouble and tension, (we saw last Sunday) the Lord is leading His people. This, we know. We can take great comfort in knowing God has called us (v. 10), the Holy Spirit is leading us (v. 6), and that Jesus is with us (v. 7).
The Lord is leading His people, and is doing much more besides. On this missionary journey, the Lord is teaching Paul and his fellow missionaries some important truths, reminding them of His presence and power. Throughout the journey, we will, alongside Paul and Silas, be made aware of the power of the Lord.
The Lord leads the missionaries to Philippi for the next part of their adventure, leading them to cross over into European territory, to the region of Macedonia where they would minister in the power of the Lord.
>Open your Bibles to Acts 16 and keep them open this morning as we look at the remainder of this chapter. Let’s look at verses 11-12 to begin with.
11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
[Let’s go to the Map]
Philippi was a Roman colony, a leading city of that district. Alexander the Great’s father, Philipp, named the city after himself. The Romans occupied it and enlarged it when Antony and Octavian defeated Brutus and Cassius.
In 31 BC, Octavian granted the city the status of a colony—the highest status a city could have. All that to say, the Roman influence was strong in Philippi.
Nevertheless, the Lord is far more powerful than any other influence.
We behold Jesus’ power and grace in the three conversions Luke records for us in Philippi.
The Lord Jesus acts and works in the lives of all kinds of people—different people in vastly different stations of life; and here, it’s three completely different events that lead to their respective conversions.
It’s clearly the power of the Risen Savior at work in myriad ways.
Most of us have experienced this truth on a personal level:
The Lord Transforms Individual Lives
The Lord Transforms Individual Lives
Paul and Silas, Timothy and Luke, hang out in Philippi for what may have been a number of weeks. There were likely several people converted during this time—at the end of Acts 16 we see a group of brothers and sisters meeting together.
Of all the brothers and sisters in Philippi, Luke records the stories of only three of the individuals transformed by the Lord Jesus, starting with a lady named Lydia.
13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Apparently, there was no synagogue in Philippi. If there was, that would have been Paul’s first stop—to teach and preach there. No synagogue, but there was a place of prayer outside the city gate.
On the Sabbath, they find a group of women and join them for worship. Among them is Lydia—a wealthy woman from Thyatira. She was, like the others, a worshiper of God—someone who believed and behaved like a Jew without having become one.
As Paul spoke to the women gathered there, the Lord opened [Lydia’s] heart to respond to Paul’s message.
It’s the power of the Lord at work through Paul’s message and in Lydia’s life. Her heart was opened to respond to the gospel that saves. This is the Lord’s work; it’s what He does.
We are given faith to believe. Our hearts are opened to the Word of God, to the gospel—the Good News about Jesus. Divine illumination and persuasion (God opening our eyes and calling us to Himself) is necessary for the heart blinded by sin to respond to the gospel. This is the effectual call of God—opening hearts so they respond to the message.
This is how it always goes down.
On some occasions, there might be something a little more dramatic than a Sunday morning bible study, but sometimes, that’s what does it.
I, for one, am the product of a longtime, faithful Bible teaching. I gave my life to Jesus and surrendered my life to ministry, not because of any brilliant ministry strategy, but because the Lord used the faithful preaching and teaching of God’s Word.
My journey to faith was nothing flashy. It was simple, weekly, gospel-proclamation from little-known preachers in a church smaller than this. I heard the message, the Lord opened my heart to believe, and I put my faith in Him.
I first sensed my call to ministry, not at a large church camp or youth conference, but as a teenager sitting alone in Dr. Arroyo, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, simply reading my Bible (Luke 4).
The Lord uses His Word to transform individual lives.
This is why I don’t throw-in the towel. Some weeks it feels like an upward slog, a one-foot-in-front-of-the-other plodding along. Sometimes a long-labored message is met with yawns and sleeping with eyes wide open (or wide shut). Sometimes I feel like I’m wasting my time and my effort.
But this I know: the Lord uses His Word to transform lives. It is the supernatural work of God, not the wisdom or persuasiveness of the preacher, that ultimately draws people to Christ. Outwardly, it may not happen in any exceptional manner, but when the Lord opens a person’s heart to respond to the message, they will. And like Lydia, they will experience the supernatural transformation only the Lord can bring.
If you aren’t a Christian, let me encourage you to listen to the gospel being preached. Or just read the message on your own. Start reading the Gospel of John. And watch as the Lord does something in your life, as He opens your heart to believe in the message.
If you are Christian, remember that the Lord is working through faithful messengers of the gospel. When the Bible is taught, God does work in people’s lives.
Like every other believer in the NT, saved by grace through faith at the moment of belief, Lydia is baptized, as are members of her household, including some of her servants.
On another Sabbath, Paul and his friends headed back to the place of prayer:
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
This slave girl was a native Greek. She was poor, not even owning herself. She was, Luke tells us, these two things: tormented by an evil spirit and exploited by her owners.
As she followed Paul and Silas, Timothy and Luke around, she (or the evil spirit tormenting her) kept shouting, screaming the same thing over and over. “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”
The girl shouts—Most High God—the term for the Supreme Being. This was applied by Jews to Yawheh and by the Greeks to Zeus.
She was not doing the missionaries any favors. It sounds like she’s evangelizing, but she’s probably just confusing matters. And, it’s probably a little annoying.
Also, salvation was a popular topic of discussion in those days, though it meant different things to different people. For the girl to announce Paul & Friends as messengers of the way to be saved, it might have discredited the gospel by associating it in people’s minds with some false religion. It was for this reason that Jesus Himself silenced demons rather than accepting their “endorsement”.
My Bible says that Paul became so annoyed after the slave girl’s many days following them and shrieking/shouting/screaming, that he had to do something.
The word annoyed is generally translated “troubled or disturbed.” We shouldn’t see Paul as irritated or losing his temper; it’s better to see him as grieved because of the poor girl’s condition.
His distress and grief for the girl, and annoyance and indignation toward the evil spirit, led him to turn around and command the evil spirit to come out of her.
But, we must note, it wasn’t Paul the great missionary/exorcist who did this.
Notice what he says: “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!”
It’s Jesus’ power, not Paul’s. In the name of Jesus Christ—it’s HIS power that transformed this girl’s life.
This is pretty dramatic. Much more “showy” than Lydia’s conversion. A little more flash. Exorcism is a tad more exciting than a morning Bible Study, at least outwardly.
The contrast between Lydia and the slave girl is part of the point. Luke makes this contrast “in order to show how the saving name of Jesus proved its power in the lives of the most diverse types.”
At the moment Paul invokes the powerful name of Jesus, the spirit leaves her. The power of Christ is displayed in her life, transforming her in an instant.
Can you imagine the relief she must have felt? Suddenly, she’s in her right mind. We can assume she becomes a follower of Jesus. And, at the moment of belief, she has a new Master, a new owner—the only good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.
She’s transformed—freed from spiritual and physical bondage. She’s transformed—given peace, joy, freedom, and rest in Christ.
Luke doesn’t specifically refer to her conversion or her baptism, but from what we know from the rest of the NT account, and from the fact that her deliverance takes place between the conversion of Lydia and the conversion of the jailer, and we are led to believe that this slave girl became a follower of Christ; she, too, is a member of the Philippian church.
We have to wonder what connection we can make to this; we seem to have very little, if anything, in common with this slave girl. I’m certain none of you are possessed, though some of you might think your kids are from time to time.
The point is, if Jesus can free a girl from an evil spirit, there’s hope for everyone, no matter how bad off or far gone. Jesus breaks strongholds and addictions. He takes the life of one under the power of Satan and makes her His own. He rescues and restores. He brings life where there is only death; hope where there is only despair.
Jesus can transform anyone, in whatever situation they find themselves.
We’re all helpless to transform ourselves, but Jesus is mighty to save. His power transforms. Consider your own life and take note of how Jesus transformed you.
The transformation of this slave girl did not please everyone; in fact, quite the opposite.
19 When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
The main problem Jesus’ transformation of this slave girl had was economic. Her owner’s realized they weren’t going to profit from her possession.
Mess with peoples’ pocketbooks, and all hell breaks loose. A herd of pigs running off a cliff side. A profit-turning demon-possessed girl healed. Don’t mess with the economy.
Their anger and uproar and false accusations against Paul and Silas, lead to an attack, a beating, a flogging. And then, after all that, they were thrown into jail and fastened in the stocks.
Bottom line: Paul and Silas were tortured. The jailer beat them, leaving them swollen, cut open, sticky with blood. In the dungeon, he added to their punishment by putting their feet in the stocks—it’s torture leading to excruciating pain.
Tertullian, an early church father, wrote: “The legs feel nothing in the stocks when the heart is in heaven.”
I think they probably felt something, but I get what he was saying: Paul and Silas knew Jesus was better far than any pain or discomfort they were feeling. And so they sing. They SING!
Peter slept in prison. Paul and Silas sing. Sleeping and singing are expressions of faith and of peace in the Lord.
If you were another prisoner in jail that night, you’d probably think Paul and Silas were crazy. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Some probably thought they were crazy. And then some probably thought, “I want whatever they’ve got.” Theirs is a witness, a rejoicing when persecuted and reviled for Christ’s sake. In the midst of suffering, here are Paul and Silas singing some Psalms:
“You are my hiding place, You always fill my heart with songs of deliverance; whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you, I will trust in you, let the weak say ‘I am strong, in the strength of the Lord, I will trust in you.”…
Singing songs, quoting Scripture, praying to the Lord.
And then it happens. The ground shakes as it did on resurrection morning, the chains are broken away from every prisoner, and the prison doors fly open.
When the jailer wakes up, this is worst case scenario (so he thinks). Little did he know, none of the prisoners had fled. “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
The jailer’s life was spared. He didn’t have to worry about being killed for losing the prisoners.
What’s more, he was about to experience eternal salvation, full and free.
With the lights on, he sees all the prisoners, unchained but where he left them. And he comes to Paul and Silas, after hours of listening to their proclamation of Jesus, the Good News, songs of praise and heartfelt (answered) prayer—the jailer asks, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Paul and Silas reply, simply, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” Then they spoke the word of he Lord to him and to all the others in his house.
Paul and Silas point him and his family to the only name that saves. “Jesus can transform you, and he can transform your entire family, too.”
This is what we must keep telling people: all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved.
The jailer who beat Paul and Silas now invites Paul and Silas into his home.
The jailer who wounded Paul and Silas now washes their wounds and is baptized by them.
The jailer who had housed Paul and Silas in the prison, now sets a meal before them.
What a sweet picture of transformation!
The joy with which Paul and Silas had been singing now fills the jailer; he’s filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
The jailer’s relationship with Paul and Silas is no longer ‘prison guard and prisoners’, but rather brothers in Christ.
Jesus Himself transforms individual lives and brings them together to make one body, as we’ll see in the closing verses of this chapter.
35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”
37 But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”
38 The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. 39 They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. 40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
What Paul does here in declaring his Roman citizenship and in requesting an apology and escort, he did to ensure the safety of the church he would be leaving behind.
Tony Merida: “By showing that he and Silas had done nothing wrong and that Christianity was no threat to the Roman way of life, Paul helped the church’s relationship with the Roman authorities. He wanted to make sure the church had a good reputation. [He wanted] to protect it form future harassment. Once again, Paul’s actions shout of his love for the church”—the church the Lord is building.
The Lord Builds His Church
The Lord Builds His Church
Before heading out of town, the missionaries stop at Lydia’s where the local church in Philippi gathered.
Before leading Paul and Silas to minister in Philippi, there were no Christians there.
But now, because of the power of Jesus, Paul and Silas get to hang out and fellowship with the new, young church that the Lord is building in Philippi. Among the other members of the church, in all likelihood, were Lydia, the slave girl, and the jailer and his family. It’s the power of the Lord that made this possible.
It’s hard to imagine a more diverse group than these three people who would all gather with the church in Philippi—the wealthy Lydia from the other side of the Aegean, the poor/exploited slave girl, and the jailer.
Prior to meeting Christ, we can bet these three spent absolutely zero time together. But when Jesus saves you, it changes everything, including your relationships. In Christ, people from all types of backgrounds are united as fellow citizens of heaven.
I have brothers and sisters in Kenya and Australia, in Canada and Mexico, in Jordan and Japan. And so do you.
You may not know all your brothers and sisters (I promise you, you don’t). There are people different from you in every way imaginable who have been saved by the same gospel and the same Jesus and who are part of the same Church. And some day, we will gather around the throne singing praises to Him who reigns on high.
Here in Acts 16, we get a glimpse of the Philippian church, the first church established on European soil: the church in Lydia’s house.
Paul and Silas meet with the believers and encourage them. This is why gathering as a church family is so important. Paul and Silas set the precedent for meeting and encouraging.
Years later, Paul would wrote to this church:
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
I wonder who read this letter to the aloud to the church. The slave girl, maybe? Or Lydia? Perhaps the jailer stood in front of the church and read these words.
What we know, is the One building His Church, the One who started a good work bringing many people to faith in Jesus will complete the work—this is certain.
The Lord is building His Church.
>I’ve loved the time I’ve got to study in Acts 15-16. It was extended by a week due to the length of the sermon. Dividing it in half made it more manageable, but also gave me more time to spend in these chapters.
It’s something we can begin to miss: that the Lord is leading us. We need to look and listen and expect Him to move in our lives—to lead us where He wants us, to give direction when we’re stuck.
I need to be reminded of the Lord’s transforming work, not only in my life (thank God, I’m not where I was 15 years ago), but to remember how the Lord transforms—through His Word, through the message preached and displayed.
It doesn’t matter one stinking bit where you are, how bad off you are, or what you’ve done—the transforming power of the Lord is not hindered. He will do a transforming work in your life. Believe it. If He’s calling you, don’t put it off. Come to Him. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
And remember, Christian: You are God’s work. Not your work, not your doing, not your efforts or your church activity or what God does through you. YOU.
You are God’s work—He transferred you from the realm of darkness into the realm of light. He is transforming you into the image of His Son, Jesus, until you are more and more like Him. You are God’s work.
In these times of uncertainty, when part of our local church is able to gather here and the other part isn’t, it’s really hard. But this we know: the Lord is building His Church. He’s working in us and through us, and He will bring to completion the work He started.