Acts
16:16-18 … As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl
who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by
fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants
of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she
kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said
to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”
And it came out that very hour.
This slave girl is said to have had a “python spirit” and
this was originally a pagan myth about a serpent (python) who guarded the
temple and oracle of Apollo at Delphi. It eventually became used for pretty
much all troubled people (and even ventriloquists who may or may not be troubled).
In this case the poor girl was demon possessed and the local people thought she
could tell the future. Her shouting would have been interpreted to be about God
for anyone with a Hebrew background but for the pagans of Philippi they would
have understood her to be shouting about Zeus. So she wasn’t helping but rather
confusing the situation and creating a disturbance.
It is probably also significant that satan’s root sin is
that he wants to be like the “Most High” (Isaiah 14:14) and that this poor
possessed slave girl shouts using the phrase “Most High God”. She also
recognizes that the authority of satan in that community is being challenged by
the way of salvation. So it is disruptive and confusing but it is true.
So why did Paul wait? Remember that Paul was planting a Church, he was
yielded to the Holy Spirit, and he didn’t get rushed into a decision. After
several days, the Church was growing in Lydia’s house. We don’t know how big it
was but it was becoming established. The Holy Spirit had constrained Paul and finally
allowed him to turn, rebuke the spirit, and heal the slave girl. At that point she was likely
added to Lydia’s house Church. Now that it was time this action changed everything. Now it was OK for the ministry
to go in a completely different direction. If this had happened on the first
day then, just from a practical point of view, it would have hindered the
establishment of the Church. As in last week’s analogy, like a draft horse,
Paul knew how to wait but even a good draft horse will stamp a foot once in a
while because they know what to do when it is time to do it. When it was time
to act, Paul was greatly annoyed.
Acts
16:19-24 … But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they
seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.
And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are
Jews, and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not
lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in attacking
them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat
them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw
them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this
order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
The owners of the slave girl objected to her deliverance
and it was obvious from her changed behavior that God had delivered her from a
demon. The mob only grabbed the two Jews in the party. Notice that Luke and
Timothy - who was half Jewish - didn’t get arrested. They charged them with
promoting an illegal religion but the mob violence resulted in violations of
the law. They were Roman citizens and this treatment was illegal. They were
beaten and imprisoned in the high security section without a trial. However,
high security isn’t really an obstacle to God.
The owners wouldn’t be able to generate an angry mob and
get their revenge by stressing their personal financial loss. The owners played
on prejudice and fear instead. Paul and Silas couldn’t even find a synagogue
here so that means there were fewer than 10 male Jews in the city. At the river
they only found women. So the threat from Jews would not have been credible even if
they had been hostile and they were not hostile. It was legal for Romans to be
Jews. However, the strategy of misrepresentation worked and they were beaten
with rods (2 Corinthians 11:25).
So after all the walking and the almost nonexistent
Jewish witness in Philippi they were beaten and thrown
in prison. Many folks would take this as evidence that God was not blessing
their outreach plan. Paul and Silas had a better grip on what it means to be the
bondservant of our sovereign God than we do. They were busy looking for the
next step from God and expecting God to move.
Acts
16:25-29 … About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God,
and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great
earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately
all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the
jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was
about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried
with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” And the jailer
called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before
Paul and Silas.
Paul and Silas
were worshiping God under the annointing of the Holy Spirit and the prisoners were listening to them. This maximum
security facility didn’t hold up well to God shaking it. Miraculously the doors
came open and the prisoner's chains fell off. The jailer would be expected to kill himself for
letting the prisoners escape. If he didn't kill himself then he would have
been killed for the loss. Paul showed real mercy in saving the jailer’s life.
At that point the jailer was subject to receive a death penalty from the state but
he was about to receive life from God. I don’t think the jailer ever forgot
that situation. Listen to what Paul writes to Timothy long after this event.
2
Timothy 1:7-11 … for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and
self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor
of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,
who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but
because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before
the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our
Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to
light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and
teacher,
Paul demonstrates this with such power at this point in
Acts. He was worshiping God and shows love and self control in ministry to the
jailer. He doesn’t draw back from suffering. He knows that it is God in him
doing the work. He knows his purpose as a bondservant of God.
Acts
16:30-34 … Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be
saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you
and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who
were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their
wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought
them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his
entire household that he had believed in God.
He asked a direct question and got a direct answer. Some
folks struggle over the meaning of the jailer’s question. Some think perhaps he
was only asking what he had to do to keep from being killed as a result of losing prisoners and not asking about his eternal salvation. However, this was not
that big of a city. He would have heard about the slave girl and her shouting.
They are using the same root word. She said that Paul and Silas were showing
the way of salvation and he asks about how to be saved. The root gives us our
word “soteriology” which is the Biblical study of salvation. Paul gives him a
direct answer and then presents the Gospel at his house and the jailer and his familiy get baptized
that night. We don’t see an automatic household salvation in Scripture. In
fact, Jesus says that the opposite will sometimes be the norm (Matthew
10:34-39). However, Paul knows the Holy Spirit is moving and - like Peter’s
“all of y’all” are going to get saved in Acts 3:26 - he prophecies regarding what is
coming up next. God then confirms it.
John Stott points out that in this time a Jewish head of
house would pray each morning and thank God that He had not made him a Gentile,
a woman, or a slave. In this town the work of God is to first save a woman, a slave girl, and a
Gentile by His grace and for His glory. God doesn’t build a Church the way you
might build a business. Some people build a church the way you might build a
business but then God often has to shake things up.
1
Corinthians 1:27-31 … But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the
wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what
is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing
things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And
because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God,
righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written,
“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
We have lots of ideas about what makes us wise,
righteous, holy, and redeemed that filter in from the culture we live in and of
course in our sin nature we become puffed up.
It is God who provides wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption. God
builds a Church in Philippi that was a tremendous blessing to Paul and he has a
real affection for this Church. While it must stand against persecution and
doctrinal attacks and work for harmony, it isn’t in need of the correction
necessary for the Galatians or Corinthians. Knowing that this is the way God
works, you’ll see the need for fervent prayer as we seek a new pastor. We want
mercy and grace.
Acts
16:35-40 … But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let
those men go.” And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The
magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.”
But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are
Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out
secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” The police reported
these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they
were Roman citizens. So they came and apologized to them. And they took them
out and asked them to leave the city. So they went out of the prison and
visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and
departed.
Paul isn’t just being hard headed. Paul is building a
Church and he is pushing back against unlawful opposition to the Church. He
knew that he would be leaving soon and moving to the next city to plant another
Church. Paul makes the local government remove him publically from prison and
apologize for unlawful actions. Afterwards he encourages the new Church in
Philippi. Paul visits Lydia. She was a key part of the local Church and the
first European convert. He encouraged the “brothers” and these were presumably
those men that he placed in charge of the local Church. He would come back and
visit them again later. These were the overseers and deacons of Philippians 1:1
who Paul calls his partners in the Gospel from the first day. It was a long
trail but Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke had seen the birth of the first
European Church.
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