It is Thursday, May 28, and we are continuing our reading thru the New Testament in Acts 16:16-40. It’s a fascinating account of how God worked through Paul during a number of different events - all which continued to make the word of God spread. Read the passage first and then come back and we’ll explore the passage together.
Paul is firmly established in Philippi, the Roman colony that today would be northern Greece - an area called Macedonia. From our reading yesterday Paul went to Macedonia because the doors kept closing in Asia (modern Turkey). God then gave to Paul a vision of a Macedonian man begging him, “come over to Macedonia and help us”. The door opened to carry the Gospel to mainland Europe.
Philippi was a leading city that the Romans established as a military retirement center for their army’s veterans. Named after Philip of Macedon, the father of the Greek warrior, Alexander the Great, it was a prominent city for trade, commerce, and a strategic military stronghold for the Romans. Paul and his companions found no synagogue, which would have meant there were not even 10 Jewish adult men in the city. It was a woman, Lydia, that God used to open the door to the Gospel’s invasion of Europe.
At first, all went well as Paul, Silas, and Luke continued to proclaim the Gospel in the city. It was another female who changed that - a female slave who practiced the art of sorcery for her owner...i.e., she made money predicting the future for people. Luke describes her as a fortune-teller, "manteuomai", someone who had a “spirit” - literally “pneuma python” - the spirit of the python - a reference to a mythical serpent or dragon that guarded the oracle of Delphi, the renowned temple of priestesses who supposedly uttered prophecy while under a trance. She was possessed by a demonic being by which she practiced her divination.
Pagan generals throughout history relied on fortune-tellers to indicate the best time for battle and to inspire their troops with favorable predictions. She would have had a giant client base among the former military Romans in Philippi.
As in Jesus’ case, the demon had full awareness of who Paul was and what he was doing. She began to follow Paul through the “agora”, the marketplace - where she probably had been set up to do her work. This woman possessed by a demon spoke the truth, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way of salvation”. She's not helping them proclaim the Gospel, rather, it seems that what she was trying to do was tell people that these men are offering you what I can offer you - a way of salvation in your ordinary normal lives.
Paul had enough of her, and turned to her, but spoke into her to the Spirit that controlled her - “In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her.” It might sound rather weird and something that happened “then” - it's not for today - but we run the risk of forgetting that Satan has a host of beings whose work is to lie, deceive, and try to effectively negate the work of God through a Christian. He’s more successful than most people want to admit. I can’t go into all that is involved with demons at work, but where there are lies, where there is perverseness (sexual and otherwise), where there is lawlessness, one can be sure there are demonic works behind it. I’ve had my experiences in ministry a few times!
Paul does not speak the command to the slave woman - she is just a vehicle for the demon’s work. Her master bought her as a slave - someone captured in one of Rome’s military endeavors, and then sold to owners because they recognized her “gift” to make money. As Paul speaks to the Spirit ordering it out, Luke writes, “At that moment the Spirit left her.” One can only imagine what she felt like when her mind was freed from the demonic stranglehold.
Luke doesn’t tell us more about her but instead shifts to the owners who realize their money-maker was no longer able to perform. One can think of Pimps on the street who lose their hold on their prostitute when she comes to faith in Christ and walks away from her trade. There is an evil rage that led them to grab Paul, Silas, and drag them into the "agora" - the marketplace - where public trials were conducted for public grievances.
They brought Paul and Silas before the Magistrates and charged them with creating an “uproar” - "ektarassō" - literally, they were creating the conditions for a riot. One cannot help but notice they didn’t accuse Paul of “casting out a spirit from our money-making slave”, but of being “Jews...who are formulating a riot”. Rome, in general, tolerated Jews, but because Jews remained separated from ordinary Roman life, they despised their religion and customs.
The charge was effectively made. Paul and Silas were thrown into prison after being stripped and beaten in public. It was obvious, from Luke’s account, they were not given a chance to mount a defense, and we know from later on, they didn’t even get the opportunity to proclaim they were Roman citizens - all of which might have changed what the Romans did to them.
We stop and ask, “why did God allow this?” Or, “was God behind this?” The answer is hidden in God’s own divine will, but the goodness of God was not absent in all of this - God had a purpose that went beyond Paul and Silas’ comfortability. Paul and Silas might have been angry at first, but as they laid in the cell and nightfall settled in, they begin to pray and sing “hymns” - the Psalms of David. Instead of anger and bitterness on a horizontal plane, they turned their focus to God and raised their prayers and psalm-songs to heaven...no wonder Luke says “the other prisoners were listening to them”. God was triumphing over evil, even in the prison cell.
God was there, and the natural “violent earthquake” that suddenly occurred changed everything. The prison doors opened, the chains around their wrists attached to the walls of the prison fell off...they were free. They didn’t run for their lives, but instead realized it was God who was at work...all of this had a reason and Paul knew God was behind it all. Who? What? How? The answer came quickly as Paul saw the Jailer ready to commit suicide because he knew he would be killed for letting his prisoners escape (vs 27). Paul spoke to him to reassure him they had not fled, he was not to blame. The Spirit of God was at work and the jailer came rushing into Paul’s cell, fall on his knees, and asked, “what must I do to be saved?” Perhaps he was thinking about what he could do to account for why they were free and not in their cells, shackled to the wall. Could he have wanted to know about Salvation from God? Maybe, we do not know for certain but perhaps he also had heard Paul and Silas praying and singing psalms of praise before it all came crashing down.
Even though we don’t know for certain what he was asking Paul, but Paul knew how to answer him: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved - you and your household”. It was a night that jailer would never forget. He gave his life to Jesus and took Paul and Silas to his home where his household also heard what Paul had to say. Before the night was over, there was a Gentile believer in Philippi and his family, his household servants...all were baptized and welcomed into the church that had begun with Lydia and her household. God indeed is at work...his mysterious will transforms lives one by one. “Joy came in the morning” (vs 34) as a jailer who was to keep them in jail, instead has a fellowship meal with Paul and Silas, celebrating their new-found faith in Christ!
The story is not quite over. When it became daylight, the magistrates returned to the jail - Paul and Silas are back in it. They came to release them and get them out of town. Now, Paul confronts them - a public beating, no trial, no defense on our part even though we are Roman Citizens! It was those two words that created panic among the magistrates. Roman citizens had rights that Paul and Silas were denied and the magistrates knew they were in serious trouble. Paul’s response to “leave” is - “let them personally come here and escort us out!” It was no pride at work here in Paul. He was setting the groundwork for the church’s future in Philippi. The magistrates had to admit they had been wrong, and that bullying the church could not be tolerated. Paul and Silas were escorted out of jail and went back to Lydia’s house - probably to fill in the details of what happened, and as well as to encourage them to stand firm...then they left.
Stand firm - that’s Paul’s charge to the Ephesians in Ephesians 6, when he describes the attack of Satan against believers. Don’t give in, don’t give up. It’s not stubbornness but a reality - God is in control, we don’t give in to evil. I think of Winston Churchill’s famous speech to the British nation during the bombardment of England by the Germans.
“This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
We must not give in to demonic evil because Satan cannot win.
Martin Luther realized this over and over again in attempting to speak the truth of God’s word to a corrupt church. He stood firm in the truth of the Gospel knowing that it was the truth of salvation in a world that was seduced by Satan to set it aside. He penned the words of the most famous Reformation hymn:
A mighty Fortress is our God,
A Bulwark never failing;
Our Helper He amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth His Name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo! his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
Peace
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