Acts 16:6-34 It’s All About Choices
Good morning! Turn with me to Acts 16:6-34, page 925 in the pew Bibles.
Think for a minute about the last year, even the last six months. I know for me and my family there have been a lot of ups and downs. Concerts and ballgames, graduations, and goals completed, as well as serious health issues, and loss, and grief, and pain. Life is full of ups and downs.
The truth is, our account in Acts 16 is very similar, full of ups and downs.
Before we get too far, let’s pray.
One of the difficulties of interpreting biblical narrative is getting to the point of the story. The account was included in Scripture for a reason and our job is to figure out that reason and apply the lessons that are under all the layers of story.
It’s kind of like life, we have all of these experiences and we spend a lot of time just trying to figure out why things happened the way they did and what was the point of the experience. Well, Acts 16 is no different. The whole book of Acts is a record of the story of the early church, all that Jesus continued to do and teach through the Holy Spirit and the church in the first century. But it is more than a story, like I’ve said before, “Acts is not merely a description of events but is a prescription for the church to follow.”
But in order to get the prescription from the description we must get to the principles behind the accounts, the lessons behind the story.
Some of those principles are easy to get at and are right near the surface just like the lessons we can take from our own experiences, such as, hard work pays off, and take it easy on the Bar-B-Que.
Scriptural principles are those instructions in the Bible that do not change regardless of culture or context. They are timeless instructions and are to be followed by the church throughout the ages.
The principles are the things that bring the Word of God out of the realm of the ancient and academic and put it on the ground where it becomes accessible to us and applicable to our lives. This morning I would like to uncover those principles in Acts chapter sixteen.
I’d like to break this account down into sections and deal with them one at a time. Let’s start with a little bit of a rehash of verses 6-10.
6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. 8 So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
What are some of the possible outcomes of taking this section as instruction at face value?
Don’t do anything unless instructed in a dream, or worse, whatever you dream about, go do that… Can you imagine?
Instead, let’s look at what principles Paul and his companions were operating under.
First, in the greater context of the book of Acts we know that Paul is a preacher of the gospel and everywhere he went, preaching the gospel was his intent. Paul and his companions were active in living out Jesus’ command to go make disciples. That command coupled with Paul’s example shows us that the first principle to be applied is, that we also should be active in sharing the gospel of Jesus. The second is that when properly motivated by a pure desire to serve the gospel the Holy Spirit will direct us where and when to go.
It’s interesting to me that Paul didn’t wait for the Spirit to tell him when to move and where to move to, he took the step of faith and started out motivated by a genuine desire to preach the gospel to everyone.
Perhaps this is something that we are lacking. Do you ever find yourself waiting on the Lord for specifics? How? Where? When?
As if to say, “Lord, I’m not going to move until you show me all the specifics.” Paul was moving one step at a time, but he was moving and the Holy Spirit was guiding him through course correction along the way, through the “NO’s” we talked about last week.
So, the principle here that we can apply might be, that we, like Paul, should be motivated by a desire to share the gospel and we can rely on the Holy Spirit for direction if we are willing to move.
Moving on to the next section, verses 11-15 we can see the result of Paul’s willingness to listen to the Lord’s direction as he sought to fulfill his mission.
11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
Paul’s pattern in every city he visited was to share the gospel with the Jewish community first in the synagogue, but this time there wasn’t one. There were not enough Jewish men in the city to make one. Traditionally there needed to be ten Jewish men to start a synagogue but here in Philippi there appeared to be none.
Paul still followed his pattern by going to the riverside where the Jewish and God-fearing women gathered to pray so that he could share the gospel with whoever was there. This was the start of the church that the book of Philippians was written to.
Because Paul was properly motivated and listened to the Holy Spirit he was met with success. God had a specific work He wanted Paul to accomplish there in Philippi. God gave him the direction, the resources and the results.
I’ve said it before, if God calls you to it, He’ll bring you through it!
All of this sounds pretty rosy so far, doesn’t it?
Well, because we have been alive for more than fifteen minutes, we know that it is not always that way.
It certainly wasn’t that way for Paul. Let’s look at verses 16-24.
16 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. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18 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.
19 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. 20 And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. 21 They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” 22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. 24 Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
In this passage we have an example of a lesson that is right on the surface.
This little girl, a slave girl, who was possessed by a demon, practiced divination and fortune-telling until she met up with Paul and his companions.
She followed them around for a few days yelling and being a nuisance until Paul got so fed up he cast the demon out of her.
So what is the lesson? Fortune-telling and divination are from the devil!
It is ridiculous the number of people that read horoscopes and believe them! They read it in the paper and actually care whether or not their sign somehow changed last month.
Friends, the signs of the Zodiac and all the predictions that go with it are from Satan! It is not harmless, it is very dangerous, get rid of it!
Do you know how I know that?
Paul cast the demon that gave this little girl that power out!
He rescued her from bondage to Satan through the power of the Name of Jesus. Paul did a good thing for this girl and indirectly a good thing for us, and what happened?
Just to show that things aren’t all sunshine and dandelions for Jesus’ disciples, the owners of the slave girl grabbed Paul and Silas dragged them to the center of town to the town rulers where they were stripped and beaten with rods and thrown into prison.
This was the reward for setting this young girl free. These faithful followers of Jesus were met with opposition from the enemy when they tried to do what was right. Robbed of their freedom and dignity they were bruised and bloodied and chained up like criminals.
Things were looking pretty grim for these two.
But it’s their reaction to this lousy circumstance where we find the principle at work.
It’s easy to act like a Christian when times are good; in order for our faith to truly be worth anything we must react like a Christian when things go bad…
Let’s see how they reacted.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 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. 27 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. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
I find Paul and Silas’ reaction to this circumstance amazing, not only is it light-years away from a natural reaction but the results are absolutely fantastic.
First of all, they are praying and singing loud enough so that all the other prisoners could hear them. So they’re having this little praise time in the prison, “Thank you God for putting us in prison! My chains are gone, I’ve been set free!” Totally unnatural. And then, when it seems like the Lord has opened the door for them to go free, they don’t run. They stay put.
Do you remember what happened to the jailers when Peter was miraculously freed from prison in Jerusalem? Herod ordered that all the jailers be executed.
Why do you think this jailer was about to kill himself? It was because it was going to happen anyway. He knew he wasn’t going to just lose his job over this one, they were going to put him to death, that’s just how it worked.
But Paul and Silas stayed in the prison, they chose not to run. They saved this poor guy’s life because they stayed. And, as you might imagine, that reaction sure got the attention of the jailer.
If our faith does not reach down to the very seat of our soul then we will probably not react like Paul and Silas did, we will probably not sing “Shine, Jesus, Shine” when life starts to crumble down around us. The real question is how many of us would have scrambled out the door in the dark past that jailer to freedom?
Let’s keep reading.
29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 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. 34 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.
Paul and Silas not only saved the life of the jailer by not running, but because of their choice to react in faith to these terrible circumstances, Jesus saved the jailer’s soul! Not only his, but his whole family’s!
It’s easy to act like a Christian when things are going well, but it is difficult and fruitful to react like a Christian when things go bad.
You never know when God will choose to use you to reach someone else for Christ. I’ve never heard of anyone coming to Christ because someone else was complaining about how terrible their life is, but here is an example of how a whole family came to Jesus and the church expanded because two guys chose to react in faith to bad situations, who chose to glorify the Lord in spite of their difficulties.
So, let’s examine the principles that we have found in this story.
The first principle to be applied is that we also should be active in sharing the gospel of Jesus.
Like Paul we must make sharing the love of Jesus our first priority.
The second principle is that when we are motivated by a pure desire to serve the gospel the Holy Spirit will direct us where and when to go if we are willing.
The Lord is not going to force us, He always gives us the choice and He loves us enough to let us say no. However, we will be held accountable for that choice.
My advice is that when He asks, say yes.
Third, God gave Paul the direction, the resources and the results and He will for us too. If God calls you to it, He’ll drag you through it!
Fourth, remember that it’s easy to act like a Christian when times are good; in order for our faith to truly be worth anything, we must react like a Christian when things go bad.
Our Christ-like reactions to bad circumstances will bear fruit for Jesus.
So really all these principles boil down to making good choices: choose to share Jesus, choose to follow Jesus, choose to rely on Jesus, and choose to praise Jesus in all circumstances. The choice is yours, I can’t choose for you, no one can. You each need to choose to apply these principles to your own lives and your own context.
I would offer one more suggestion, and that is to pray for each other. Pray for those in your pew, that they would make good choices to that they would choose to share and follow and rely on and praise Jesus in all circumstances. And maybe even call them once in a while to see how they’re doing. We’re all in this together.
Let’s pray.
