Three Stories

SERMON: 2014-10-19--ac14142--three-stories SOURCE DURATION: 00:42:31.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 2 CONFIDENCE: 0.98 APPROVED: false REASON: The entire sequence of candidates maintains a consistent theological and pastoral tone, discussing the nature of the church community. Candidate 15 is the final segment provided and serves as a concluding thought within the sermon's exposition ('for the glory of God'). Since no clear transition to music, an announcement, or unrelated audio is present, this candidate marks the end of the available sermon material. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:00:00.000; remove through 00:00:03.750] [CUT] ♪ ♪ [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:00:03.750; resume after this marked segment] Paul is still on his second missionary journey. He had wanted to go into Bithynia, had wanted to go into Asia. The Holy Spirit wouldn't let him. Came to Troas, which is a seaport here, and met up with Luke, the physician, the author of the Book of Acts, and then had a vision of being called to Macedonia. So on the boat they go and they end up in Philippi, which is a major Roman colony in Macedonia. And that's where the stories that are written in Acts chapter 16 take place. Three stories of people coming to faith. So the question before us this morning is why does Luke, here in Acts chapter 16, include these three stories of conversions in the Macedonian city of Philippi? Now I suppose one answer could be that those were just all the converts that he had, and Luke wrote them down as they happened. And that is indeed a possibility, but I rather doubt it because by the time Paul was finished in Philippi, he left behind him a very robust Christian church. And so the evidence is pretty strong that there were many more people that came to faith than just these three. Which means that Luke, who is the author of the Book of Acts and who just recently joined Paul's entourage, actually made literary selection of these three stories in the narrative that he has given us. And so that brings us back then to the question, if that is so, why? Why these three particular stories? Well, I think there are two reasons, and I am indebted to this in part to Dr. Timothy Keller of the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. He sort of moved me in that direction. But I think Luke's reason is twofold. Number one, he wants us to know that nobody but nobody is beyond the reach of the gospel. And secondly, he wants us to know that different people need to be reached in different ways. So let's look at the stories together and see how Luke develops this theme as the story unfolds. First of all, we begin with Lydia. We read in verse 13 of Acts chapter 16. On the Sabbath, we-- that is, Paul, Silas, Timothy, and at least Luke, and maybe there were others in their party-- 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. Just leave that slide up for a moment, and let me stop right there. What do we learn from this particular passage? Can't hear you. Yeah, he's talking to women. No doubt about that. What else? There is no synagogue in Philippi. You will recall everywhere Paul went in his mission, his first stop was in the Jewish synagogue because the Jews needed to hear the gospel before the Gentiles heard it. The fact that he goes to the river bank and finds these women in prayer there is an indication that there was no synagogue in Philippi because you had to have at least 10 Jewish men before you could found a synagogue. And so here he finds these women in prayer at the river gathering together for worship. The story continues. The next verse. "One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God, and the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message." Three things very quickly in that verse to note. And the first is that Lydia is a dealer in purple cloth. She is a dealer in purple cloth. That is very significant because it not only makes her an independent businesswoman but very likely a well-to-do independent businesswoman because purple, as you may remember, was the clothing of royalty in ancient times. The reason being that purple dye was extremely expensive. Purple dye came from a sea snail from which they would extract a drop of liquid that would become part of the dye. It would take upwards of 10,000 snails to make one gram of dye. And a pound of wool dyed purple would cost you three years salary. You can see why only kings wore full regalia of purple. I notice, interestingly enough, this purple dye is still available today for the minor cost of $4,250 per gram. You can order it online if you want to join royalty. Lydia was an independent businesswoman who was likely very wealthy. The fact that she owned her own home was a good indication of that as well. Second thing to notice then in the passage, if we can have that back up, is that she is from the city of Thyatira. Let me show you that on the map because the city of Thyatira is in-- well, it's actually in a province or an area called Lydia, interestingly enough. But it's part of this larger region of Asia. Thyatira-- and you will remember the name from the Book of Revelation, one of the seven churches. Jesus has some serious warnings to say about later on. But the city of Thyatira was one of two or three centers of purple dye at this particular time. And one of the reasons they were so successful is because they had learned to extract purple dye not just from the snails, but from the root of a particular plant. So chances are that Lydia is the independent salesperson of some dyeing company, D-Y-E-I-N-G, in Thyatira. And that then is listed as being her home country. Third thing to notice is that she was a worshiper of God. We need those slides up if we can. Who was a worshiper of God. That's a very technical term in the Book of Acts because a worshiper of God is usually a Gentile who has come to faith in the God of Israel. So even though the text doesn't tell us this, chances are that she was familiar with the Old Testament stories of God's action towards his people. She would have known the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. She would have known the law of Moses. She would have known the whole sacrificial system. She would have known the words and the promises of the prophets in the Old Testament. That's very significant because how then do you reach a woman like this with the gospel? Well, what does Paul always do when he goes to the synagogue? When he goes to the synagogue, he always builds on what people know and he proclaims Jesus as the fulfillment of those promises. And so, for example, in the next chapter, you find him in Thessalonica. And we read this in Acts 17, 2, and 3. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue. And on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ, he said. So even though the text doesn't spell it out very clearly with reference to Lydia, it does say that he proclaimed to them the Lord's message. The Lord's message would be the proclamation of Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament truth. And what is the result? Well, the next verse tells us the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. The story goes on. She and her household are all baptized. And she demonstrates the generosity of her new faith by insisting that Paul and his team come to her house. And that, again, is a good indication of her wealth in terms of the business that she was involved here. So in the middle of all of this, then, is a profoundly important spiritual principle. And that principle is simply this. Some people are ready to hear the gospel and respond to it. Some people have the foundation so that when the gospel is proclaimed to them, it makes sense to them. And they can make that leap of faith almost instantaneously because they have been prepared by the Holy Spirit. And for the many of us who grew up in a Christian home or grew up going to church or Sunday school, that is the reality. You know the stories. You know the history. Somewhere along the line, during the proclamation of the gospel, however God chooses to do it, there is something that moves the gospel from our head to our heart. You will notice it was her heart that was enabled to respond. And how many of us aren't here who have gone to church? Much of our time and much of our life, but somewhere along the line, it moved those 12 inches from the head to the heart. And all of a sudden, we saw Jesus in a way that we had never seen him before. And our lives changed forever. Isn't that true? I've told you my story before. I was in college studying for the ministry. Ran into a bunch of guys at college who had a vitality of faith that I knew was lacking in my own life. And they proclaimed to me more fully the need to surrender my heart and to give my life to the Lord Jesus. And I knelt beside my bed one night. And I said, Lord, I think I've done this before. But just in case I haven't, this is too important not to do. I want you to be the Savior of my life. And the bells didn't ring and the thunder didn't strike. And I felt nothing, but I can tell you that from that day to this, my life was forever different. Because there was a union of Christ in my heart in ways that had not happened before. And if you find yourself in a situation where the Christian life is boring or where you don't get it or you wonder why other people can praise the Lord and it leaves your own heart cold, can be many reasons for this, but always go back to the beginning and ask yourself the question, have I opened up my heart to Jesus? Have I embraced him as the only source of righteousness before the face of God? Because by the works of the law, no man is justified before God. You can work your tail end off. You'll never be good enough. Because only Christ is the fulfillment of everything that God has promised. All the promises of God are yes and amen in Jesus. That is the heart of the gospel. And if Lydia's story tells us anything, even religious people need to be converted. Even religious people need to come to faith in Christ. So that's her story. And that brings us to the second story, which is The Slave Girl. The narrative continues. Act 16, verse 16, "Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling." Now the definitive phrase there is a spirit by which she predicted the future. A spirit by which she predicted the future. Other translations, a spirit of divination. But the Greek is even more illuminating, because the Greek says she had a spirit of Python. Now Python, you need to understand in Greek mythology-- that slide can be taken down. In Greek mythology, Python was the-- how is it described? The earth dragon at the Delphic Oracle. Let me explain that. Python is always pictured in Greek mythology as a snake. And in ancient days, as well as in today, people want to know the future. Will I be rich or poor? Will I be-- all of those kinds. What does the future-- will I be successful in waging this battle? Should I enter into this business venture? Is it OK for me to do this? Is it OK for me not to do that? Because make a bad decision, and the consequences may be something you need to live with for the rest of your life. So then, as well as now, people are often consulting spiritual powers in order to try to get answers. And where people don't have a relationship with God, don't know how to get his answers, people turn to the forces of darkness. And so in the Greek and Roman Empire, they had tons of what is known as oracles. These were huge temples served by temple priests and precesses, all of which had a spirit of divination. And the most famous of these oracles in the Greek Empire, and the largest and the most important, referenced in at least 20 pagan writers, was the oracle at Delphi. Here it is on the map. Delphi was located on this Greek peninsula. Here's Corinth. Here is Athens. And Delphi was located there. The Delphic oracle was a temple to Apollo, because Apollo had killed the python. But people would go there then from all over the empire to try to get answers to life's questions. This python spirit is a spirit of divination. Now get this connection. Oh, let me backtrack a moment and say that each one of these temples had a girl priestess, a young virgin named Pythia, who would serve as the medium that would answer the questions that people would have. She'd go into a trance, and the spirits would speak through her, and this would be taken as the word from the gods. So you can see the muted connection between the oracle of Delphi and the python spirit that was behind that, and this young girl who had the spirit of Python. Because now instead of having to travel all the way to Delphi and pay big money and wait many months before you could get an answer, you could go to this girl and you could get answers to the needs of your life. And so these business people who owned her were making a killing by having this girl serve as the mouthpiece of Satan. And so the narrative continues. This girl meets them, and then we read in verse 17, this girl 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." Now, this is really interesting. This is not the spirit of the Lord this girl has got. This is Python. This is the forces of darkness parading as being able to tell what the future is. But she sees Paul and his entourage, and she begins to follow them, proclaiming in a loud voice, "These are servants of the most high God, and they've come to bring to you the way of salvation." So the obvious question is, why in the world is she carrying on like this? Because you wouldn't think the devil would be particularly interested in having people find the way of salvation, would you, Dan? Well, the Bible doesn't tell us what the answer is, interestingly enough. I think we can do is try to reach two conclusions. And to my mind, there are two possibilities. And the first is this. The presence of God with Paul and his team was so strong that the evil spirit was flushed out into the open. The presence of God was so strong that the evil spirit could not remain silent, but it was flushed out into the open. I say that because what happened when Jesus first started his ministry in Capernaum? An identical situation, Jesus begins to preach the gospel. And here is what we read in Luke chapter 4, 33 and 34. In the synagogue, there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice-- they're never very subtle or gentle about this-- ha, what do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? We know who you are, the Holy One of God. Isn't it interesting that the first creature in the ministry of Jesus to recognize the authority of Jesus is a demon from hell? He beats the Jews to the conclusion, because all hell knows the authority of God vested in Jesus. And so one of my suspicions is that that evil spirit couldn't stay silent, because the very presence of the holiness of God and the power of God just flushed it out into the open. There's a second possibility, though, and that is this. So maybe it's a combination of the two. I wonder if she had a heart that wanted to be free. Can you imagine what kind of bondage this girl was living under? First of all, she was a slave. She was a piece of property owned by people who didn't love her for who she was, but for what she could deliver for them. And then going into these trances to receive these revelations was so hard on your body that periodically, the priestesses at these temples would die because they were overcome by the complexity and the pain of it all. They used to have three of them on service at a time or taking turns so that they could, in fact, survive if one of them died and to work around the clock. This is how painful and how difficult this was. And so you can imagine there were moments when this girl had clarity and said, I don't want this kind of life anymore. I want freedom. And maybe she knew intuitively that Jesus, whom Paul proclaimed, would be the one to set her free. That would certainly be in keeping with what you read in the Gospels. The fact that she declares, calls God the most high God is interesting because that's a biblical reference that goes back all the way to Genesis chapter 14 where it is used with reference to the story of Abraham and Melchizedek. And what that means is that this God is higher than every other so-called God. You see, in the Old Testament and the New Testament, they knew the world was filled with spiritual realities. And they also knew that the only true God that is self-sufficient and eternal was the supreme God, God most high. Whatever the case, this goes on for a number of days. And Paul puts up with it patiently later on. Lord willing, we'll talk about perhaps why that was. But eventually, it gets under his skin. And so verse 18, "Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the Spirit, 'In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you come out of her.' And at that moment, the Spirit left her." Can you imagine what a relief that was for that young woman to be delivered from that python spirit? And again, there is a profound spiritual principle at work. And that is the fact that some people need to be delivered. Some people need a power encounter before they can come to faith. Lydia was an apple ready to be picked. The stage had been set. All she needed to do was hear the gospel. She responded and came to faith and started living that out immediately. Now, the story doesn't tell us whether or not this girl became a Christian believer. But I rather suspect she did because you can't experience that kind of deliverance without bowing down before the Lord Jesus and saying he is the Lord and he is the one who brings us salvation. And so long before she can come to faith and long before she can understand the gospel, she has to experience the gospel. She has to experience the power of the gospel. There are people you can talk to till you are blue in the face. And nothing will change because Satan has a grip on their hearts. Satan has a grip on their minds. It all bounces off and they're lost in darkness. And what we need to do is we need to take authority over that nonsense in the name of Jesus. Cast that out so that they can hear the truth of the gospel. That is why when Jesus called his disciples and he sent them out as apostles, you will recall he gave them a threefold mandate. He says, go out and preach the good news. And he says, heal the sick and cast out evil spirits. I wonder sometimes how many people aren't getting anywhere in the Christian life, are resolutely opposed to the gospel, are stuck in blindness, are on pads of destruction, simply because the God of this world has captured them in one way or another. And they cannot hear and they cannot respond. And you and I, by our prayers and by our authority in the Holy Spirit, we need to take authority over that power, have it be broken, so that people can come to faith. See? Amen? Some people are ready to hear it. Some people are in bondage. Now, we'll see later on, not today probably, this is very costly for the Apostle Paul. Because if you know the continuation of that story, and we won't read it now, all hell breaks loose. And so he gets arrested with Silas. The mob turns on them. Without due process or trial, they get severely flogged, thrown into jail, where the jailer is told, make sure they don't escape. And so what does he do? He puts them in the inner prison and puts their feet in stocks. And that is now how we're introduced to the third person in this story. And that, of course, is the Philippian jailer. Now, if Lydia represents a religious person who needs to come to faith in Jesus, if the slave girl represents an oppressed young woman who needs deliverance from the power of Satan, what do you think the jailer represents in the narrative? Well, he represents the irreligious or the secular person. Tim Keller tells us that, typically, people in the civil service would be ex-military people, because they would be rewarded with the secure jobs from the state after their service had expired. He's a man, as you read the story, has no compassion for Paul or for Silas. He's only concerned about his own well-being. I say that because there is absolutely no reference to treating the wounds of Paul and Silas. He doesn't do that until after his conversion. He's more than happy to tie them up in the middle of the inner cell and put their feet in blocks. I can hardly picture what that would look like. But I don't imagine it would be very comfortable. So how does the Lord go about reaching an irreligious, tough ex-military dude whose heart has no compassion whatsoever? Well, it's interesting to see how the story unfolds, because I believe the Lord uses three things to bring this Philippian jailer to his knees. And the first of that is Paul and Silas' own testimony. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Now, you've got to admit that's a bit unusual. I mean, put yourself in that situation. How would you feel when you've just been arrested, you've had the mob turn on you, you've had the snot beat out of you, you're locked in jail? Wouldn't you be a tad irritated at the lack of justice? Wouldn't you be a tad irritated with the pain that you're experiencing and the flogging that you received? Yes? You'd be hard pressed, I think, to sit there and say, oh, God, we're so happy we're here. That's exactly what they were doing. They were singing, and they were praying, and they were praising God. Why? Because they understood something that most of us don't understand, and that is that it is an honor to be ill-treated by the world because of Jesus. You'll recall earlier on in the book of Acts, you have the same kind of situation. The apostles are called in before the Sanhedrin. Again, they get flogged. Seem to have been a very popular pastime in those days. And then scripture goes on to record this in Acts 5.41. The apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name. And that, of course, takes you back all the way to Matthew, chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says, blest are you when people insult you, persecute you, falsely say all kinds of evil against you, because of me rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. I don't know about you, but I ain't close to that level of spiritual maturity because I don't like being ill-treated. And I suspect you don't either because it takes the saving grace of Jesus. So understand what an odd situation this was in prison when Paul and Barnabas, instead of cussing and cursing and bringing down the judgment of God upon everybody all around them, instead they're sitting there in the middle of the night. And they're praying away. And they are praising God. And the text says all the prisoners were listening in. I suspect even the jailer couldn't quite escape that because the narrative clearly indicates that wherever he was sleeping, it wasn't very far from where the prisoners were being held. So that's item number one, the testimony of Paul and Silas. But then the second issue is supernatural signs and wonders. Because what happens, verse 26, suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And at once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose. I like the way somebody put it. He said Paul and Silas were singing at midnight, and God came down, and he sang bass. Everything shook to its very foundations. And interestingly enough, not only did all the doors pop open, but all the shackles fell off. And I don't know if that means all the shackles were fastened to the stones and therefore came apart, or if it was just an additional miracle whereby God just broke all the bonds and loosened all the shackles, not only of Paul and Silas, but of all the other prisoners in the prison, which, as you can imagine, freaked out the jailer something fierce because he knew that if as much as one person escaped, it would cost him his life. And so we read in verse 27, the jailer woke up-- talk about waking up to a nightmare. When he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. You see, for secular people, the highest value is that of honor. And he would rather kill himself than face the public humiliation of execution because he had failed in his job. Really says a lot about the values of that day, doesn't it? So there's Paul and Silas' testimony. There's God coming down, singing bass. The prison foundation shakes to its very core. Doors all fly open. And then we have still a third factor that God uses, and that is that the jailer sees love in action. Because listen now to verse 28. Paul shouted, don't harm yourself. We are all here. Now it's very easy to miss the significance of that because there is nothing that would have stopped Paul and Barnabas from walking out of-- Paul and Silas walking out of the jail. And there was nothing except maybe they were all frightened half to death to keep the prisoners from walking out. And yet nobody left, and Paul and Silas clearly made a choice to stay put when they could have escaped. I think I would have said, thank you, God, I'm out of here. A plague on this whole city, let me out. But he stayed put, why? Because he understood the Roman law. He understood that if he escaped or anybody else escaped, it would cost the jailer his life. And so he stayed put. And that not only saved the jailer's life, but showed him a love in action that that man had never experienced before. And so between their testimony singing at midnight, the supernatural sign and wonders have gone stepping into the situation. And then Paul and Silas demonstrating the sacrificial love of Jesus on behalf of the jailer. He had never encountered that before. And so what does he do? He falls to his knees and he says, the jailer called for the lights, rushed in, felt trembling before Saul and Silas. He then brought them out and he asked, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And that gives Paul then the opportunity to proclaim the gospel, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. And then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all others in his house. And again, there is a major principle here. Some people need to see love in action. Some people are ready to hear the word and they believe it and they come to faith. Some people need Holy Ghost deliverance of the power that binds them. But some people whose hearts are hardened, who are skeptical, who aren't ready to believe, don't have demons necessarily that need to be cast out, but hearts that are cold, they need to see the power of God at work. And they need to see the power of God at work, not only in the lives of Paul and Silas, they need to see the power of God at work, not only in the supernatural where the prison walls are shaken, they need to see the power of God at work in God's people who are willing to lay down their lives so that their lives could be saved for time and for eternity. So let me leave you this morning with these questions. All the people that you know, chances are they fall into one of those three categories because, as I said earlier, Luke chooses these stories, I believe deliberately. There's lots of other stories you could have picked. But what's he trying to say? Nobody is outside of the reach of the gospel. The gospel can reach religious people. The gospel can reach enslaved young women who are not only enslaved to the power of the enemy, but they're also slaves in the physical sense of the word, and he can reach the toughest military dude and bring him-- ex-military dude-- and bring him to his knees when he experiences the power of God. And that ought to persuade us that nobody is outside of the reach of the gospel. God can reach anybody. Our job is to try to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Our job is to try to gauge where people find themselves at, and our job is to pray like ghetto, for God to find a way through into the hearts of these individuals so that they will come to saving grace by the power of Jesus. And then God takes all these diverse people that he reaches in different ways, and then he puts them together, and he makes them into a church community. And as we've been seeing in recent weeks, what stands out among the Philippian church is that this is a church with incredible generosity, and this is a church that just is one of Paul's favorite churches, favorite churches, because he has seen what Jesus has done in the lives of these people. Isn't that amazing thing? That's what God is about in the history of the church around the world. And you and I were privileged to be a part of that [PROPOSED CUT 2 START at 00:42:26.720; remove through 00:42:31.000] for the glory of God. [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 2 END at 00:42:31.000; resume after this marked segment]