Colliding Values

pick up this morning where we
left off last week
we were looking at paul's ministry in
philippi
he
is on his second missionary journey in
the book of acts
and in the city of philippi
we saw last week
perhaps for those of you who were not
able to be with us then
that there are three stories of
conversion
there is lydia
the purple cellar
there is
the young slave girl who is possessed
with a spirit of divination
and then there is the philippian jailer
all three gloriously come to know
the redeeming power
of the lord jesus
it's that little story that we want to
come back to this morning because
it's the story of the slave girl who
precipitates
a collision of values
as the gospel message
and the values of the world meet
together in her deliverance so let's
take a few moments and reread that story
acts chapter 16. we'll read together
from verse 16 of that chapter to verse
24 and then we'll talk about it a little
bit
once when we were going to the place of
prayer we were met by a slave girl
who had a spirit by which he predicted
the future
that's a spirit of divination in greek
as i mentioned last week
a spirit of python we'll talk about that
a little bit more this morning
she earned a great deal of money for her
owners by fortune telling
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
she kept us up for many days
finally paul became so troubled
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
when the owners of the slave girl
realized that their hope of making money
was gone
they seized paul and silas
and dragged them into the marketplace to
face the authorities
they brought them before the magistrates
and said
these men are jews
and are throwing our city into an uproar
by advocating customs unlawful
for us romans to accept
or practice
the crowd joined in the attack against
paul and silas
and the magistrates ordered them to be
stripped and beaten
after they had been severely flogged
they were thrown into prison
and the jailer was commanded to guard
them carefully
upon receiving such orders he put them
in the inner cell
and fastened their feet
in
the stalks
and then of course the story goes on
how god delivers them
and the philippian jailer
comes to faith also
join me in a moment of prayer father
we're so grateful
that throughout the course of history
you
and we're aware too that when you are at
work
so is the other spirit
and you've warned us repeatedly in your
word
to expect and to anticipate
persecution
lord help us
in whatever form that comes our way
to not deny you
but to stand firm on your promises
knowing
now that all the kingdoms of the world
and all their glory and all their power
are eventually going to yield to the
lord jesus
because his is the kingdom
that is an everlasting kingdom
so grant us your holy spirit now help me
to give voice to
that which you've laid in my heart
and again lord may that word
bear much fruit
as each of us seeks to live out
what it means to follow jesus we pray it
together
in his name and for his glory
amen
well i've often wondered
why the apostle paul
allows this slave girl to carry on
for as long as he does
why doesn't he step in and stop her
much sooner after all
she created quite a spectacle listen
again
to how luke describes it here in verse
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
she kept this up
for many
days can you imagine
the spectacle
a young woman following you around
days on end
shouting
these men
are representatives they are servants
of the most high god
why doesn't paul
step in much quicker
well a couple of thoughts come to my
mind perhaps
he thought if he'd ignore her
she'd leave him alone you know sometimes
when you're bullied or
teased
the best remedy is not to respond at all
because people are looking to get a rise
out of you and maybe
he thought if he ignored her she'd go
away well if that was his strategy he
failed miserably as you could imagine
or maybe he liked the
publicity that he was receiving from her
after all
by the time she was done
there wasn't a question in anybody's
mind about what his mission was
a servant of the most high god
announcing the way of salvation
come and think of it though
not sure he'd be too fussy about having
a demon advertise
his mission
somehow doesn't sound quite right does
that
but what if and this is what i've been
thinking about in recent weeks a little
bit
what if he is hesitant to address the
issue
because he knows that addressing the
issue
is going to bring
a lot of trouble
on his head
because that indeed is what happens here
he is troubled
he casts out
the demon
by the authority of the name of jesus
and the moment he does
all hell
breaks loose listen again
to how the passage describes it when the
owners of the slave girl realized that
their hope of making money was gone
they seized paul and silas and dragged
them into the marketplace to face the
authorities
they brought them before the magistrates
and said these men are jews and are
throwing our city into an uproar by
advocating customs unlawful
for us romans to accept
or practice and of course the story goes
on as we have just read it together
they
get stripped and severely flogged and
thrown into jail as common criminals
with their feets with their feet in
stock
and this indeed becomes the end of their
ministry in philippi
because as the story goes on to tell us
even though they get released the next
day
they left town
shortly
thereafter
so the question before us this morning
is what do we learn
from this story
what do we learn from the experience of
paul and silas
in the city of philippi
well a number of things and we'll see
how far we can get this morning number
one
the gospel
is inherently
divisive
that is to say the gospel inherently
divides
and polarizes
people
this is not a concept that we're very
comfortable with in today's society
because the emphasis in today's society
is how can we keep everybody together
how can we eliminate
differences but the message of the
gospel
is that the gospel causes a line of
separation through every
social structure that you will find in
the world listen to these words of jesus
matthew chapter 10 do not suppose
that i have come to bring peace to the
earth
i did not come to bring peace
but a sword
for i have come to turn a man against
his father
a daughter against her mother
a daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law
a man's enemies will be the members
of his own
household you'll notice double
quotations over
uh that list of relationships that's
because that's a quotation
from i believe the old testament book of
proverbs wherever the gospel goes
there is a line of division
through the most fundamental
of all human societies and all human
relationships a concept as i said that
most of us are not particularly
comfortable with but it's rooted in the
very heart of the gospel
because heaven's
values
heaven's values will always be
in conflict
with the values
of the world
let me take a moment and elaborate on
that just a little bit because it is so
crucial in this day and age
for the church to understand how
counter-culture we are if we embrace the
values of god
and the danger with us is that we
we sell out on god's values and we
surrender to the values of the world let
me put it in this context for just a
moment
if somebody were to ask you
what are the values of heaven's kingdom
how would you summarize them well
there's a lot of different ways to
summarize them i'm very comfortable with
the words from 1 corinthians chapter 13
faith
hope and love
faith in the sense that the essence of
the kingdom of god is knowing that god
is sovereign we put our trust in him and
we seek to obey him hope
because we know that because of jesus no
matter how much evil reigns in the world
and seems to triumph in the end
truth and justice and victory for god's
people will triumph and love because out
of being loved by god and having
faith and hope we can share with each
other the reality of the kingdom of god
those are the values of heaven's kingdom
now compare these
with the values of the
world and again if somebody were to ask
you
what are the world's values
how would you sum them up well you can
sum them up in a lot of ways but i like
the way the apostle john sums them up in
1 john chapter 2 where he talks about
these three values the pride of life
the lust of the eyes
and the lust of the flesh
the pride of life
is our self-sufficiency in the world we
don't want to acknowledge that we need
anybody
i am the captain of my own soul and the
master of my own destiny
because i don't have a relationship with
god it's all about what i can get to
satisfy the cravings of my heart and the
lust of the eyes
is the desire to own
and the desire to possess
those are the values of the world
as opposed to the values of the kingdom
of god
and you can imagine then that when the
kingdom of god comes
when the truth of the gospel is really
being
presented those two
are
inevitably
in conflict with each other listen to
how james puts it
don't you know
he says that friendship with the world
is hatred towards god
anyone who chooses to be a friend of the
world
becomes an enemy
of god
and it's not only james who echoes that
kind of theme so does the lord jesus
matthew 6 24 no one can serve two
masters
either he will hate the one and love the
other
or he will be devoted to the one and
despise the other
you cannot serve both god
and
money
mammon
is the word there and mammon is more
than just hard cold cash it is the
spirit that stands behind the desire to
possess
it is
the the love of money says scripture
not money itself the love of money
is the root
of all evil
and so
if you live by the values of the world
and then the values of the kingdom of
god come along
you've got trouble
and paul realized that i believe
and that's why he hesitated to take on
this young slave girl because he knew
the moment he took her on
he was attacking the very core values of
the power brokers of that community
because notice now how in this story
it is these conflicting values that
cause the problem
why are these girls owners
so ordinary
and desirous to put paul and silas into
jail well it's very easy
the story makes it very plain
verse 19
when the owners of the slave girl
realized that their hope of making money
was gone
they seized paul and silas
and dragged them into the marketplace to
face the authorities
they were money
out of pocket and it struck me as i
sort of reflected on my passage a while
ago
owners in plural
they have a consortium on the go
multiple families are being supported at
the expense of this young woman their
highest value was how to line their
pockets
with the money that she was making with
her suits saying remember people came
from all over
to get answers to their life's questions
and they paid good money
because they as we lived in uncertain
times and they wanted to make sure that
whatever decisions they made were going
to work out
that was their value
their value
was using the girl
for their own financial gain
now what do you suppose was the value of
the kingdom
do you think god was concerned about
whether
they were lining the pockets at this
young woman's expense of course not
god's concern
was that this young woman would be
delivered from this evil spirit that was
driving her remember i said last time
some of these pythians
these these women that were at the
center of these oracles that were all
over the greek and roman world
were so overcome by the power of evil
that came upon them to prophesy that
some of them in fact died in the process
they didn't care about this young woman
they didn't care about the fact that she
was demonized but god did
and so at the authority of the apostle
paul
this young woman gets released
comes into freedom
but notice it is at the expense
of the money makers
now put yourself in that situation
you're losing your income
you're going to jump up and down and say
well glory to god i'm poor and broke
but this young woman she's finally free
there's a story in the gospels that this
reminds me a lot of remember when jesus
delivered the gathering
demoniac
on the other side of the lake
and legions came out of that man
remember he he was so possessed
that even chains could not hold him
and he cast out the demons and where do
they go
into the herd of pigs
2 000 as i recall something like that
wasn't it in the story
and what happened to all the pigs
down into the into the lake they went to
now imagine being a big owner
is it any wonder
is it any wonder
they came along and said to jesus please
leave because if you keep hanging around
here we're going to be flat broke real
fast
understand that when the gospel comes
and does its work there is a conflicting
collision of values
and when that happens
all hell
will break loose
and that is the principle that we need
to observe here wherever the gospel goes
and really does its job
i'm not just talking about a little
intellectual belief i'm not just talking
about a little cosmetic change no no
when the gospel comes and changes the
values of a society
there will be conflict and there will be
opposition
and the degree to which
any one of us represents the values of
the world
because this is a gradation it isn't
just
you know you're not just hot or cold
to the degree
to which we embrace the values of the
world
as opposed to the values of the kingdom
of god
we will be troubled
when the kingdom of god comes and the
the opposite is straight here
to the degree to which we represent
heaven's values
we will be troubled
by the values
of the world and hasn't that been your
experience that the more you grow in
christ the more alive you become in
christ the more you pain
at what happens in the world and the
more you want to cry out god
please do something about what it is
that we're experiencing
and it's so important today more than
that god's people understand
that if we're going to follow jesus
there are going to be people
who
oppose
us jesus
in sending out his disciples as apostles
put it this way
he said i'm sending you out like sheep
among wolves
therefore be shrewd as snakes
and innocent as doves wise as serpents
in another translation innocent as doves
be on your guard against men
they will hand you over to the local
councils and flog you in their
synagogues and my account you will be
brought before governors and kings as
witnesses to them
and to
the gentiles
our responsibility of course
is to make sure that it is the gospel
that is giving offence
not our own activities or behaviors
because
you know
when jesus was crucified
there were two others that were
crucified with him
they deserved it
the holier you are
the more committed you are to the
purposes of god the more you step out
into what god is calling you to do
and the more danger you pose to the
kingdom of darkness the more you will
get them on your tail and we ought not
to be surprised
because jesus said
as they persecuted the prophets before
you so
they persecute
you
first lesson we learned from this story
is that we're faithful to jesus
and if we're anointed by his spirit
and we step out
to proclaim his kingdom
and to deliver satan's captives
i can tell you from my own experience
and we can tell from the experience in
this community
all hell by times will break loose
sometimes we bring it on ourselves
but even if we don't bring it on
ourselves i always say there was nobody
more innocent than jesus
and there was nobody that they were more
anxious to kneel to the cross
because he
stood at odds with all the values
that the world
including much of the religious world
wanted to hold on to that's lesson
number one there's a second lesson here
that i think we need to learn and that
is this
this conflict
of which scripture speaks
takes place on two levels
it takes place on a physical level
but it also takes place on a
spiritual
level
and the classic passage of course
ephesians 6 12 most of us know it well
our struggle is not against flesh and
blood
but against the rulers against the
authorities against the powers of this
dark world and against the spiritual
forces of evil
in the heavenly
places
notice
two levels of warfare here
the first is flesh
and blood
our struggle is not against
flesh and blood flesh and blood of
course represents
human beings
mortals like you and i
and scripture teaches pretty clearly
that
when we step out in obedience to jesus
and seek to proclaim the coming of his
kingdom and the restoration of all
things
then the first level of opposition that
we will experience will typically come
in the form
of people
the boyfriend
who ditches you
because you resist his advances
the wife
who is jealous
of her husband's loyalty to jesus
the boss
that wants you to do things
that you know
are not kosher
over the last couple of weeks
three people from this congregation have
shared with me stories
of how they find themselves in
employment situations
where their boss was wanting them to do
something which they as christians could
not do in good conscience
government
that wants you to ignore your conscience
and embrace values
that are at odds
with christian values would you believe
that just in the last week alone and i
wrote these down
there are four significant stories in
the news
of christians being forced into a
situation
where they were expected to do things
that in good conscience they could not
do perhaps you've heard the story coming
out of coeur d'alene idaho
there's a couple there they run
a for-profit wedding chapel called
hitching post which is kind of a
cool
name
and
people come there to get married
obviously
and
they asked the city if i recall the
story correctly about what would happen
if
a gay couple came to them for marriage
and they turned them down because they
wouldn't be able to do that in good
conscience a number of those stories
have been in the news in recent years of
course
printer
uh wondering if
you know didn't want a print
and a cake outfit that didn't want to
make a cake for a gay wedding and all of
this kind of thing
and the city told them that they would
be charged
under their municipal laws for
discrimination
and that was a big news story now since
then
uh the city has rescinded
its ruling
because they've come to the realization
that they're treading
on really dangerous ground
big big story out of houston in the last
couple of weeks where the mayor of
houston who is a gay woman
is embroiled
in a lawsuit against an organization in
the city of houston
because the city has passed an ordinance
that transgendered people
aren't sure whether they're male or
female or
are
the ruling is that they would be allowed
to use whatever
public washrooms that they want to use
whether biologically they're a woman
or a man well that became a whole
hullabaloo
and so now what did the mayor do
not thinking very clearly
she demanded that that five preachers
submit to her and to city hall
as part of her defense against the
lawsuit
sermons they preached and any
correspondence they had with any aspect
of that particular case now can you
imagine how that goes over in texas
so that's been a huge story in the news
and a whole bunch of preachers are
getting together and they're going to
swamp her office with sermons and with
bibles isn't that an interesting thing
to be doing now again in the meantime
they have rescinded
this demand
and it's understandable to some degree
in the context of the lawsuit that she's
facing but understand that increasingly
everywhere
in the world including north america
the challenges are before us
can we hold on to biblical values are
must we surrender
biblical values another story in the
news just this past week
out of the united kingdom a christian
school
is being challenged by government
authorities
they're supposed to be teaching
let me see how it's worded because
it's all about
having to espouse
british values of democracy and
tolerance
and if they refuse to espouse
the british values of democracy and
tolerance and you can read into that
whatever you want then their
accreditation
is going to be denied or limited
this is happening all over north america
and
presently in most cases they have to
back off because there is still enough
of a christian heritage in our culture
to see through the foolishness of that
but
i'll be prophetic and tell you that's
only a matter of time
because that is changing
really
fast
the battle
is not against flesh and blood
but it is against
principalities
and powers
against rulers authorities the powers of
this dark world and against the
spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly
realms
it looks like people
in most cases
it is often people on the forefront of
it
but behind the people
are spiritual powers that are in league
with the evil one
who are seeking to destroy god's
creation who seek to resist the coming
of god's kingdom and who want the whole
world
under the domination
of the force of evil and if you ever
want to see what that looks like then
look at the
totalitarian regimes that we have
experienced in the course of the
the 20th and 21st century and you'll see
what kind of death that ends up with
you get into the mind of
these two young men this past week
who killed those two soldiers you get
into the mind of those young canadians
who want to leave this country and go to
to syria to fight with isis
or you get into the mind
of the soldiers of the isis movement who
delight in death and destruction who
think it's the most normal thing to do
did you see the picture a couple of
weeks ago of this person's young kid
10 or 12 years of age holding the
severed
head of of an opponent
and being gleeful
about having
been part of that experience
can you imagine that i mean you think
you have trouble with your kids watching
video games or tv
you can imagine
what kind of culture of death
is being
pushed in certain parts of the world i
mean go back to stalin who killed how
many millions in ukraine back in the 30s
or hitler who gasped that many jews and
you know
all of those stories
the battle is not against flesh and
blood
it's against
principalities and powers and again the
story before us this morning is such a
clear illustration
of both of these elements
the surface
paul's issue is flesh and blood
it's the owners of the slave girl
who drag him before the magistrates
and
the trouble comes from them and the
trouble comes from the citizenry it
comes from the magistrates
flesh and blood
and in most cases persecution around the
world comes in the form of men and women
who are in league with the enemy
but behind all of that even in this
story
stands
because
remember
what is the spirit
that he cast out
of this woman's life
it was a spirit of divination in the
greek as we've talked about earlier a
spirit of python
python
was the spirit behind the oracles that
were all over the roman empire
python
as a snake is a personification
of evil
and if you think its power is gone
and i didn't take the time to download
this
but what
is the symbol
of
the medical profession
anybody know
that it's called a caduceus
and i wish i had a picture of it but
you've seen the symbol of it it's a it's
a vertical staff
and it's got two intertwining snakes
around it right
it's the official symbol of the
u.s army medical corps
and it is also the symbol of the medical
profession
what do you think those snakes are
they're python
so when paul takes on this young woman
and says out you come in the name of
jesus
he's not just
antagonizing their owners he is
antagonizing a whole spiritual world
that stands behind that
and they come after him with a vengeance
and there's no love lost and i strongly
suspect that he knew
he would get himself into a lot of
trouble
if he stepped out
into that situation
we don't just fight against flesh and
blood
we fight against principalities and
powers
and why is that significant for us i'll
tell you why that's significant for us
because we live in a world and i just
told you a few of the stories
where
the values of western society
which historically have been rooted in
the judeo-christian faith
are being dismantled
at an incredibly rapid pace
and nowhere is that more true
than when it relates to marriage
or sexual
identity it's not the only areas
but they're constantly on the forefront
and time was not that long ago when
at least the bulk of western society
understood that marriage that first of
all
there are
primarily two genders that god created
male and female
we've always known there are people who
are troubled
whether
physically they haven't developed
properly and they fall somewhere in
between that happens and that's a great
tragedy
we also know that emotionally and
spiritually
not every boy feels like a boy and not
every girl feels like a girl
and our society is to be commended for
the fact
that we want to be understanding of
people who find themselves in those
kinds of situations
because those are those are a hard way
to live
and it's hard to fit into society
when you are in those kind of places but
see here's what makes the difference
the difference is not can we be gentle
and patient and kind with those who
struggle
the question is do we normalize
what the bible calls broken
because when you normalize it
you cannot bring healing
and all over the western world
there is a huge pressure as you know
in
changing the biblical definition of
gender
changing the biblical definition of
marriage
and it has steamrolled ahead in such a
way
that it becomes almost impossible even
in christian circles to address it for
fear of offending people isn't that true
anybody under the age of 25 who has gone
through this school system
will have alarm bells going off
the moment you say
that same-sex attraction
is not a natural thing
but is part of the brokenness
of
creation and that jesus came to restore
creation
to the purposes
of god so hear me well
i have great compassion because
you know the kind of emphasis that we
have in this community on believing that
jesus wants to heal and to restore
people
and i'm also fully aware that there are
some things in this life and in this
world that are not going to be healed
until the age to come
but let's at least call it for what it
is
and recognize that jesus christ has come
and that his purposes are to restore us
into the fullness of what it is that god
has for us
because if we don't do that
society moves entirely in the wrong
direction
now remember a couple of weeks ago i
told you a story coming out of sweden
where the teachers were being instructed
in classrooms no longer to differentiate
that doesn't do justice to people whose
gender identity is confused i thought
well that's over there
would you believe the past two weeks
story in the news out of lincoln
nebraska
of all places in the world
the teachers are being trained
to be gender
inclusive
and sensitive
and i understand the heart that lies
behind that hear me well
but i took the time to download
the document
that is being used to train them
because we are sowing seeds of
destruction
12 easy steps on the way to gender
inclusiveness this is happening in north
america in the classroom today when you
find it necessary to reference gender
say
boy
girl both or neither
when asked why use it as a teachable
moment
emphasize to students that your
classroom recognizes and celebrates the
gender diversity
of students
another heading don't use phrases such
as boys and girls you guys ladies and
gentlemen
or similarly gendered expressions to get
kids attention
instead say things like calling all
readers or hey campers or could all you
athletes come here create classroom
names
and then ask all of the purple penguins
to meet at the rug
this is serious
business
as to where we find ourselves in society
avoid using
normal
to define
any
behavior
it goes on and on and on
the human condition does not operate as
a strict binary system
if we look at what actually exists we
see there is much middle ground very few
people are actually at the extreme ends
i agree with some of that and there are
people at every point along the
continuum each continuum concept exists
independently it's important to avoid
assuming you know where a person falls
on all of the continuums just because
you think you know where a person falls
on one or two you know what that's going
to do to our society
you know that's going to do to our kids
a boy doesn't know what it is to be a
boy
a girl doesn't know what it is to be a
girl
and all differences begin to disappear
until everything bogs down
in confusion
that's the reality
and i've spoken to other teachers even
teachers in ontario
and that's where the movement lies in
the public school system
where does that come from
well imparted comes from people who push
it
and i don't think the people who always
push it are bad people
they push it in part because they
recognize the pain that exists
but nevertheless
they are not wise when they do not
submit to the authority of scripture
when god gets excluded from the picture
and it becomes
all inclusive so that we can remove all
the differences among ourselves
and ultimately behind that stands the
forces of evil that are determined to
destroy the structure of society the way
that god has created
and you and i can
throw in the towel
we can
lift our hands in despair
we can try to be accommodating
but at the end of the day
it is not a battle against flesh and
blood it is against a battle against
principalities and powers and it needs
to be fought
on a spiritual basis therefore
but on the full armor of god
so that when the day of evil comes you
may be able to stand your ground
and after you have done everything
to
stand
this weekend is reformation weekend
martin luther stood up against the
forces of his day
to declare the authority of salvation by
grace through faith
living by the word of god
not by the traditions of men
we do well
in our generation
to know what that looks like
for each of us
in the areas of life
that matter
may god
have mercy on our culture
and may he help us to demonstrate
what biblical manhood
biblical womanhood
looks like get rid of all the
stereotypes it's so much broader indeed
than many of us think
but he did create us male and female
and he redeems us in christ
to be a reflection
of his character amen
amen