Through The Bible - Acts 16 - Part 3

Brett Meador: Why did God cause an earthquake to open the prison doors? To let poor Paul out of prison? But when you read the story, God went through the whole earthquake thing so that all those people could be saved: the Philippian jailer, his household, the whole church getting formed. So it's kind of funny how God does things. His ways are not our ways.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador with encouragement to be faithful through the good and the bad. You may not understand why things are happening or not happening, but be of good cheer. God's got a plan and all things work together for good. In the book of Acts, we learn of not just a sudden great earthquake, but one that was clearly supernatural, not only because of its timing and location where Paul and Silas were in prison, but also in the way that the doors were opened and chains were loosened. Pastor Brett Meador marvels in today's word how the Holy Spirit used Paul and Silas in their terrible adversity.
Brett Meador: In Acts chapter 16, Paul had an interesting series of events that brings him to the place God ultimately wants him to be. So let's pick it up right there in verse one of chapter 16. It says, "Then came he to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timotheus, or Timothy, the son of a certain woman which was a Jewess and believed, but his father was a Greek." Okay, this is where we're introduced to Timothy, or Timotheus, as he's called here, which it says was well reported of. Timothy had a good reputation by the brethren that were in Lystra and Iconium. Verse three, "Him Paul would have to go forth with him, and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters, for they knew all that his father was a Greek." This is an interesting thing because Timothy is what they would have viewed in those days as an apostate Jew. Remember I already told you he's a Jew because he had a Jewish mother. But why is he an apostate Jew? Because he's uncircumcised. Why do you suppose Timothy was uncircumcised? Because he had a Greek dad, and his dad was probably like, "Yeah, I don't go for the circumcision stuff with my son." So why did Paul, after giving that big argument and Peter as well and deciding that Gentiles don't have to be circumcised, why did they circumcise him? In the places they were about to go, the Jews would never listen to an uncircumcised Greek, let alone an uncircumcised apostate Jew. And for him to be relatable and usable, nothing hindering the Jews from listening, there was this idea of circumcising him so that he would have a voice. There's different ways the Lord uses different people. I believe that the circumcision of Timothy was really for the purpose of saying, "Timothy, the Lord's going to use you in a certain group of people. It's not to be fit to be saved, but he was being circumcised to be fit to serve and minister to Jews in the synagogues." Timothy wouldn't even have been allowed into the synagogue where Paul would preach if he wasn't circumcised. So I think Timothy was a willing participant in this. He said, "I want to be used and I don't want anything to get between me and my ability to serve the Lord." And so it's for that reason he was circumcised. Well, verse four, "And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees," the ones that we got in Acts 15, remember, the council in Jerusalem? They delivered the decrees for to keep that were ordained of the apostles and the elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily. Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia, the region of Galatia—that's where the Galatian church would be—and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not. And they, passing by Mysia, came down to Troas. Paul was held up by the Holy Spirit and then he finally finds out why in verse nine. It says, "And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying, 'Come over into Macedonia and help us.'" And after, verse 10, he had seen the vision, immediately we—would you mark the word "we" there? That's where Luke starts including himself. So some argue that somewhere there in this last little jump to Troas, that's where Luke was picked up on the team. Before this, he was saying "they went there and here." So that's where we believe Luke joined the crowd. Verse 10, "After he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia," which is Europe, remember, "assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them." So Paul sees the vision, and then in verse 11, they travel from Troas by ship there in the Aegean Sea. And this is over to Europe. Verse 12, "Thence from Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia and a colony. We were in that city, Philippi, abiding certain days. And on the Sabbath, we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made. And we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither." So they go there into Philippi and then they go right to the stream which is just outside of Philippi. It's called Lydia's Stream. Lydia was a businesswoman and she was a seller of purple. It was kind of a reddish-purple color and it means she was probably a wealthy woman. She was like a businesswoman, kind of like a Proverbs 31 woman, you know, where she got this fancy purple. It's called Tyrian purple, a reddish-purple dye that comes from the mucus of a predatory sea snail, murex, in the Mediterranean Sea. So they get these sea snails from the Mediterranean and then they crush them up and use the guts or whatever for the purple dye for clothes and stuff. It was expensive. And this is where Paul and Silas, Luke and Timothy were hanging out. So what did they see when they got to Macedonia? They went into Philippi, then they went out to the stream and they saw a group of women, not a Macedonian man, but a group of women. Was Paul's dream wrong? Why would God have him have a wrong dream of seeing a man when it was really women that they were going to see there? Some believe that the Macedonian man was an angel. You say, "Well, Brett, are there Macedonian angels?" Probably. One of the things in the Bible is there are angels that are given to certain areas geographically in the Bible. Remember Daniel was fasting and he was held up by this angel that was in Persia, and because of Daniel's prayer and fasting, this sort of message that one of the angels was going to bring to Daniel, but he was withheld by a demonic spirit that was in Persia. But some would say, some scholars suggest it was just an angel that was kind of in charge of the Macedonia region saying, "Come and help us." Others say, "No, the Macedonian man could have been Luke." That's another theory, that Luke joined them in Macedonia and it was him. So this woman who's the seller of purple, it says in verse 14, we read about that. "And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul." Now this is interesting because notice she's a woman of industry, a businesswoman, together, dialed in. She's got a business going. But she's also a woman of faith, and you might say she's like an Old Testament believer. She's a believer in God, she just doesn't know Jesus as the Messiah and hasn't accepted him as such yet. So she's a woman of faith, a believer in God, and now it's just a quick snap into "Jesus is the truth and the life." Well, verse 15, it says, "And when she was baptized and her household, she besought us, saying, 'If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there.' And she constrained us." So now they're staying there at Lydia's house, which is kind of a cool thing. So Lydia and her family, her household, are the first converts in Europe. Well, now we go back into the city of Philippi. The city of Philippi was a real epicenter of Roman activity. What made the Philippi city such a Roman influence city? Well, there was, it was the scene of a large decisive battle in 42 BC, a civil war battle. Maybe you remember in high school history, Brutus and Cassius and the forces of Mark Antony and Octavian, later known as Caesar Augustus. There was a big sort of civil war that happened there. But because of the Philippian people's assistance in that conflict in 42 BC, Caesar Octavian, who's later known as Caesar Augustus, because of their assistance, Caesar Augustus granted Roman citizenship to everyone that lived in Philippi because they were so helpful in that civil war. Proud Roman citizens. That's interesting, by the way, in light of Philippians 3:20, where Paul reminds the Philippian church, he says, "For our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." Why did Paul say that to the people of Philippi? That he actually said, "Philippians, watch out for being so aligned with Rome that you kind of forget that your citizenship is in heaven." Can I just say to American people, but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You can be a happy American and proud to be an American and all that, but can I just say make sure and remember we are not as much citizens of America? We are, thankful, proud to be American, not prideful hopefully, but more importantly, you're a citizen of heaven and I hope you realize that. That's such a huge and important thing. Maybe us Americans need to be reminded like Paul reminded them in Philippi. Yes, you can love being an American, but we should actually be more so citizens of heaven. So do we just abandon America? No, we pray for America and we remember we're citizens of heaven. So the first woman that's amazing in the story is Lydia. The next woman we see a little different kind of lady starting in verse 16. It says, "And it came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain," money, "by soothsaying," that's fortune-telling. "The same," that woman, "followed Paul and us and cried, saying, 'These men are the servants of the most high God which show unto us the way of salvation.' And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, 'I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.' And he came out of her the same hour." Contrast Lydia, industrious believer, hospitable, listened to the word of Paul. This other damsel acting like she believes, and yet she's got an unclean spirit. She's a soothsayer, and the Greek word is necromancy, fortune-telling, kind of a new age seeking her own spirituality kind of thing. Lydia's the one who heard the word and submitted to the church leadership and accepted Christ. This other damsel, she was sort of doing her own thing. We see a contrast with these two women. Her faith, her whole family gets saved, Lydia, and her whole family's made whole and saved. This other damsel, she's into spiritually dark mystic things, which is what's wrong with what she's saying. It's what Satan does. He dabbles with the truth and then tweaks it a little bit. "These are servants of the most high God." Satan is causing confusion with this fortune-teller gypsy lady confusing the truth of what Paul and Silas and these guys are saying. Now verse 19, it says, "And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains, their money, was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, and brought them to the magistrates, saying, 'These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.'" Remember they're proud Romans? "And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates rent off their clothes," not their own clothes, but Paul and Silas's clothes, "and commanded to beat them." Now why does it seem that Paul and Silas are the only ones that were beaten and stuff? Probably because Luke was a Gentile and Timothy was only half Jewish. Maybe he still kind of carried himself like a Greek. But Paul and Silas would have looked very Jewish, and there was anti-Semitism sentiment that was very much part of this pagan antiquity. The people that were into this lady's sorcery would be the same people that would have hated Jews in those days. So the objection, you know, that these men were Jews, is even more interesting knowing there was a tiny Jewish community in Philippi. It was very small. But they ripped off Paul and Silas's clothes and then verse 23, "And when they had laid many stripes," that's whippings, "upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks." You history buffs know Tertullian. Tertullian said, "The legs feel nothing in the stocks when the heart is in heaven." And we see that here in verses 25 and 26. It says, "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard 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 bands were loosed." It says, verse 27, "And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, 'Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.'" Then he called for a light and sprang in, and he came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house." "And repent and be baptized and..." No, they didn't say that, did they? No, this is the gospel. Don't mess up the gospel with more things. "But Brett, baptism, isn't it important?" It sure is. That's why this guy's getting baptized. But it's not what saves you. "How do I be saved?" he asked, and Paul, who was a wordsmith and knew how to say stuff, his word was "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and your house." And verse 32, "They spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes," that's the jail keeper took them home to his house, washed their wounds on their backs, "and was baptized, he and all his family straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." Now there's a bunch that you might be wondering about. What about this jailer? You know, he was going to kill himself. Why was he going to kill himself? Because he failed in his duty to secure the prison, and he knew that he would be brutally killed in a torturous way. So he's like, "I'd rather kill myself at my own hand than suffer the torture of these Roman people." So he's going to kill himself, and you say, "Well, Paul stops him, good for that, and he gets saved. Awesome. And they go home and bandage Paul and Silas up. Cool." But do you still feel a little bit of a dark cloud over the situation? Like the scripture doesn't really say it. It says they believed in God and all his house and suddenly it seems like they're just all happy there at the jailer's house. What's going to happen in the morning when they all find Paul and the gang is gone? By the way, this house that's used, the Philippi church starts in this jailer's house. And you get a sense that the house here, it says "all that were in his house" were saved and baptized. And when he brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. There's rejoicing. There's not a dark cloud where the Philippian jailer's like, "Man, I've got to face the music tomorrow morning when they realize these prisoners have broken free. What am I going to do?" He's not even worried about that. Why is that? God's using this jailer to be the instrument of the start of the church at Philippi, and suddenly those things tend to take a back seat and faith in Christ will give you faith that he'll take care of the rest. When you're faithful in what God's called you to do, and this guy's opening his house to Paul and Silas, the Lord's going to take care of it. Well, how's he going to take care of the jailer? I mean, he's in big trouble now. Well, God can do anything. Nothing's too hard for the Lord. Do you guys understand that? You might think right now, "But what about tomorrow and what's going to happen to me? I'm so afraid." Nothing is too hard for the Lord. Remember that before we read the rest of the story. But another thing about this, I got to be the guy that grew up in a house like this where people would be brought from my dad's work that were unsaved, they'd accept Christ and be saved and be baptized. I got the blessing of being in a home like this and I just wonder how many of your homes could be used maybe in a greater way for the unsaved to come to dinner, to help bandage their wounds, whether they be literal or spiritual, to come and hear the gospel and be saved and be baptized. I grew up in a house like that where people came. We used to do Wednesday night Bible study, my church that I grew up with started in my house, went from weekend services in my house to this grange hall, and then we did Wednesday night Bible study in my house. And I grew up with that. My parents would open our house and people would spill communion juice on our carpet and track in, and it was just kind of the deal. But did my mom and dad worry? My mom, she always kept a very clean house and was always into decor and making it very cozy and homey. And I remember as a kid going, "Wow, I'm amazed my mom lets everybody into the house." But why did we do that? Because it was a giant, giant blessing and our house rejoiced because of that. That's what you see going on here. I wonder if you have a house that God wants to use in this way. Well, meanwhile back at the prison, most scholars believe all the prisoners came with Paul, Silas, Luke, and Timothy. They all came back to the prison guard's house. Can you imagine being Mrs. Prison Guard? "Honey, I'm home and by the way, I brought some escaped criminals with me, a whole prison full. Just start cooking it up, honey." The prison guard has Paul and Silas now escaped convicts—are you guys with me in this?—in his own house. He's aiding and abetting criminals. That's the dark cloud I'm talking about. The threat of what would happen to him would seem to be why he contemplated suicide. It seems like a hard situation to get out of. Well, then enter the Lord's might. Verse 35, it says, "And when it was day, the magistrates sent those sergeants saying, 'Let those men go.'" Now the implication, Paul and the gang and all the prisoners said, "We don't want to put your life at risk so we're going back to prison because we don't want you to be in trouble." Did you see that? That's amazing. So they're back in prison with this guy, and the magistrate's say, "Uh, by the way, let those guys go now." What's going to happen? Well, we find out as the magistrate sent, "Let those guys depart and go in peace." But Paul said unto them, "They have beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison, and now they do thrust us out privately? Nay, verily, but let them come themselves and fetch us out." And the sergeants told these words to the magistrates, and they feared when they heard that they were Romans. Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, and they were beaten without a fair trial, and they were beaten more than you're supposed to beat a Roman citizen. So the men, the magistrates of the city, they were guilty, guilty, guilty, and they could be in huge trouble for treating Roman citizens the way they did. So they weaseled in early in the morning and said, "Hey, let those guys out of prison. Let's just go your way in peace. Live long and prosper." And Paul stands up, "I'm not going anywhere." Don't you love Paul's boldness? "You guys beat us and you're going to be in trouble for that. We're not letting you get off so easy." This is Paul. Now the magistrates, they're shaking in their sandals. It says, verse 39, "And they came and besought them and brought them out and desired them to depart out of the city." "Would you please, with sugar on it, you know, please leave the city? We'd like you to go now." There's a little different tune. Verse 40, "And they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren," that's the church there now, "they comforted them and departed." I love this story. It's the beginning of the Philippian church and I love how it turns out. God works it all out in the end. Question: Why did God cause an earthquake to open the prison doors? A novice would say to let poor Paul out of prison. But when you read the story, that's not why God did that. God went through the whole earthquake thing and all the prisoners escaped so that all those people could be saved: the Philippian jailer, his household, the whole church getting formed. And they went through all that and then they went back into the prison. So it's kind of funny how God does things. His ways are not our ways. He does things, his thoughts are wiser than our thoughts. And you may not understand why things are happening or not happening. You may be bouncing off this and that in your life, but be of good cheer. God's got a plan and all things work together for good. That's why this story, at least this part, ends happily ever after in Jesus' name. Amen.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador closing another in-depth look into Acts chapter 16 with a very revealing glimpse of God's faithfulness in the midst of suffering in today's word. And Pastor Brett will be closing our time together in prayer in just a moment, so I hope you'll stick around for that. But first, let me tell you a little bit more about Brett Meador. He's the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church, just south of Portland, Oregon. Brett's been the pastor of Athey Creek for 30 years. We invite you to listen each day for his verse-by-verse study through the Bible. If you missed any portion, you can find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. You can also watch full video messages by going to todayswordradio.com. Also, I want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have other locations in the Portland area. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations". Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations". Well, now let's rejoin Pastor Brett Meador with a brief word of prayer.
Brett Meador: Lord, we are thankful for this reminder of how you work. And the things we don't know what's going on, Lord, sometimes they're mysterious to us, but you have a perfect plan. And sometimes it does include suffering and beatings. But I pray that we, like Paul, would be bold and strong and not be weary in well-doing. For in due season, we'll reap a harvest if we faint not. We see that in this story. Help us to be faithful through thick and thin, through the good, the bad, and the ugly. Help us to remain faithful as did Paul and Silas. Help us to remain open to ministering to whoever you put in front of us, Lord. So bless these folks. May they rejoice in what you're doing in their lives, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador closing our time here on today's word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue looking at the Acts of the Apostles in another study of God's word. Today's word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.