at the book Acts Tonight, Acts chapter 16.
Acts chapter 16, and I wanna make sure to say,
while you're finding your way there,
I wanna say on behalf of people
that you may never have the opportunity to meet
on this side of heaven, I wanna say thank you.
I wanna say thank you for giving
so that my family and I can go on your behalf.
Thank you for continuing to give
so that we can go to Scotland
and tell people about Jesus.
We can't do it without you.
Thank you for your share in that.
In Acts chapter 16, Paul and his missionary team,
which at this time includes Silas, Timothy and Luke,
they had wanted to journey into Asia,
but the Holy Spirit wouldn't let them go.
It was not the right time in God's plan
for the gospel to go in there.
So as I'm sure they prayed and sought guidance
on where to proceed next, God sent a vision
to the apostle Paul.
Acts chapter 16, verse nine.
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 he had seen the vision,
immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia,
assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us
to preach the gospel to them.
So Paul and his team, they shift course.
And because they shift course and head to Macedonia,
the gospel enters the continent of Europe
for the very first time.
And what I'd like to do is dive into our text
in Acts 16 a little bit more
and see the effect that the gospel had in Europe.
Acts 16, carrying on in verse 11.
Therefore, loosing from Troas,
we came with a straight course to Samothria
and the next day to Neopolis
and from there, thence to Philippi,
which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia
and a colony.
And we were in that city, abiding certain days.
And on the Sabbath, we went out of the city by a riverside
where prayer was wants to be made.
And we sat down and we spoke under the women
which resorted thither.
And a certain woman named Lydia,
a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira,
which worshiped God, heard us whose heart the Lord opened
that she attended under the things
which were spoken of Paul.
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 as Paul makes his way into Europe for the first time,
he has just received the Macedonian call, all right?
We sing about the Macedonian call
whenever we sing, send the light.
That's what we're singing about.
This is what we're singing about.
This vision God gives him to change course
and head into Europe.
Now, as they arrive in Philippi,
every time they would come to a new area,
their typical strategy was
they would go to the local Jewish synagogue
and they would preach about Christ.
But apparently, Philippi was such a densely Roman city,
they were, there were not even enough Jewish men
to constitute the forming of a synagogue.
So on the Sabbath, they hear about a place
down by the river, which people would go to and pray,
right outside the city.
So Paul and his team essentially come upon
what is basically a women's Bible study.
And that is where they come across the individual
who becomes the first recorded convert in Europe,
a woman named Lydia.
Now, the Bible tells us that Lydia is a seller of purple
from Thyatira.
Now, when it says that she's a seller of purple,
don't picture that Lydia just kinda makes some purple crafts
as kind of a side hustle, right?
And she sets up tables and craft fairs
and she sells some of the things that she has made.
That's not who Lydia was.
We know this because of the price in the value
of purple dyed cloth at this time.
Purple cloth, purple dye was the most expensive
and valuable type of cloth you could find,
which is why it was reserved mainly for royalty.
The text tells us more about Lydia.
It tells us that she's from Thyatira,
but that she has a house in Lydia.
What this also lets us know about Lydia
is that she is more than likely very wealthy.
She's done very well for herself.
I think Lydia in today's term is essentially
the CEO of a fashion empire.
In today's terms, she's the type of woman
that she would have a house in New York City
and in Los Angeles and in Paris, France
and in Finlay, Ohio, you know,
all the capitals of world fashion.
That is where she's gonna have a house, okay?
The text tells us more about Lydia.
The text tells us that she is what the Bible calls
a God-fearer.
This means that she's rejected the pagan practices
of the time and she knows there's something more out there.
At this time in her life,
she seems to want to know more about this God,
but there is no one to teach her.
Again, there are not even enough faithful Jewish men
in her city to open up a synagogue.
Here's what I think about Lydia.
I think Lydia is somebody who saw the world around her.
She is somebody that had as much wealth and success
as a person could have at that time,
but it hadn't brought her peace.
It hadn't brought her peace.
She knew there had to be more to life
than her wealth and success.
She knew there had to be more to just being wealthy
and I think she had probably gone as far as her knowledge
could take her, but it hadn't brought her peace.
She knew something of this God.
She'd at least heard of him,
but nobody was there to fill in the gaps
of what she was missing.
I think Lydia has probably done the best she can
with the knowledge she has,
but she knows she's missing something.
And so she finds herself at a place of prayer
and I would even wonder if she's probably praying
that God could send someone to teach her
and then along comes Paul.
And Paul begins to talk to her in the other's present
and he begins to fill in the gaps of what they're missing.
He explains to them that God gave the law
to reveal to us that we have all fallen short of his glory,
but that atonement was made possible
only through what Jesus Christ did on the cross.
And the Bible tells us that through this conversation
with Paul, God opens her heart
and she commits to become a follower of Jesus Christ.
She found the peace she had been looking for
because that is the effect of the gospel.
The gospel brings peace,
peace that can only come through the power of the gospel.
And so this church in Philippi,
this is how it's first planted
through the conversion of a high society businesswoman
who was looking for peace in her life.
But as we read on, we're gonna see the roots of this church
they get a bit more complex, verses 16 through 18.
And it came to pass as we went to prayer,
a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination,
possessed by a demon she met us.
And she brought her masters much gain
by soothsaying or by fortune telling.
The same girl followed Paul and us and she cried saying,
these men are the servants of the most high God
which show unto us the way of salvation.
And this she did 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 that same hour.
So we've met Lydia already.
This little girl, she stands in stark contrast to Lydia.
I imagine that Lydia is probably a very much in control,
type A personality like most CEOs,
whereas this girl is impoverished,
she's enslaved and she's being exploited.
Lydia is somebody who is out there
intellectually seeking the truth.
This girl is actually walking around proclaiming
the way of salvation,
but she's doing it under demonic control.
I mean, while Paul meets and engages Lydia
in an orderly group meeting,
Paul and this slave girl meet
because she's following him around, screaming her head off,
disrupting everything he's trying to do.
As in control a person as Lydia was,
this girl is as far out of control as a person can be.
Now, every time I've read this text,
I have always wondered why the demon controlling
this girl allow her to follow Paul proclaiming,
these men are the servants of the most high God,
which show unto us a way of salvation.
On the surface that's helpful, right?
That's exactly what they're trying to do.
So why is the demon doing this?
And I think there's multiple reasons.
It could be that they were doing it for hope of gain,
that maybe she thinks Paul would reward her
for her help, for her public proclamation.
She's being helpful.
It could also be that maybe the demon thought
that if this girl walked around saying things
that could help Paul, then maybe Paul
would not expel the demon.
Maybe they thought to discredit Paul,
making people think that he and Silas were working
with unclean spirits themselves to bring confusion
to what they were preaching,
or honestly she could have just been demonically
mocking the gospel.
I even think that it's possible
that in whatever few moments of lucidity
and clear thought a possessed person had,
she was crying out for help.
And this was the only way she could do it.
Now, we read that Paul doesn't cast the demon out right away.
The text says that she had been following them around,
screaming for days, until Paul was grieved
and he cast it out.
Now, when it says grieved, we kind of think,
well he took pity on her.
Actually the word, if you look at the original word,
it means that Paul actually became so annoyed
he cast the demon out of the girl.
What took him so long?
I mean, it's possible maybe he didn't recognize
at first that she was possessed.
Maybe he thought that this girl was just genuinely
trying to help, right?
You probably have all known a person in your life
that it seems like you were the last person
to realize they were a bit crazy, right?
They always seem to try to be helping you
and everybody else knew they were a bit off
but you were the last one to get the message.
How many of you guys have ever known somebody like that?
Okay, how many won't raise your hand
because you're sitting next to him right now?
Okay, yeah, exactly.
For whatever reason it was,
Paul sees the hopelessness in this girl
and he takes pity on her and he frees her
from this demon's power.
Now, when Paul met Lydia, Paul, Lydia was looking for peace.
When Paul meets this girl,
this girl truly is the epitome of hopeless.
What could be more hopeless than her life?
Even if she wasn't possessed by a demon,
she was still a slave.
Her master's user to make money
because this demon allows her to be possessed
allows her to be seen as a fortune teller
and the Bible doesn't tell us this
but I would imagine that if they were willing
to exploit her in that way,
it probably was not the only way they abused her.
She had no hope until Paul showed up with the gospel
because another effect of the gospel
is that the gospel brings hope.
The gospel brings peace and the gospel brings hope.
Now, the power of the gospel,
it allowed Paul to engage Lydia intellectually
to help her find peace.
That same power enabled Paul to engage
this slave girl spiritually to bring her hope.
She needed hope.
Let's read on in verse 19.
And when her master saw that their hope
of their games was gone, they caught Paul and Silas
and they drew them into the marketplace
under the rulers and they brought them
to the magistrates saying,
these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city
and they teach customs which are not lawful
for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans.
And the multitude rose up together against them
and the magistrates rent off their clothes
and commanded to beat them.
And when they had laid many stripes 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 stocks.
Now, of course the owners of this girl,
they're not pleased that they can't make money
off of her anymore.
So they rile up a mob and they have Paul and Silas
brought before the city leaders
who have both of them beaten, whipped,
stripes on their back and that is where we meet
the third person I wanna look at tonight.
We meet the Roman jailer.
Now in verse 23, the magistrates told the jailer
that we want you to keep Paul and Silas secure
or keep them safe.
Basically, I think what they were looking for
is they had taught these troublemakers a lesson.
They were gonna throw them in prison overnight
and let them out the next day.
I think that's kinda what they were thinking about.
However, we read this jailer though
as somebody who takes his job very, very seriously.
The jailer ends up throwing them into the inner prison
which is where you would put the very worst
of the worst offenders.
It would be the super max part of the facility back then.
And if that wasn't enough, he already locks them
in the inner part, the worst of the prison.
If that wasn't enough, he locks their feet in stocks,
literally puts their feet up in stocks
which would really force them to have no choice
but to lean back on their beaten backs, right?
And notice, the jailer isn't told to treat them this way.
He's just told to keep them safe.
But he instead decides to basically torture them
and make their life even more miserable.
So we're not dealing with a very nice man at this moment.
And to be honest, if I were Paul or Silas in this situation,
I would imagine that I would just be totally, totally spent.
I would be emotionally and physically
and spiritually spent.
Their backs are bleeding from this beating they've received.
They're black and blue all over.
And all that they were doing was telling people about Jesus.
And now they find themselves in a maximum security cell
with their feet locked in stocks
all because this jailer takes his job a little too seriously.
But listen, you need to understand this.
Anyone who decides to become active in God's work
in the spread of the gospel is going to take some hits.
You're not always gonna see them coming.
They're very rarely going to come
from who you would expect them to come from,
but they will come.
In some cases, those hits may come physically,
but in most cases, they're gonna come emotionally.
And they'll leave scars and marks that you can't see.
So when your missionary's asking you to pray for them,
we mean it, pray for us.
When your pastor asks you to pray for him and his family,
he means it, pray for them.
So after the beating they've just received
for really doing nothing wrong, Paul and Silas
would have every reason to just lay there in their misery,
but we're gonna read that they do something else.
Verse 25.
And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed
and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them.
Prayer and praise are powerful weapons.
In fact, they may be two of the most powerful weapons
God has given us in this battle he's put us in.
When you find yourself under attack,
remember these weapons, remember prayer,
and remember praise.
And why it's so important for you to face these battles
with prayer and praise is because of the end of verse 25.
As they prayed and sang praises, the prisoners heard them.
They weren't locked in there with the prisoners,
the prisoners were locked in there with them.
People will see how you respond to what the Lord
allows you to go through.
And they will hear and they will see.
So it's important we stay faithful.
Verse 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 bands were loosed.
And the keeper of the prison,
awaking out of his sleep, seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword and he would have killed himself
supposing that the prisoners had all 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 spring in
and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas.
And he brought them out and he 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 they spake unto him the word of the Lord
to all that were in his house.
And he took them the same hour of the night
and washed their stripes and he was baptized.
He in all his straight way.
And when they brought him into the house,
he set meat before them and rejoiced believing in God
with all his house.
This is just one more of the incredible conversion stories
that show the people that this church in Philippi
was made up with.
It's no wonder that years later,
Paul would write a letter back to this church.
We call it the Book of Philippians.
And he would say, I thank my God
upon my every remembrance of you.
These are those remembrances.
He remembers the way the Lord reached Lydia
and the way the Lord saved that slave girl.
He remembers the beatings
and he remembers the way the Lord reached this jailer.
Now this jailer, he's nothing like the other two people
we've looked at.
This is not a guy who's out there looking
for the spiritual side of life.
He's somebody who does his job and he does it well.
And probably like a lot of people today,
he began to identify his life with his job.
His career was his only reason for being.
So when this earthquake starts
and he thinks all the prisoners have fled to his mind,
his career's over so his life is over.
He might as well kill himself.
I mean, to be honest, in Roman times,
if a prisoner were to escape a guard's custody,
that guard was to be given the sentence
of whatever that prisoner had.
So if this guy was in charge of that whole prison
and all those guys had changed and escaped
and some of them had to be capital offenders,
this guard knew he was in for a long, painful death.
So rather than face that, he pulls out his sword
and he gets ready to kill himself.
But as he does that, Paul speaks up
and he tells this man a better purpose for his life
than just his job, a more fulfilling purpose for his life.
He tells him about the gospel.
And we read that the change in this man,
it is almost instant.
As soon as he comes into contact with the gospel,
he is changed because the third effect of the gospel
is that the gospel brings change.
It brings peace, it brings hope, and it brings change.
He goes from torturing these men
to them calling them sirs.
And he asks them, what must I do to be saved?
And then the Bible tells us
that he takes them into his own home
and he begins to clean their wounds.
And we read that the change in this man is so drastic
that the Bible says his entire household
become believers that night.
Now ladies, imagine for just a moment
that you're this guy's husband, right?
Or you're this guy's wife, I should say.
You're this guy's wife and you're upstairs in bed
and in the middle of the night you hear a commotion.
And so you come on downstairs and you walk in
and you see this prison guard husband
cleaning the wounds of two prisoners.
And most likely he's doing it in your kitchen.
And he's probably using the good towels to do it with.
And I didn't even know what good towels were
until I got married.
There's towels you don't use, okay?
I mean, of all the people you don't want them
to bring their work home with them,
a prison warden is pretty high on that list.
But this particular prison warden had been changed.
He had been changed by the power of the gospel.
And because he had been changed,
his eternal destination was changed.
And because he was changed, his family was changed.
So this is how this Philippian church begins
with a fashionista business woman,
a demon possessed slave girl,
and a mean as fire Roman soldier.
You know, probably not your traditional church
planning dream team, but the Holy Spirit of God
works in incredible ways to redeem
even the most unlikeliest of people.
And the thing we need to understand
is that same powerful gospel message
that showed up in Europe that day,
it is the same message we have tonight.
And just like back then, there are people
in your life right now, like Lydia who need peace,
they're only gonna get it from the gospel.
There are people enslaved like that girl who need hope,
and they're only gonna get it from the gospel.
And there are people in your life who need change,
and they're only going to get it from the gospel.
Whose responsibility is it to take the gospel to them?
It's ours.
I'm doing the best I can on your behalf in Scotland,
but I need you to work on my behalf here in Finley,
because that's what God has asked us to do.
Thank you so much for your investment in our ministry.
Pastor Ben.