Acts 16:16-34

All right. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions This is where every day we get together. We get in the Lord's Word and we Grow our love for the Lord together in this year 2022 we'll make it all the way from the book of Acts to the book of Well, we are at Acts chapter 16, it's really fun story today Why don't we go ahead and have some coffee or tea? We'll pray and we'll get into the Lord's Word. There's no coffee No, we're gonna get a coffee after this Well, it's still hot.
It's still hot. Oh, all right. I forgot my glasses in the other room. That's okay. All right. Here we go. First, starting at verse 16. How about you read this? We'll just do paragraph by paragraph, okay? Okay. So I'll start first.
Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl, possessed by a spirit of divination, met us. who brought her master much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaimed to us the way of salvation, as He did. And she did this for many days. But Paul greatly annoyed turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out of that very hour.
But when her master saw this, that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace with authorities. And they brought them to the magistrates and said, These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city, and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe. Then the multitudes rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
All right. All right. So what happens here? We need to ask ourselves. We'll just do the about part first, and then we'll go to the next part of the story. So what's this part of the story about? There's a girl and she's just telling guesses. She's what? She's telling guesses for money. She's telling guesses? Guesses. Well, no, she's more of what's like a fortune teller.
So she's demon possessed, right? So she has the spirit of Python in her. So this is a weird word. It's not the normal word we would expect, but here it's spirit of divination is what it said, but it's numapithonos, which is spirit of Python. So this is what people thought would be like the spirit of Apollo or something in her, but it's a demon. It would be like she has a demon in her that's controlling.
But when she says, these are servants of the most high God, do you think she's talking about the true God or do you think she's talking about like Zeus or something like that. What do you think? The actual Most High God? I think she's a, I don't, it's possible, but I think she's more likely saying that it's something like Zeus and that's why Paul is annoyed by her.
But it's possible because the demons cry out to Jesus. You're like, ah, like I don't want to, I want them to like somehow get them away from us. Yeah, well, when the man, Legion, he says, the demons inside him cry out, what do you want from us, son of the Most High God? So it's possible that that's what's going on here.
The Greek is a little bit different in these two stories, but either way, is Paul very happy about this? No. No, it says he's greatly annoyed. You know what I did? What? I looked up the Greek for that. You know what it means? What? Greatly annoyed. So it doesn't change anything. No, he's really annoyed by it. So what does he say? Go, go, get out of here. Yeah, get out of here, right? It's called an exorcism. He has the spirit taken out of her. And what does her master do? She's a slave girl, and so what does her master do? He's like, hey, where's the money that I got? Where did it all go? Yeah, and so he takes them to the city center, the Agora, where the marketplace is, and he takes them to the magistrates, and does he say, hey, these guys lost all my money?
No. What does he say? He's like, they make trouble. Not just that. He says, right, these men being Jews, so he's playing on a racial card. No, no. These men being Jews, that's what, that's the problem. He's acting like they're not good Romans. He says they're Jews. They're not good Romans. Exceedingly trouble our city and they teach customs which are not lawful for us being Romans. So he's saying they're Jewish, not Romans.
And do you remember when we were in Chalk and Talk and I was telling you all about Philippi? Yep. It's filled with veterans and it's a really Roman, Roman city. Yep. And so for somebody to be coming in there and kind of undercutting the Roman traditions, is that really good? No. No, they see it like horrible. But for Paul, that's good. Well, not here. What do they do to Paul and Silas? What's so good for Paul and Silas? But what do they do? They get beaten with rods. Yeah, they get beaten with rods and thrown into jail.
Does that sound fun? No. No, that doesn't sound fun at all. This isn't right. They were thrown into jail under a false pretext. The guy was really just mad about his money, but instead he gives this whole silly speech. That's exactly what it... does, they just kind of, even with Jesus, they kind of just like go, like, he did this and he did that, and, oh, here's another reason why he should be in our city. That's right. They just kind of move from out of the way. That's right, they use false pretexts. Yeah. Yeah.
All right, let's go ahead and pick up the story with these last couple paragraphs. I'll let you read the first part, and then I'll read 29 through the end. But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so the foundation of the prison was shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's chains were loosed. and the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, but Paul called out a loud voice, saying, Do not do yourself no harm. We are all here. Okay, so what's going on in that part of the story? Um, he kind of goes like... Well, what are Paul and Silas doing late into the night till like midnight? Praying and singing. Praying and singing? What would any two Jewish guys, what would they be singing when they were in jail?
What do you think? What songs would be in their hearts? I forget what they... Well, what's it say here? Singing? Hymns? Hymns to God. You know what a good Jewish boy would have on his heart? Psalms. I think that they're singing psalms here. There's a whole class category of psalms that are called hymns. And so I think that they would be singing psalms, like maybe they would be singing about God hearing them in their affliction, or maybe they would be singing about Jesus in Psalm 22, or singing about Jesus in Psalm 2, or maybe they would be singing about not putting their trust in earthly princes, but trusting in the Lord.
I think that there's all sorts of psalms that they could be singing until midnight. but anyway so they're singing they're making a loud ruckus everybody's listening to them and what happens they yawn because they're tired but what what what happens does it earthquake yeah what happens to all the doors and chains well the ground got shaken and normally they'd have to be stuck to the ground so they just go Okay, so the door's open, but then the chain's on everybody.
What happens to their chains? Bang. Their chains fall off. And so, what does the jailer assume? Everybody's finally gone. I'm, like, plus, if it's an earthquake, some, I've never thought about this, but if it was an earthquake, you might've also been, like, a, I don't know what this could've also done to my house. Well I think he was more worried about the prisoners escaping.
Yeah. So you want to know what happened in Acts chapter 12? What? Peter was in prison and an angel came and released Peter from prison. Yep. He walked out. You want to know what King Herod did? What? The next day King Herod was trying to find out what happened to Peter. They couldn't find him. You know what he did to the prison guards? What? Killed them all. So this is why Paul says, do yourself no harm. Stop, stop, stop. Don't kill yourself. Don't kill yourself. We're all here.
Then he called for a light, this is a jailer, ran in and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? So they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them that same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household." So he runs in after he hears Paul saying this and he says, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And we don't know exactly what he means by that. We don't know if he's ever heard them preaching or not. But what did they tell him?
Believe. In God? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. What does that mean, you and your household? I think it means... I don't know if it means his wife, his children, or like his dad, his mother, or things. There's always questions. Normally it's talking about the people under you. Yeah, so when I was saved, do you know what the Lord did? What? Has the Lord given me an opportunity to tell my children about Jesus? Yep.
Yeah, that's how the Lord works. when a dad is saved or if it's like Lydia who is also in Philippi and she was saved and she was kind of like the head of her house because she had servants and stuff like that. Guess who they would listen to read the Bible and sing psalms and stuff like that? Lydia. Lydia, yeah. So they would listen to the head of the household.
And so this promise is for them and for their children, for them and their household. And so the jailer, he washes their stripes, he cleans them off and immediately what does Paul do? He baptizes them. Him, just the jailer? His whole household. Him and all of his. That's what the Greek says. Him and all of his. Rejoice. And he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.
It's a pretty cool story, huh? Well, I have a few things underlined here. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. And he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household. I think that's what we're called to do in response to this. I think we are specifically called to rejoice in the Lord. Believe in God and be saved.
You think that's pretty good? Father we thank you so much for this day. We thank you That you can give that you have given us faith in Jesus Christ Thank you that you work in amazing ways We don't know the plan But father you in your right time sent your son to die upon the cross and in our lives at the exact moment of crisis You have brought us to yourself Lord, we pray that we would follow after you, that we would love you. Lord, we pray that we would be filled with faith, a heart of love, walking in your ways. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you have faith in Jesus Christ. May you rejoice, believing in the one who has saved your soul. And we'll see you tomorrow. Wanna say bye? Bye! Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.