Latest / HBCWestminster / 7.21.24 Acts 16:16-40 Pastor Danny Gardner

Transcript

7.21.24 Acts 16:16-40 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

0:00
church would you pray with me our heavenly father we thank you for inhabiting our praises
0:07
and we invite your spirit to move in and among us to teach us to love your word
0:13
and to challenge us to live according to it in jesus name amen amen thank you
0:19
what is god willing to endure for the sake of saving souls
0:28
it seems like a relatively obvious question but for the sake of having an answer would you just
0:32
look at isaiah 53 for a moment with me a famous passage for he referring to the coming messiah
0:38
we know jesus christ grew up before him like a young plant like a root out of dry ground he had
0:45
no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him
0:50
he was despised he was rejected by men a man of sorrows he was acquainted with grief and as one
0:57
from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not surely he
1:02
has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by god and afflicted
1:08
but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the
1:14
chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed all we like sheep have gone
1:19
astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all he
1:25
was oppressed he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that has led to the slaughter
1:32
that before his shearers is silent so he opened not his mouth by oppression and judgment he was
1:38
taken away as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living
1:44
stricken for the transgression of my people they made his grave with the wicked and with a
1:49
rich man in his death although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth
1:54
yet it was the will of the lord to crush him he has put him to grief when his soul makes an
2:00
an offering for guilt. He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord
2:04
shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied. By his
2:10
knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall
2:15
bear their iniquities. Well, what is God willing to endure for the sake of saving souls? All of that.
2:24
To be beaten, to be crucified, to be mocked, to be spat upon, to become sin for sinners' sakes,
2:32
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. He was willing to endure the wrath
2:37
of God himself in order for our souls to be redeemed. Well, that's what God is willing
2:46
to endure. What are you willing to endure for the sake of saving souls?
2:52
We often describe our church as a spiritual family, and indeed it is. I had breakfast recently
2:58
with a young father from our church who was just rejoicing with me at the depth of friendships that
3:02
he and his wife enjoy because of the church. At one point he said, I just genuinely don't know
3:07
how people live without it. And honestly, I completely agree. One of my favorite things
3:12
about our church family is the lengths they are willing to go to in order for people to be loved
3:17
and to hear the good news. This church has been generous beyond all of us. It's been generous
3:22
beyond measure, sacrificing financially so that churches can be planted and so that missionaries
3:28
can be sent. But not only have you all sacrificed in big things, you've also sacrificed in a thousand
3:36
small ways. You're willing to do the small things which can also help to communicate the good news.
3:43
For instance, I was recently outsmarted by a four-year-old. You guys know I'm teaching
3:49
cubbies on Wednesday nights. Cubbies is the four-year-olds for
3:52
Moana. And so I and my son, Pearson, and his new wife, Grace, the three of us have the cubbies
3:57
for the summer. They are all four years old and they love it. You guys, I love it. It's so fun.
4:03
We sing, we do puppet shows, we do crafts, we do games, we do story time. We do all of these things
4:08
with the four-year-olds. They love the puppet show. We've got this little makeshift kind of
4:12
the puppet theater thing. And we've got Cubby Bear up there talking to Katie Colley and Lovey Lamb
4:18
and all of them. And you're doing this whole thing, talking to the kids about how Jesus loves them.
4:22
And I thought it would be really cool if they could meet the real Cubby Bear.
4:28
And so I thought somebody has got to have made a man-sized costume of this thing. And indeed,
4:33
they have. However, it costs hundreds and hundreds of dollars. And I was like, I am not spending that
4:39
on Cubby Bear costumes. So I went on Amazon for 28 bucks. I ordered a man-sized bear costume.
4:47
And then I asked a lady here from our church who is incredibly skilled at crafting and
4:52
sewing and other things. I said, can you make me a man-sized cubby vest? Because they wear these
4:56
little blue vests, you know. Can you make me a man-sized one? And I'm going to dress as Cubby Bear
5:01
with the man-sized vest. And I'm going to go in there. I'm going to tell them Jesus loves them
5:04
and all that stuff. So I did it the first week. About a month ago, I walked in. You guys, they
5:08
thought it was real. They thought actual Cubby Bear is here. They're giving me hugs. They're doing all
5:15
this. Cubby, it's so good to see you. They had all these questions for me. Where do I sleep? And where
5:20
do I live? And so I said, well, I live at the church.
5:22
I sleep in Pastor Danny's office. That's where I told them, because that's where the costume is
5:26
packed. You know, it's in there. It's in that bag thing. And so I'm talking to them. They had so
5:31
much fun, all except for two little girls who are really, really smart and probably too smart for
5:37
their own good. And one of them is particular. I left. I was in there for 10 minutes singing
5:41
songs. I come back dressed again as Pastor Danny. And she's kind of looking at me quizzically. And
5:45
she said, it was you. I was like, I don't know what you're talking about.
5:52
And she said, you were the only one not in here. It was you. And then she said, and next week,
5:59
I'll bet it will be Pearson. And you guys, we had totally figured out, like, we're going to just,
6:04
you know, kind of trade through. And so I was like, I don't know. She's smarter than me. What
6:08
do I do? And so I did the only thing I could think of to do. I texted her dad. And I said,
6:13
listen, I need you to do me a favor. He says, yeah, no problem. I need you to dress as Cubby
6:17
Bear and come into your daughter's classroom next week. And he said, I'd love to.
6:22
So a couple of Wednesdays ago, he comes in, right? And I had it planned. It was just me and
6:27
Grace in the room. We're leaving the songs. And then Cubby Bear comes in. And so his daughter
6:31
thought, see, I told you it's Pearson. And then a minute later, Pearson came in, right? And so
6:37
she's looking at all of us. You guys, it took her 30 seconds. It took her 30 seconds. And she goes,
6:42
that's my dad. I thought, how did you know that? I mean, it was impossible. How did you know?
6:48
And so I did the only next thing I could think of. I texted somebody else's dad.
6:52
And I said, I need you to do me a favor. I need you to dress up as Cubby Bear. And so he did.
6:57
You know, there we are, Cubby Bear. And so we're just cycling through all of the dads trying to
7:01
trick these kids, right? And not thinking it's their own parent dressed as Cubby Bear. I love
7:07
the reactions that I've gotten from all the dads has been anything. What do you need? Yeah,
7:11
absolutely. Anything, even in small things. I'm willing to dress as a human bear. That's kind of
7:17
a weird thing, right? Because I do want these kids to understand the truth. And I want them
7:22
to understand the gospel. Now, God is obviously willing to endure whatever it takes for the news
7:25
to get out. I am convinced our people are willing to do whatever it takes for souls to be saved.
7:31
But here's a little wrinkle that I only rarely think about. Have you ever wondered what God
7:36
is willing to allow me to endure in order to get the good news out? What is God willing to allow me
7:46
to suffer in order for souls to be saved? Is it possible that God is willing to allow us to
7:53
suffer in order to advance his own kingdom? And what if, and honestly, until this text, I don't
7:59
know that I'd ever even really considered this. What if our own suffering, our personal suffering
8:04
isn't necessarily even for us? We're confronted in this morning's passage with the truth that we
8:12
don't always see the full picture, that there might be things happening around us behind the
8:17
scenes that we're not privy to, that we may assume that we're here for one thing only to discover to
8:23
may that God had another plan all along and that God's plans really are bigger and better than our
8:28
own. In this morning's text, the apostles are imprisoned, they are beaten, they are ridiculed,
8:35
and yet through all of that they offer praise to the Lord in the middle of the night
8:39
while chained to the wall? That makes no sense to me. I don't know what you've suffered, and we've
8:51
all suffered to varying degrees and for varying lengths of time in our lives.
8:57
But do you want the kind of faith, or have you ever considered, been struck by this text,
9:01
which says, in the midst of suffering, as they were forgotten about in the deepest, darkest hole
9:06
and chained to a wall, that they began singing hymns at midnight? Do you want the kind of faith
9:12
that sings through suffering? I do. And why could they do that? And I've got an answer,
9:21
I think. It was because they knew that God would use their suffering for his ultimate purpose.
9:27
Of saving souls. But the truth is, I forget so quickly why I'm here. And I forget what the pain
9:34
is for. I just pray and ask God to take it away. I forget that he might be using that pain to
9:39
accomplish his own end. And what the suffering is for. And that even my suffering, which nobody
9:45
else even sees at times, might not be about me. But is being used by God either to stretch and
9:52
grow my own faith, or to get his messengers where they need to be. What is the pain? And I forget
9:57
if we suffer just for God to get us to move. I so appreciate the prayers and well-wishing you
10:05
have given me the last three weeks as I've recovered from surgery. I shared with you a
10:08
month ago that I had gallstones, which I don't recommend. They're horrible. Had my gallbladder
10:15
removed three weeks ago tomorrow. And my pre-surgery nurse was an interesting gal.
10:22
I went in there for about an hour. She was getting me ready to have surgery. She was about 10 years
10:27
old. She was getting me ready to have surgery. She was getting me ready to have surgery. She was
10:27
a senior. She had clearly been nursing for a long time because she was not embarrassed about
10:31
anything. The first question she had for me, Danny, do you get easily embarrassed? And I said,
10:37
no. She said, good. And then grabbed some clippers. Okay, what are we about to do? And for an hour,
10:44
she prepped me for surgery. And she talked the entire time. She did not stop talking,
10:50
even to breathe. I mean, it was just this steady stream of words coming out of her mouth. It was
10:55
nice because I didn't really have to say anything. I was just, I was just, I was just, I was just
10:57
having a conversation with herself. And at one point, she asked me all of those questions. Do you
11:02
drink? Do you smoke? Do you do drugs? Do you do all of these things? And I said, no, I don't do any of
11:05
those things. And she said, what do you do? And I said, well, I'm the pastor of a church here in
11:12
town. Now, when people figure that out about me, conversations always change invariably.
11:17
Several things happen. Either they'll say, really, I'm also a believer, and we talk about the Lord.
11:22
Or they'll say, I'm so sorry for the language I've been using, as if it was an offense to me.
11:28
Or, like this gal, she just said, as soon as I said that I'm a pastor of a church here in town,
11:33
this is a real conversation, happened three weeks ago. She just said, I try to be good.
11:38
And I said, I know. She said, but I'm not very good at it. And I said, me neither. I said,
11:45
that's why God sent his son. And she said, I know. And I said, okay, good. And then the shaving
11:52
commenced. You know, at times, the Lord uses even our selfishness to do good. And I said,
11:59
I'm convinced, to advance the gospel's spread. He uses our suffering for the good of others.
12:07
And this is the story the book of Acts tells. It chronicles the acts of the resurrected and
12:12
ascended Lord Jesus Christ. It chronicles the acts of the apostles, the apostle Peter in the
12:17
first half, and then Paul in the second. But it also chronicles the acts of the non-apostles,
12:24
ordinary, everyday people like you and I, doing ordinary, everyday things,
12:28
gossiping the gospel. And I said, I'm not very good at it. And he said, I'm not very good at it.
12:30
And if you're taking notes, the message this morning has three simple points
12:34
in the form of crimes committed. Crime number one, we're going to call disturbing the purse.
12:41
Crime number two, disturbing the peace. And then crime number three, disturbing the prison. And
12:47
we're going to read about how these supposed crimes and the punishment which followed
12:51
were used by God to get the gospel into the heart of the least likely person on earth,
12:57
a demon-possessed, fortune-telling, and a devil-possessed person. And we're going to read
12:59
about how these supposed crimes and the punishment which followed were used by God to get the gospel
13:03
into the least likely place on earth, the basement of a dungeon of a prison where there was a jailer
13:12
chained to prisoners who never would have heard the gospel otherwise. And so let's look at those
13:18
three points. Crime number one, disturbing the purse. And we're actually going to back up a
13:22
couple of verses just to make sure we understand the context of what we're reading. Go back to
13:27
verse 14.
13:29
It says,
13:30
One who heard, that is the gospel message from the apostle Paul and the others, his traveling
13:34
companions. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of
13:40
purple goods, a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by
13:45
Paul. And after she was baptized, her household as well, she urged us saying, if you have judged
13:51
me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us. And what
13:56
we're going to see juxtaposed, butted up against each other, and she prevailed upon us. And what
13:59
we're going to see juxtaposed, butted up against each other, one verse after the next are the
14:01
stories of two women. One we read here was Lydia, a seller of purple goods, originally from
14:07
Thyatira, but who had migrated with her family to Philippi. The fact that she traded and dealt
14:13
in the color purple is significant because of how highly valued purple dye was in the ancient
14:18
world. At that time, the only source of the color purple was an extract from a particular shellfish
14:26
and huge quantities of these shellfish,
14:29
were required in order to produce a very small amount of dye. This is why the color purple became
14:36
associated with royalty. Only kings could afford it. And so we can deduce, therefore, that Lydia
14:42
hobnobbed with the royals. She was wealthy. She had powerful friends. She was like an ancient
14:49
jet setter. She was an influencer. She was Philippi's ancient fashionista, okay? The second
14:58
woman,
14:59
was exactly the opposite. She was a young demon-possessed slave girl. And look at verse 16.
15:05
It says, as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of
15:11
divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. The English text says she had a
15:18
spirit of divination, but in the Greek, it says she had a pneuma, spirit, pythones, or the spirit
15:26
of pythian. Now, we've all heard of the Greek,
15:29
God Apollo. Apollo had a temple in Delphi, another ancient Greek city, where his high priestess would
15:36
lead worship in his name. This high priestess was called his pythones, whose manifestation,
15:42
it was believed, took the form of a serpent. And this is even where we get the English word
15:46
python from. She had the spirit of python, spirit of this ancient serpent. And this young slave
15:54
girl had the same pythones spirit. She was being controlled and,
15:59
manipulated on every front. She was possessed by this serpent demon. She was involuntarily used
16:06
to speak his messages. And then those messages were being sold to the highest bidders. She was
16:12
being exploited for money on every front, for money. Her suffering was being used by others
16:18
for sordid gain. Now, these two women's lives, Lydia's and then this demon-possessed slave girl,
16:25
were both transformed by the same
16:29
gospel.
16:29
Gospel power. I think it's possible that the author Luke even sets these two stories side by side,
16:37
one verse after the next, in order to show the diversity of the gospel's impact.
16:42
It does not matter who you are. It doesn't matter where you came from. It doesn't matter what you've
16:49
done. It does not matter your family heritage or lineage. The gospel is for you.
16:57
It's for you.
17:00
Sitting here this morning, not for somebody else who's sitting out there. The gospel is
17:04
for you. You can be saved. You can be rescued. You can be forgiven of your sin. You can be
17:12
redeemed today. Today, by simply confessing and repenting of your sin. By asking forgiveness in
17:21
Jesus' name. By reprioritizing your life with Him as Lord. And maybe you've heard that message from
17:28
me a lot of times because I say it that way a lot. I say that same thing. The gospel is for you,
17:34
and it doesn't matter where you're from, and it doesn't matter who you are, and it doesn't matter
17:37
who your family is. I say it the same way. I've said it a dozen times since we've been studying
17:40
Acts, and maybe you've heard that message over and over and over, and you wonder, well, does that
17:46
ever work? Do people ever, as they're sitting here, and I've sat here for years, do people ever sit
17:53
here for years and then hear the gospel and get saved after hearing the same gospel over and over
17:57
and over for years? Does that ever happen? Yes, it does happen. In fact, it happened in the lives
18:06
of one of our young men just a week and a half ago who's here with us this morning, who's going
18:10
to be baptized at the end of our service today. He'd been in the church for years. He'd been in
18:15
our church for years. He'd served in our youth ministry before the Lord finally clicked on the
18:20
lights, and he saw the truth of the gospel. He could have made a profession of faith, but he
18:25
didn't truly understand the gospel, and it didn't actually penetrate his heart
18:28
until he saw the truth of the gospel. He didn't truly understand the gospel, and it didn't actually
18:28
penetrate his heart until just recently when the Lord turned on the lights, and he was born again.
18:34
And so I would encourage you, yes, the Lord does work in the lives of his people, and even those
18:39
who have heard the same message over and over and over and then realize, wait, I don't think I
18:44
believe. I don't think I actually know the Lord. The Lord is still at work, and you can be saved
18:49
by the power of Jesus' name even this morning. And notice what happens to this young lady.
18:56
It says, verse 17, she followed Paul and us, crying out,
19:00
These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation. And
19:04
her message, although accurate, was one which actually mocked the truth. And you may think,
19:08
well, why wouldn't the apostle just use her testimony to get the people's attention?
19:14
Well, it's because her intention was not to give glory to God. It was rather to steal his glory
19:20
for her owners. And so look what Paul does in verse 18. She kept doing this for many days.
19:25
Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, I command you,
19:30
in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. And it came out that very hour, silence, he said.
19:37
Now, you may have noticed that it says he became greatly annoyed. You know, that's kind of mean.
19:44
Like, why would he be annoyed at this girl? She was truly a victim. Notice he wasn't annoyed at
19:49
the girl. He didn't turn and rebuke the girl. Read it again. He turned and rebuked who? The Spirit.
20:00
The same ancient serpent who had been deceiving our forefathers for so many centuries before.
20:07
He turned and told the Spirit of the python, you're done. Silence. And since the Garden of Eden,
20:15
the best strategy against that serpent is to command him to keep his mouth shut.
20:21
His words are seductive. They sound so close to the truth. And yet his intention is our destruction.
20:27
And no sooner had the words left Paul's mouth,
20:30
then the serpent demon was vanquished. You see again in verse 18, it came out
20:35
that very hour. And this leads us to crime number two. We're going to call it disturbing the peace.
20:40
And there's an interesting word connection between verses 18 and 19.
20:45
The Greek word exalthane means gone, vanished, vanquished. It's translated in verse 18 as it,
20:53
the demon, came out that very hour. It was gone. And then the same exact word exalthane is used
21:00
in verse 19. It says, but when her owners saw that their hope of gain was what? Gone. They seized
21:10
Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace. The moment the demon left, so did their
21:17
source of income. The demon was gone, which we rejoice over. But their response to this good deed
21:27
done is unusual.
21:31
Right? Her connection to the spirit world had gone up in smoke. Her ability to predict the future
21:36
was vanquished along with the torture that she was suffering. And yet rather than rejoicing that
21:42
this young girl was liberated from the demon, instead they were furious. It says they dragged
21:48
them before the rulers, verse 20. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, the ruling
21:53
council, the legal ruling council of that city, they said, these men are Jews. That's an interesting
21:58
accusation. I think they honestly thought, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know,
22:00
that that's all they would need. Why should we put them in jail? Well, they're Jews after all.
22:06
Right? They are vagabonds from another place. They don't belong here. They're disturbing our city.
22:13
And what they're going to be accused of is actually calling Roman citizens to defect.
22:19
Stop your allegiance to Rome and start your allegiance to Judaism. That's what they're
22:24
going to be accused of. And yet look at what they were actually guilty of. They weren't guilty of
22:29
any of that.
22:30
It says they advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.
22:35
That's not actually true. They were calling them to realign their faith, but they never called
22:40
them out of the Roman empire. In fact, consider for a moment the Savior that we know and love
22:47
and trust, the words of whom we follow. Did Christ give us the freedom to stop paying our taxes?
22:59
Boy, I wish he had. Right? I mean,
23:03
I'd stop today. I'd stop. I just wouldn't pay him anymore. I don't even agree with most of the
23:09
things that they're being used for. So no, I wouldn't pay anymore. And yet the Lord Jesus
23:14
Christ himself said, no, you must be upstanding citizens in whatever empire you live under.
23:21
And so if they demand their taxes, give it to them. Then the apostle's like, why would I give
23:25
it to him? And he says, whose face is on there? Well, it's the emperor's face. It belongs to him
23:29
and he wants it back. It's got his face on it.
23:34
After all, he was never your provider anyway. Whatever you were going to buy with that was
23:41
nominal. The Lord is your provider. The Lord cares for you. And listen, friends, if he will provide
23:47
for the birds, certainly he'll provide for you. Right? We don't have to stop paying our taxes in
23:53
order to pay for our whatever else we need. The Lord has always been our provider. The Lord is
23:58
always the one who has given us what we need. And so Jesus says, if the emperor wants it back,
24:02
it's got his face on it.
24:03
Give it back to him. And so when Paul and Silas come in, they're not advocating some custom
24:08
that was not lawful for Roman citizens to practice. That's not true. Yet it's what they're
24:12
being accused of. In verse 22, the crowd joined in attacking them. So you can imagine this
24:17
riotous mob being stirred up. The magistrates tore the garments off of them, gave orders to
24:23
beat them with rods. So they were stripped and beaten. When they had inflicted many blows upon
24:28
them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. That's safely,
24:33
is a funny word. You've just beaten the tar out of them. And then you hand them to the jailer and
24:41
say, you know, keep them safe. Like now safe, safe left the train station a while back, right?
24:47
The reality is he wasn't to keep them safe. He was to keep them in chains,
24:51
make sure they don't escape. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison,
24:56
the prison of prisons. Like you think of the temple had a holy of holies. This is the innermost,
25:02
the dungeon of dungeons, the deepest cell in the sewage of the prison and fastened their feet
25:12
in the stocks. That was also no great treat. Ancient Roman stocks were horrible.
25:19
We think of stocks as kind of those medieval things, you know, the two pieces of wood,
25:23
your head, your hands go through, but their stocks had more than two holes for legs.
25:28
Prisoners could be bent and contorted in such ways. And then,
25:32
locked in order to make them the most uncomfortable. So it wasn't just your standing
25:38
there. It's like your leg was twisted and locked up there and your other leg down there. It's like
25:42
playing twister and then getting frozen. The only care the jailer would take is to ensure that they
25:48
wouldn't escape. He actually cared nothing at all for their pain, for their discomfort. And in that
25:54
moment, Paul and Silas could have, maybe even should have lifted their eyes to heaven and
26:00
questioned the goodness and sovereignty of God.
26:02
To be perfectly honest, I would have been tempted to do so. Can you imagine? Beaten up,
26:12
naked, laying down there in the sewer and then twisted and frozen into these stocks.
26:18
I would have had some complaints against the Lord. After all, they were on a missions trip.
26:25
Lord, you called us to go on this missions trip. And now we end up here. Are you really in control?
26:31
Are you watching?
26:32
Are you paying attention to what's going on? Those would have been the things in my mind. Those would
26:36
have been the complaints that I was lobbing heavenward. I don't know about you, but that's
26:42
not at all what was in their hearts. They have an unbelievable response. We're going to call this
26:47
crime number three, disturbing the prison. Look at verse 25. About midnight, Paul and Silas were
26:52
praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them. It wasn't anything like
26:58
my response. Why would you allow me to be beaten? Why would you allow me to suffer instead?
27:02
They're singing. Now, I don't know what sounds you imagine coming out of the mouths of those
27:07
prisoners in the dark, moldy jail cell of pain and suffering, but I'll bet they did not often sing,
27:13
let alone sing praise and worship of songs, songs of rejoicing. Never.
27:20
You know, anyone can sing, I think, while standing in the sunshine,
27:24
when the band plays and the crowd cheers. How do you sing after being so horribly treated? How do
27:32
you sing?
27:32
How do you sing in a dungeon? How do you sing in the midst of failure? How do you sing while
27:38
grieving? How do you sing while suffering? The answer is to remember that God never wastes
27:48
our suffering. It always serves his purpose. It was the ancient theologian Tertullian who said,
27:57
the legs feel nothing in the stocks when the heart is in heaven. Let me say that again. The
28:04
legs feel nothing in the stocks when the heart is in heaven. And that is true. Despite their legs
28:10
being in the stocks, Paul and Silas' hearts were in heaven, and from their mouths came heaven's
28:15
praises. If you genuinely believe in the sovereign grace of God, which we do, we proclaim it,
28:23
we sing about it every Sunday, then you can rest assured that every circumstance you may find
28:29
yourself in, and especially the ones you have no control over, all of those circumstances have
28:35
come from God, and they are designed by God to either create something new in you or to prod you
28:43
to get you where you need to be. This is why Paul and Silas could sing in the middle of the night in
28:51
the deepest, darkest jail cell. What has been bouncing around in my brain the last few days is
28:57
Paul's testimony of suffering in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, where he says this, to keep me from
29:03
becoming conceited,
29:05
because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations. Chapter 11 is him being taken up
29:11
to heaven, right? You remember that? He says, whether it was in the body or in the spirit,
29:15
I don't know, but I got to see heaven, okay? And so he says, instead of, to keep me from becoming
29:21
conceited, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me. I believe it was
29:28
probably gallstones, okay? That's, I think, what Paul suffered from, because I'm telling you,
29:33
if you've had those things and they move,
29:35
it feels like you ate a demon. That's what it feels like. He was like, do anything, do whatever
29:39
you have to do to make this stop. And he says, to keep me from becoming conceited, three times I
29:44
pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. You can imagine him on his knees pleading
29:50
with heaven, take it away. Whatever he was enduring, he is begging God to take it. I don't
29:58
want it anymore. This hurts. So please take it away. But the Lord answered me, my grace is
30:04
sufficient. I don't want it anymore. This hurts. So please take it away. But the Lord answered me, my grace is sufficient.
30:05
What an interesting response. He doesn't say, I'll take it away. He doesn't say, I'll relieve the
30:10
suffering. Instead, he says, I will give you the grace to sustain you. The suffering is doing
30:17
something in you, Paul. And so I'm going to give you my grace. My power, he said, was made perfect
30:23
in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of
30:30
Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I'm content with weakness.
30:37
Insult, hardships, persecutions, calamities. Can you imagine him just saying, bring it on?
30:43
Bring it on. For when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. Because the Lord is with me. When I'm weak,
30:51
I'm forced to my knees. When I'm weak, I'm begged to look, I'm forced to look heavenward and beg for
30:56
his assistance when I'm about to drown. That's when I look up. And so he's like, the Lord's just
31:03
keeping me in this perpetual state of weakness. And so he's like, the Lord's just keeping me in this
31:05
of my lips and my nose barely above the water. And if the Lord doesn't show up, then I'm going
31:09
to drown. But listen, that's where he wants you. I'll keep you in that perpetual state of need so
31:15
you don't forget how badly you need me. I was confronted with that three weeks ago. Did the
31:23
Lord give me gallstones so that I would end up in the innermost sanctum of that hospital talking
31:32
to a woman for 20 seconds who needed the gospel?
31:35
What if those gallstones were just for that? Even if that was the case, worth it. Worth it.
31:42
And that's exactly what's going to happen now. The gospel is going to find its way down to a jailer
31:47
who only rarely ever saw the light of day. He'd never committed a crime, and yet he lived in a
31:53
prison chained to prisoners. He was treated as if he'd had, and that's exactly what we see. Notice
32:00
what happens. They're all singing. The prisoners are listening. Verse 26, and suddenly there was a
32:04
great earthquake.
32:05
Notice the word great. This was not just a little tremor where you look around and think,
32:09
oh, the chandelier is kind of swaying. You know, that's kind of weird. I wonder if we had an
32:12
earthquake. This was a violent earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.
32:18
And then notice, all of the prison security measures work in reverse. All the doors opened.
32:25
Everyone's bonds were unfastened. So all of the shackles of all of the prisoners,
32:30
it wasn't just Paul and Silas, suddenly all fell off and all their doors swung open.
32:35
What should happen? They should all leave. Like roaches, when the lights turn on, they should
32:41
scatter. What did happen, verse 27, the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open.
32:46
He didn't even bother to check the cells. Why? They're gone, right? But he said, oh, the main gate
32:54
is open. And so he drew his sword to kill himself. The penalty for losing the prisoners was death.
33:02
So he thought, I'll just beat the executioner to it.
33:05
At least I'll die on my terms. But Paul cried with a loud voice. He stopped him.
33:11
Paul intervened. It's interesting that the prisoners were all still there. The Bible never
33:16
says why they didn't escape. I don't know if they were so afraid of the earthquake. I don't know if
33:21
they were so afraid of Paul and Silas. I think that had something to do with it. I think maybe
33:26
there was a conversation. Everybody's chains fall off. They're getting ready to run. And Paul says,
33:29
where are you going? This isn't about you. Go sit back down.
33:35
And they all go sit back down and just wait for what comes next. So he goes to the jailer and he
33:40
says, do not harm yourself for we're all here. The jailer calls for the lights to be turned on,
33:47
torches to be brought. They rushed in and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas.
33:53
Why? Because all the prisoners were still there. What are you still doing here? And he asked him
33:57
in verse 30, the most important question humankind can ever ask. Here it is. What must I do?
34:05
To be saved. There is no greater question in all of humanity. There will be no greater question
34:11
you will ever wrestle with or grapple with your entire life than that one. What must I do to be
34:16
saved? And if you have never wrestled with that question before, if you're still sitting here
34:20
thinking, I'm not sure if I'm saved or not, then grapple with that question today. Don't leave
34:25
without an answer. I love the apostle's response because he boils the gospel down into its purest,
34:32
simplest form. No extras,
34:35
no flim flam, no lecture, no fat, no religion, no extra words, no sacraments. Notice he doesn't
34:42
even mention the church. He says nothing like that. Instead, he just simply says,
34:48
believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. What must I do to be saved?
34:58
Do. You don't do anything. Have faith. And not only did this man believe,
35:05
his entire household believed and was saved and was baptized. Verse 32, they spoke the word of the
35:11
Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed
35:16
their wounds. Now he's keeping them safe. It's kind of funny. He was baptized at once. He and
35:22
all his family brought them up into his house, set food before them. And he rejoiced along with
35:27
his entire household that he had believed in God. What a legacy this man left. The gospel would
35:34
reverberate.
35:36
For generations. Now the resolution to the story is quite simple. It simply describes what happens
35:44
after it's discovered that none of the prisoners left. It says, when it was day, the magistrates
35:49
sent the police saying, let those men go. The jailer reported these words to Paul saying,
35:55
the magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore, come out now and go in peace. You can imagine him
35:59
being like, hey, go run, you know, before they change their mind, run, leave. But Paul doesn't
36:04
have any of it. He said to them, they have beaten us publicly. Uncondemned men who are Roman
36:09
citizens. They've thrown us into prison. Do they now throw us out secretly? Are they hoping to
36:14
cover up their mistake that nobody will notice? Just get rid of us? No. Tell them to come down
36:20
here and let us go. Which is exactly what they do with apologies. I might add, they took them out
36:27
and asked them to leave the city. And they went out of the prison and visited Lydia, the woman
36:31
they had known before. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them,
36:34
and departed. And the text could easily include, although it does not state explicitly,
36:40
the text could easily say, they planted a church. That church grew in breadth and depth and gave
36:47
glory to God. And we can deduce that is exactly what happened, even though that's not what is
36:52
said. How do we know that a church was planted there? Because if you go to the right, about 30
36:58
pages, you have the book of Philippians. It was written to that church that was planted. And
37:03
consider this for a moment, friends. Who planted the church? It was the church of Philippians.
37:04
Who planted it? Who were the founding members of the church at Philippi? Do you ever think about
37:10
this? Who were the charter members? Who were the ones who signed the first constitution,
37:16
ratifying it, and putting it into effect? Who were they? There was a woman named Lydia,
37:21
a wealthy, jet-setting fashionista, who hobnobbed with royals, and yet when she was saved,
37:27
changed her priorities, used her wealth for the advancement of the kingdom. There is an unnamed
37:33
Pythoness girl.
37:36
She was redeemed out of demon possession and suffering and torture. And yet was called out
37:43
of that and into God's glorious light. And then there was a Philippian jailer. And I would have
37:47
loved to have heard his testimony. Can you imagine? He wants to become a member at your church.
37:53
And you say, okay, great. Fill out this membership application. And he gets like nine lines to fill
37:57
out his testimony. He's like, I was a jailer in the hole in the ground. I was chained to these
38:04
guys all the time. Very rarely.
38:06
Saw the light. And then this guy showed up, I guess, and started singing in the middle of the
38:11
night. And then there was an earthquake. And then everybody's gates opened and the chains fell off,
38:15
but nobody left. And then I was like, what am I supposed to do to be saved? And then they told me,
38:19
and then they left. And now I'm here. Like, well, I guess you can join. Okay. I mean,
38:28
what a testimony. Consider this for a moment. Those three, and I think they were the charter
38:31
members of the church. What a weird trio.
38:36
Only in the church and only in the diversity of the gospel that the gospel brings can we have
38:41
people sitting next to each other from such wild backgrounds. What a beautiful thing it is.
38:47
You know, Paul and Silas were willing to suffer for the sake of saving souls.
38:51
And don't forget, church, their suffering was not meaningless. Why could they sing
38:55
in suffering? And why can you and I sing in suffering? And the answer is because the Lord
39:00
never wastes it. It will develop something in you. Humility, faith, strength, compassion,
39:06
for others. It will also get you to where you need to be in the pre-surgery room, talking to the lady
39:11
who's holding the clippers about the good news. Why you don't have to try to be good enough.
39:17
It's not going to work. I can't be good enough either. And so we can sing. And even in the
39:23
darkest dungeon. Come on, let me pray. Lord, thank you for the good news. Thank you, Lord,
39:28
for this good news. Thank you, God, for the example and the faithfulness and the testimonies
39:32
of such faithful people. And Lord, we look forward to meeting them someday.
39:36
And until that day, would you make us faithful as well? Lord, would you give us the grace and
39:40
strength to sing through suffering in Jesus' name? Amen.