God’s Open Door

Rev. Mark C. Alvis, Union Congregational Church — Epiphany VI, February 11, 2007

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After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved— you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God — he and his whole family.

When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”

But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”

The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them. Then they left (Acts 16:10-40 NIV).

I grew up in McFarland, a small, farm town in central California. There are things about farm life that will always be appealing to me. Nevertheless, I have no illusions about small towns and farm life being pure and unspotted. Some of the teenagers I grew up with were meaner than junkyard dogs, and acted like dogs in other ways as well. One of the worst of the lot was a very good friend of my oldest brother. After I was grown and married I had returned to McFarland to attend the funeral of one of my high school teachers and saw my brother’s friend at the service. He knew that I had gone to seminary and had been a pastor for about 15 years. As we spoke together he said something that both shocked me and touched me. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Mark, why don’t you come back to McFarland and help us.” This was a man who saw me grow up, and therefore knew I was no genius or miracle worker. But he could see what Jesus had done in my life and he knew our hometown needed it. There are people in North Aurora who are just as desperate for help.

Last week in Acts 16:9, the Apostle Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” This morning we are going to look at the results of Paul’s obedience to that vision. Please follow as I read Acts 16:10-15:

After Paul had seen the vision, we [Luke had joined the team] got ready at once to leave for Macedonia [Greece], concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day on to Neapolis. From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer [a Jewish gathering]. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message [Whenever anyone responds to the gospel, it means that God has already done a supernatural work in their lives]. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

Luke tells us that Philippi was a Roman colony and the leading city of that area. Being a Roman colony meant the inhabitants of Philippi did not have to pay taxes to Rome and their elected officials reported directly to the Emperor and not lessor authorities. This was a tremendous advantage that Philippi did not want to lose. If the civil leaders of Philippi were not able to keep order or if their loyalty to the emperor came into question, the privileged status of that city would be gone in a heartbeat.

This may explain why the Jewish population of Philippi was quite small. The Jews were the oddballs of the Roman Empire because of their belief in one God. Added to that was the fact that Messianic hope was running high among the Jews, which fueled their desire to be independent of Rome. In other words, the relationship between Rome and the Jews was strained. Because Philippi was a Roman colony, it was not an easy place for Jews to live. According to Jewish law, if a city did not have a synagogue, which required a minimum of ten men, then a place of prayer was to be established under the sky and near a river or body of water. This is why Paul went out to the river to look for Jews on the Sabbath day. That is where he met a small gathering of women. From this very small beginning came the church at Philippi, which grew into a wonderful congregation of believers.

Luke tells us in verses 14-15 that after Lydia believed she and the members of her household were baptized, which is the outward, visible sign of being a part of God’s New Covenant family. Lydia’s household would include her biological children and her servants. The indications are that Lydia was wealthy and had numerous servants. She owned a house in Philippi, in addition to her primary residence in Thyatira. Even her secondary home was big enough to accommodate all of her household plus Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke.

The outward sign of being a part of the Old Covenant was circumcision. When God commanded Abraham to be circumcised, he also commanded all the male members of his household to be circumcised with him; all who were eight days old and above. Abraham had many more servants than he had children. This may have been true of Lydia as well. What we know for certain is that all of her household was baptized.

Were all of them adults who were baptized upon their profession of faith in Christ, or were there infants and small children as well? Christians have divided over this issue and denominations have formed because of it. But let me ask you this morning, are you a follower of Christ? Have you been baptized? If not, why not? Christ has commanded us to make disciples and a part of being a disciple is to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

One of the first things Lydia does as a follower of Christ is to provide for the material needs of those who ministered to her spiritual needs. Question: Wasn’t the church at Antioch financially supporting Paul and Silas? Acts 15:40 says that these men were commended by the believers at Antioch to the grace of the Lord. What that often meant is that the congregation at Antioch were committed to praying for them and gave them enough money to get them to their first destination, the church at Derbe (Acts 16:1). When Paul and Silas ministered to that congregation, it was the responsibility of those believers to take care of their material needs. Jesus taught us that the workman is worthy of his wages. As long as Paul and Silas and the rest of the team ministered to churches, their needs were taken care of. However, when they responded to the Macedonian call, they were once again doing evangelism among unbelievers and could not expect unbelievers to provide for their needs.

The church which emerged at Philippi was so grateful for the work of Paul and his team in their own lives that when possible, they financially supported them so they could minister the gospel full time at other cities. Without their help Paul had to make tents during the day and preach at night. What a blessing the church at Philippi proved to be in the work of missions. Listen to what Paul tells them years later:

Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel [Acts 16], when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was need. Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account” (Philippians 4:15-17).

Whatever Paul did to extend God’s kingdom upon the earth — and Paul did much — the believers at Philippi will share in Paul’s rewards from God. The person who led Billy Graham to Christ will share in his rewards. Those who financially support Christian workers will share in their rewards.

Please follow as I read Acts 16:16-18:

> Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit,”In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

By the way, next Sunday is going to be Amazing Grace Sunday. Churches all over America are going to sing the hymn “Amazing Grace” to help celebrate the 200th anniversary of the abolishment of slavery in the British Empire and then later the United States. A movie by the name of “Amazing Grace” will also be opening in theaters on February 23rd. It tells of the labors of William Wilberforce and other Christians to see slavery ended. It will be worth seeing.

This particular slave girl, in Acts 16, was practicing fortune-telling with demonic help. Are all fortune tellers demon possessed? No. But they are all frauds out to make a buck. Even with demonic help a person cannot know the future, because demons do not know the future — apart from the fact that their doom is sure. Christians and non-Christians have no business going to fortune tellers.

What was this slave girl saying? She was speaking truth about the present. Paul and his team were servants of the Most High and were sharing the good news of the gospel. Are there times when evil spirits will speak truth? Yes, but they will eventually add to it or twist it in order to draw people away from God. And so Paul commanded the evil spirit to come out of the girl by the authority of Christ. This wonderful deliverance for the slave girl set into motion a whole series of events. Please follow as I read Acts 16:19-24:

When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

All of these events snowballed out of control when Paul freed a slave girl from an evil spirit. To the best of my memory, that is not a violation of any of God’s commandments. I am equally sure that it didn’t violate Roman law. But when the slave girl couldn’t tell fortunes, it touched the pocketbooks of her owners — and to touch their pocketbook was to touch their god. That is still true today.

Why didn’t the crowd drag Timothy and Luke before the magistrates? Timothy was half Greek and Luke was all Greek. Paul and Silas were Jewish, and to be Jewish in Philippi was to have a strike against you. But the real ace in a hole for the accusers of Paul and Silas was that they were throwing the city into an uproar. If Philippi couldn’t govern themselves, then Rome would step in and do it for them. Philippi would lose its status as a Roman colony and start paying taxes. Who wouldn’t be upset by that?

What did the magistrates do to pacify the people? They had Paul and Silas severely flogged. We can read past this quickly but let me remind you that some people died from such floggings. Was there a proper trial? No. Which means two men were beaten and thrown into jail unlawfully. What especially made this serious is that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, and Roman citizens were never to be treated in that fashion. What these magistrates did to Paul and Silas was not law-keeping, it was expediency — pleasing people at the expense of right and wrong. It is the same kind of thinking I hear when people advocate legalizing drugs. We are told that this will immediately cut down the crime rate in America. How? By stopping bad things from happening? No. It is just that we no longer call those bad things illegal. Presto! Less crime. I think the reason abortion on demand was legalized is because of expediency. It is certainly not good law. Anytime a nation is governed by expediency and not morally sound laws, it is in serious trouble. There is a lot of expediency in our laws today.

What did the accusers of Paul and Silas mean when they said, “These men . . . are throwing our city into an uproar aby advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice”? Roman citizens were free to worship as many gods as they wanted. Why not throw Jesus Christ into the mix? Because Christianity teaches that Jesus alone is Lord. Once a year every Roman citizen was expected to pour out a cup of wine and proclaim, “Caesar is Lord.” Christians cannot do this. When Christians taught that Jesus alone is Lord, it was not a popular doctrine among Romans. Neither is sexual purity a popular doctrine in the United States today. Christians, God not only calls us to teach purity, He calls us to live it. It is by living it that people will see its benefits. May God help us not to be men-pleasers but God-pleasers. Let’s pray.

Sermon text ©2007 Mark C. Alvis
Bible text © as applicable