Midnight Praises
Acts 16:16-24
This setting of scripture first finds Paul and Silas in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ and teaching the people this new doctrine of being saved by grace through the new birth application, it was new obviously to Gentile people, but it was also new to Jewish people. In the previous chapter Acts 15:5 we see the conflict arising (There will always be conflict in church but there was a way to settle it, they went to the elders)
Act 15:5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
Act 15:6 And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.
After much deliberation and Peter making his case as well stating that we nor their fathers were able to keep the law this is what James the leader stated
Act 15:19 Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
Act 15:20 But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Act 15:24 Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
Act 15:29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
Act 15:30 So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle:
So Paul and Barnabas were supposed to take this letter and make it official in the churches they started that this is what was supposed to be taught because this gospel was a place of transition.
What I want us to begin to notice here that this was a place of huge transition for the church and the Jewish people. This is all new to them because God was doing a new thing. He was showing them the New Covenant. And when you are in places of transition and change things can be difficult. They are difficult because while many good things are happening on one end (people believing, people being converted, lives moving in right direction), people were also against them. Many people were against changing the way things had been.
As you progress and make godly orchestrated changes there is always going to be opposition.
And in particular when we get to verse 16 where our text is this morning, we are going to see that Paul deals with a woman who was possessed with a spirit of divination. Through this spirit in her, her masters made a lot of money. But Paul had about enough of that spirit and commanded in the name of Jesus Christ for it to come out of her, and it did.
Paul used the authority that God had given to him and set someone free, someone was made different, someone was delivered. It was great! But even though something is great for one person it usually is a problem for someone else.
But her masters saw that they had lost their cash cow and said these men, being Jews, are troubling our city, teach customs that are not lawful for us to receive and they had them beat and cast them into prison, put them in the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
I told you all of this because I want us to see that in places of transitions and places of growth and advancement there are going to be opposition, people and things that want to stop you from doing what you were called to do. Here Paul was walking in His calling, being effective, giving someone hope and it caused problems for him.
As you are transitioning towards what God is shifting you into there is going to be opposition, there is going to be those that don’t like the new you, there are going to be dark times, but the Word of the Lord for you today is know how to give a Midnight Praise.
Midnights are the darkest of times, Midnights are lonely places, midnights are the moments of not seeing clearly because all of the darkness that surrounds you, midnights are the places where you feel stuck, midnights are the places where you feel trapped, midnights are the places where things are scary, midnights are the places where you truly wish you weren’t.
Midnights are the times where you kids are going astray.
Midnights are the times where your health is deteriorating.
Midnights are the times you feel lost and without direction.
But let me tell you something else
Midnight is the darkest times before transitioning over to the morning
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning!
Act 16:25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
This is where the power was, they began to sing praises at the darkest hour, they gave a praise to God in their midnight.
I am wanting to teach this church that like in scripture we need to release the power of a midnight praise
I have preached many times on advance praise and that still needs to happen but there are times when you need to praise God when you are in an inner prison at midnight.
An inner prison is the place you know you can’t get out of
An inner prison is a place of complete limitation of what you can do to get out of what you are in
An inner prison is a place where you are currently that you don’t think you deserve to be…. and most times from the time we were kids if we are in a place we don’t think we deserve to be in our natural reaction is to cry, complain, and pout.
But a midnight praise is saying yes, I can’t get out of this and I don’t think I deserve this but I am going to praise
I am far too deep into this problem, this situation, this circumstance
And instead of crying, instead of complaining, instead of praying for deliverance I am going to do something different
I am going to praise God, I am going to shout unto God with the voice of triumph
But its midnight, but you have been beaten, shouldn’t you be upset, shouldn’t you stop magnifying God, shouldn’t you just give up
No, I am going to have a midnight praise!
Here’s what I want us to notice, scripture doesn’t say they did that in order to be delivered, now here me. There are times your deliverance is going to happen because of an Advance Praise,
Joshua and the Israelites were in a place of transition as well but here is two things we need to notice
1. God had already given them a Word that the city was there’s.
2. They just needed to have faith and believe that if they would give God a shout and praise in advance they were going to see God do what He already promised that He was going to do
Here me, there is an advance praise that we have to give God showing Him that we believe that He is going to do what He said He was going to do
In fact someone that has a Word from God that has not come to pass yet should take a moment to give God an Advance Praise
But a midnight praise is different. It’s a praise that doesn’t have a promise attached to it. It’s a praise that makes no sense. It’s a praise that is praising God with your world being a mess.
The Prisoners Heard Them
I know we say they heard them like they were singing loud, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that they just heard them because they have ears or they were loud, the Greek word there for heard them could also be translated they were listening to them
What am I saying, the others prisoners were listening because it was something that they weren’t accustomed to hearing. When you listen rather than hear something you are intently focused. Why, because in these conditions who would be crazy enough to be singing.
Let me tell you that there are people around you, and people in here that need to be listening to you praise. They need to stop and intently recognize, um this is different.
We are used to hearing complaining, moaning because of the pain we have, crying because of the hopelessness that is there, but there’s someone who is going through somethings, someone who is in a midnight situation and they are singing and praising God in the middle of it!
Act 16:26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.
Notice the word suddenly, that means unexpectantly. I wasn’t expecting this to happen but something began to shake. You know what an earthquake is…
It is the shifting of the plates that are underground
When you begin to give God Midnight praises there is going to be a shift take place
The shift that took place dealt with the foundations
When you begin to give God a Midnight praise He is going to deal with the foundational things that have locked you up. I am preaching to someone in this room. You are bound up in life and shackled up because there are some root things that have not yet been brought to your attention and properly dealt with, but when you learn how and begin to praise God in the middle of being shackled, imprisoned by things, not in the best place God is going to allow their to be a shift and the foundations are going to be shaken.
What has imprisoned you is going to be shaken, that is to be agitated, waver, toppled, destroyed
God is about to do, HALLELUJAH!!!
The doors of the prison was opened
That is the first thing, not the bands coming off
Sometimes God has to first show you that He is going to open the door
If the bands would have come off first then they would have thought it was up to them to free themselves out of the prison
So when God begins to do a foundation shift in your life He is going to first open the door so that even before your personal chains comes off you know that the path and access to freedom has already been set up for you.
What am I saying is that God is about to open some doors first and after the doors are open and prepared for you then he is going to loose your bands so that you know it was Him and not yourself!
