CAN GOD SHAKE THIS PLACE?
Acts 16:16-34
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR. IF ONLY 4 WEEKS TO LIVE
1. A Bible study group was discussing the possibility of sudden death. The Group Leader asked, "What would you do if you knew you only had 4 weeks of life remaining before your death, and your Judgment Day?"
2. One man said, "For those 4 weeks, I would go out into my community and tell everyone the Good News of Jesus." "That’s wonderful," said the group leader.
3. A lady said, "For those 4 weeks, I’d dedicate all of my remaining time to serving my family, my church, and my fellow man with a greater conviction." "Great!" the group leader said.
4. A truck driver at the back spoke up, "I would travel throughout the United States with my mother-in-law in a Ford Escort, and stay in a Motel 6 every night."
5. Everyone was puzzled by his answer. "Why would you do that?" the group leader asked.
6. "Because," the man smiled sarcastically, "it would be the longest 4 weeks of my life."
B. EARTHQUAKES THAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY
1. Earthquakes happen frequently. This year on January 1, Japan suffered an earthquake of 7.5 on the Richter scale. On April 2 Taiwan had an earthquake of 7.4. On July 19 Chile had an earthquake of 7.4. On June 28 Peru suffered an earthquake of 7.2.
2. So far this year (2024) there have been over 1,100 earthquakes of 5.0 or greater, and many of them have resulted in severe devastation.
C. A GOOD EARTHQUAKE?
1. Earthquakes wreck mass destruction. Just like the power of wind, water, or fire, you have to have respect for the power of an earthquake. They move with great power and speed. They are a phenomenon to be feared.
2. But can an earthquake be a good thing? On first thought we would say no. God can take things that seem
bad and use them for something good.
3. Today we’re going to see a good earthquake and ask the question, “Can God shake this place” too?
D. TEXT: Acts 16:16-34
16 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. 17This 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." 18She 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. 19When 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. 20They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice." 22The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly 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. 27The 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. 28But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!" 29The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household." 32Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34The 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.
E. THESIS
1. We’re going to see how God turned tragedy into triumph.
2. Three things brought about a manifestation of God’s power on this occasion;
a. The Power came because of Praise
b. The Power came because of Holy Lives
c. The Power came because of Unity. The same three will bring down the power in this church, if we fit the criteria.
3. The question & title is, “Can God shake this place?” Let’s see if we have what it takes.
I. POWER THROUGH PRAISE
A. SITUATION OF PAUL & SILAS
1. Paul went on his 2nd Missionary through Asia Minor (Turkey) and then was directed by the Holy Spirit to go to Greece.
2. At Philippi Paul led a lady named Lydia to the Lord. Then he and Silas began to be harassed by a woman with a demon spirit. When Paul cast it out, trouble ensued.
3. They were betrayed by magistrates; turned over to "Mob justice." Probably beaten unconscious.
4. With their wounds untended, they were roughly thrust into the inner prison, a foul and loathsome dungeon; cramped & shivering.
5. Can you imagine the pain that must have ransacked their bodies when they became conscious near midnight?
B. RESPONSE OF APOSTLES?
1. What would you feel like?
a. Would you be singing, “I Feel Good?" or "Joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory”
b. Or would you jump to the bars and cry, "I want my lawyer! My rights have been violated! I'm going to sue! You'll be behind bars soon yourself!"
c. Compared to that place, the Good Shepherd Mission would look like a good place to stay.
2. They had a major decision to make: how to react.
a. If you get around some people -- complainers -- they'll have to jack you up to bury you!
b. If Silas had been like a lot of us, he'd have said; "Paul -- why did you have to mess with that girl? I knew something like this would happen! You’re such a hot-head! Don't pick me as your partner next time!"
3. IMPOSSIBILITY OF PRAISE: Many times it seems contrary to all logic, emotions, and circumstances to praise God.
a. Conversation between Paul and Silas:
*"Paul -- what should we do?"
*"Sing praises to the Lord."
*"Sing? In here? Praises to God? Are you crazy? Did they drop you on your head on the way down here?"
b. Sometimes, to praise God seemed as appropriate as:
1). Lighting a match in a gasoline plant;
2). Going sailing in a hurricane. Why praise God for disaster?
C. WHAT IS THE POWER IN PRAISE?
1. Praise allows the New Nature in us to gain control.
2. Praise bypasses the unregenerate mind, sidetracking its wrong assumptions & ideas.
3. Praise is the sparkplug of faith – it moves it up to the level of victory over circumstances.
4. God inhabits the praises of His people.
5. Praise gives God His proper place & us ours.
6. ILLUSTRATION.
a. A man struggled to establish a cabin on the side of a mountain in Alaska. After a year and a half, he finally got it finished and praised God for helping him.
b. Two weeks later a terrible storm came that dumped 9 inches of rain on the mountain. A flashflood ensued that rushed down the canyon and destroyed his cabin.
c. He sat on the now bare rock where his cabin had stood and asked God how He could have allowed this and made him destitute.
d. After some time he looked down at the rock and noticed a vein of gold. He began pushing back the dirt and discovered a major lode of gold ore.
e. Had the storm never come to his life, he would never have discovered the gold that was right beneath his feet. So it is with our trials; they are necessary to expose the gold that is in our souls!
II. POWER OF A HOLY LIFE
A. PAUL & SILAS
1. Their worship -- acceptable because of a Holy life. David said, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” Psalm 66:18. (They weren’t Pharisees, but burning hearts).
2. God answered them because they had answered God -- when He dealt with them.
3. We all want to be victors; but God has to conquer us before we can be conquerors.
B. YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!
1. Humans aren’t "very sick" and needing healing, we’re spiritually dead and needing a resurrection!
2. IMAGINE WE HAD A DEAD CORPSE. How are you going to raise a dead person?
a. GIVE EXAMPLES? You could show him/her how people live; so he could mimic them (Franklin Graham, Beth Moore). But will that raise him? No!
b. ENCOURAGE HIM/HER with counselors and psychiatrists. Would you say, "Come on, get up! I know you can do it!" Would that raise them? No!
c. ENVIRONMENT. You could put them around a bunch of live people. That ought to help. But will that raise them?
d. No! There must be a resurrection! That's what salvation through faith in Christ is. Some of you need that.
3. Jesus said, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." Romans 10:8-10, "But what does it say? The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation."
III. POWER OF UNITY
A. PAUL & SILAS – UNIFIED IN WORSHIP
1. Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God.
2. Incredible power is unleashed when believers pray, work and play together. One can put 1000 to flight,
two can put 10,000 to flight.
3. Early Church -- Day of Pentecost -- "they were all with one accord in one place" (2:1).
4. Secret of Tower of Babel
a. Was a symbol of defiance against God.
b. But during it God revealed the power of unity. Gen. 11:6; “If as one people they begin to do this, nothing will be restrained from them that they’ve imagined to do.”
c. Even God had to recognize the power of the human race when it was unified and focused in a single direction.
B. OUR CHURCH/ FAMILIES
1. The same power is available to us if we will bind together and pray.
2. Nothing shall be impossible as we band together –
a. A new Family Life building;
b. An enlargement to Summit Christian Academy;
c. Outreach to our community.
d. Ever bolder witness on Campus.
C. OUTCOME OF THEIR ACTIONS?
1. GOD SHOOK THE PRISON. As Paul and Silas worshiped…“Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken.” (26)
2. THEIR CHAINS WERE LOOSED. “At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's chains came loose.” (26) “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
3. THEIR CAPTOR GOT CAPTURED! (jailor got saved). “The jailer woke…saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself….Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!" The jailer…rushed in and fell trembling…and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (27-30) What a reversal!
CONCLUSION
A. MANY DIFFERENT KINDS OF PRISONS:
1. Prisons of Unforgiveness
2. Prisons of Bitterness
3. Prisons of Lust or Greed
4. Prisons of Fear
5. Prisons of Sin, etc.
B. 4 KEYS TO FREEDOM
1. CONFESS your sins to God – stubbornness, unbelief, pride, selfishness, envy, etc.
2. ASK JESUS/ HOLY SPIRIT TO COME IN AND TAKE OVER!
3. BELIEVE GOD FOR LIBERTY NOW.
4. BEGIN TO PRAISE HIM!!!!!!
C. LET THE HOLY SPIRIT FLOW IN YOUR LIFE
1. On the night of March 29, 1848, Niagara Falls completely and mysteriously stopped flowing. The estimated 500,000 gallons of water that customarily rushed over the falls stalled to a trickle.
2. Francis Macklem, a village justice of the peace in the Niagara area, wrote that as he witnessed the subsidence of the waters and the phenomena of the Niagara running dry, it "caused great excitement in the neighborhood."
3. To some, the mystery of this sudden "turning off" of the River seemed to be an ominous portent, and nightfall found most of the churches packed with praying people talking in frightened voices about the end of the world. Fear grew into the proportions of panic.
4. The cause of this unusual event began along the shores of Lake Erie near Buffalo. For several days, the wind had been blowing to the East over Lake Erie, driving much of its ice flow down the river.
5. Then the winds suddenly shifted to the West, driving the Lake water West and causing the Lake’s ice to break up and dam the river.
6. The Niagara River ceased to flow for almost 30 hours until the ice shifted and the dam broke up.
7. When we become cold toward Christ and don't let the Holy Spirit flow through our lives, it can become disastrous. The love for Christ can become dammed up in us.
D. THE CALL
1. Is God still in the business of shaking places? Yes, God wants to shake this church and our lives with His Holy Spirit.
2. God’s desire is for us to be bold and courageous. Bold in the way we pray and courageous in the way we share the love of Jesus.
3. CT STUDD: "Some people love to dwell near church with choir and steeple bell. But I want to run a rescue station a yard from the gates of hell.’"
4. Prayer for salvation, rededication, and infilling of the Holy Spirit. General prayer for God to “shake this place!”
