Freedom from Darkness
Acts 16:16 – 16:40
Jeff Hughes – October 19, 2003
Calvary Chapel Aggieland
I. Introduction
a. Paul and Silas finally got over to Macedonia from Galatia last week, as we continue our journey through Acts. They were faced with many trials and difficulties along the way, but now, here they are in Philippi.
b. We pick up the story here today, as we will be finishing up chapter 16, verses 16 through 40. Today’s story if filled with hardship and we will see the apostle Paul face to face with the forces of darkness, as we continue through Paul’s Second Missionary Journey.
c. First, let’s take a minute to pray, and ask the Lord’s blessing on our study this morning.
II. PRAYER
III. Illustration
a. A recent Barna Research Survey found that nearly two out of three adults—62%—agreed that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.” This response has remained relatively consistent throughout the Nineties. Among the more surprising findings, however, are that a majority of people who claim to be born again Christians deny Satan’s existence (52%); nearly three-quarters of Catholics say the devil is non-existent (72%); and women are more likely than men to reject Satan’s existence (64% vs. 59%).
b. The Bible tells us in 1st Peter 5:8 and 9 this - 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
c. At Calvary Chapel, we believe that Old Cloven hoof, Satan, the Devil, is a real, created being. If we were to write him off as allegory, how could Jesus have been tempted by him in the wilderness for 40 days? The answer is, He couldn’t. If we take scripture at face value, which personally, I can’t see a different way to take it – but, if we take scripture at it’s face value, we can’t just write the enemy off as some evil force, or a symbol.
d. We are going to see today just how insidious and real Satan is in the world. We are also going to see a thread woven throughout this chapter – that God gives us peace and joy in the midst of bad things happening.
e. These are two things we are going to look at in depth in our passage. Speaking of our passage, let’s read through it right now – Acts, chapter 16, starting in verse 16.
IV. Study
a. Intro
i. 16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation." 18 And this she did 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 that very hour. 19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. 20 And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, "These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; 21 and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe." 22 Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. 23 And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. 24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
ii. 25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. 27 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. 28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here." 29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31 So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 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.
iii. 35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, "Let those men go." 36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, "The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace." 37 But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out." 38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. 39 Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city. 40 So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
iv. Quite a story, especially when you put it in context of everything we looked at last week. If you weren’t here, I’ll give you a little background.
v. Paul had set out on a second missionary journey to Galatia with Silas. They had plans to go and preach the gospel up into Asia, but while still in Galatia, in Asia Minor, they were prevented from going up into Asia by the Lord, presumably by Paul contracting some dread disease. Many scholars believe that it was at this point that Paul lost much of his eyesight.
vi. He was so sick that the other guys on the journey thought he was going to die, they sent back to Antioch for Luke, the doctor, who would be Paul’s companion for presumably the rest of the book. It was these experiences and the guiding of the Holy Spirit that would prompt him to write the book.
vii. It was while he was still sick that the Lord gives Paul the vision for going to Macedonia, which is modern day Greece. When he catches God’s vision, he gets better, and sails for Macedonia, in particular, the city of Philippi.
viii. So, he’s been through all this, no doubt the sickness took a toll on him physically and mentally. So, the Lord gave them a break in Philippi right?
ix. Wrong. God kept pouring it on. They meet with some early success, but then, they help out a girl and get thrown in prison and beaten severely.
x. We get to see just how God’s servants react to this treatment. In our lesson today, I have outlined six points for you to follow along to kind of break things up. We will look at the Possessed Girl, the Profits Lost, the Punishment, the Prison Miracle, Paul’s Witness, and last the Protest.
xi. Our first point comes from Acts chapter 16, starting in verse 16. We see a young woman with a problem.
b. Possessed Girl (Acts 16:16 - 18)
i. 16 Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation." 18 And this she did 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 that very hour.
ii. As we open our study today, we meet a certain slave girl from the city of Philippi. We aren’t told her name, but we are told her profession. She was a diviner, a fortune teller.
iii. Now, in the ancient world, you could make a lot of money being a fortune teller, because people then are just like they are today, impatient. They want to find something out now rather than later, no matter what the cost.
iv. Now, in all honesty, what goes on these days in the name of fortune telling is a money-making scheme, but when it is true and of supernatural origin (as opposed to clever, insightful guessing), there is no doubt that it is inspired by demons.
v. So, Paul and Silas’ party met up with this girl while they were on their way to the place of prayer. Presumably, this was the riverside that they met the women at last week.
vi. Now, Luke uses a particular phrase to describe how this girl practiced her divination. She was able to do this because she was possessed by a spirit. Literally, the phrase reads – a spirit, a python. The python was associated with the famed Oracle of Delphi in the ancient world.
vii. This phrase was also used to describe a ventriloquist in these days, and this is notable, because all this young girl was to the demon possessing her was a puppet.
viii. So, the question comes, how can a demon give a person extra knowledge and stuff? Well, we know that demons are created beings. They are literally fallen angels. They can’t read minds, or actually predict the future; but they can read and predict human behavior, and can attempt to steer events towards a previously predicted conclusion.
ix. We also see that this girl was being exploited by her owners. They were making quite a bit of money by here telling people things that would or would not happen.
x. Over the course of several days, this girl runs into Paul and his party, presumably several times, and each time, she proclaims that these men are servants of the Most High God.
xi. So, she follows Paul around, giving him some quote unquote “testimony” as to his authenticity of them and their message. This probably drew some attention, but it was getting old.
xii. In verse 18, we see that Paul became annoyed by this girl. So, why did he get annoyed? Didn’t he appreciate all the free press? While her message was indeed accurate, I think Paul’s main problem was with the messenger.
xiii. Paul, being an apostle and a missionary sent out by God, didn’t need some demon, some evil spirit telling people about him. God worked signs and wonders through Paul that verified his authenticity. What this girl was doing was actually leading people away from the message of the gospel.
xiv. People were getting all caught up in her and her message, and they weren’t paying as much attention to Paul. The message was being ruined by the messenger, which was Satan’s plan all along.
xv. So, how can we apply this to our lives today? Well, I’ll tell you. I look around, and I see a good number of ministries and churches using worldly means to get their message out. When we do this, we run the risk of watering down the gospel and turning the very folks we were trying to reach away.
xvi. After several days, Paul had been waiting for God to give him the go ahead and cast this demon out, and by this time he was getting ticked off.
xvii. Now, the reason for the wait was to authenticate Paul’s ministry. The Lord graciously let the most number of people there in Philippi see what was going on, and the demonic message, before this demon was driven out, as a sign to all of them.
xviii. So, one day, Paul turns around to this girl, and commands the demon to come out of her, in the name of Jesus Christ. As we see, the demon came out.
xix. Now, this brings me to my last point here. People get all up in arms about verses like this. Some people think that this is all allegory, and stories, and that these people just had some kind of mental problems; they dismiss the supernatural element of this.
xx. I simply cannot do this. First, because it is clear in the text here that this was a factual event, and I don’t believe that it can be denied. Second is because I have seen this first hand. Truthfully, I had my doubts about this kind of stuff, until I went to go minister at the Galveston County Jail with a friend of mine one day. I was a youth pastor, and I accompanied another pastor named Ray.
xxi. The man we met was in jail for abusing his wife. Repeatedly. As I sat across the glass from this man, talking through the phone, I became eerily aware that besides him and me and Ray, there was someone else sitting at that table. I also became aware, that the man I talked to was there, but he was just a prisoner there.
xxii. That was ironic to me. He was in jail, but that wasn’t his greatest bondage. I stared into his eyes and I saw no hope. I was scared and hair on my neck stood on end, but I continued to talk to him. What was odd, or I guess not was that he and I talked about spiritual things and the Bible, without skipping a beat.
xxiii. When I got up to leave, I just kind of walked out with Ray, and I said something like “Was that guy…..” Ray looked at me and said “Yeah, he was, Jeff.” I said something like “What should we do?” Ray said, we need to pray for that man, that Jesus would set him free...
xxiv. Now, I want to clarify something. Christians can’t be demon possessed. We’re already possessed, as it were, by the Holy Spirit. We were bought with a price, and we are owned as it were by the Living God Himself.
xxv. But, Satan is a very real foe, and he has servants at work in this world. Not under every rock, but very real nonetheless. But, there is hope, hope in Jesus. Just like this girl, the forces of darkness can are overcome by Jesus Christ.
xxvi. No doubt that this exorcism caused a great stir in Philippi, and the masters of the girl noticed right off, and we see their reaction in the next three verses.
c. Profits Lost (Acts 16:19 – 22)
i. 19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. 20 And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, "These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; 21 and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe." 22 Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods.
ii. As we read this passage, we see that the root of all the problems was greed. Paul would later write in 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 10 this - 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
iii. Notice that they weren’t concerned about the young girl. They were worried about their profit margins. These guys that had taken advantage of this poor girl for so long were now about to be out of a good deal of money, and they weren’t too happy about it.
iv. They wanted retribution, they wanted revenge. They wanted someone to suffer for their financial hardship. So, they grab Paul and Silas and haul them into the marketplace, to stand in front of the local magistrates.
v. They are charged with some really sketchy, vague charges about being troublemakers. They had to be troublemakers in these guy’s minds, they were Jews. This was common in the ancient world. They were different, they stuck out, and people don’t like that.
vi. They also assumed that Paul and Silas weren’t Roman citizens, being Jews, and therefore, they had little if any civil rights. The crowds sides with the accusers, and Paul and Silas were summarily judged on the spot. This was illegal, since they were Roman citizens, but they didn’t bother to ask.
vii. Their punishment came immediately, in the form of a beating with rods. We learn a little more in the next three verses.
d. Punishment (Acts 16:23 - 25)
i. 23 And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. 24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
ii. 25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
iii. Paul and Silas received a severe beating, and as we see in verse 23, they were put into maximum security lockdown in the local prison. The jailer took this seriously, and not only locked them up in the very center of the prison, but, he took the extra time to lock their feet in stocks to further prevent an escape.
iv. Their reasoning may have been that since Paul and Silas had cast the demon out of this girl, that they had some kind of supernatural powers that would allow them to escape.
v. The most important verse to look at here is verse 25. Paul and Silas could not sleep that night, because of the pain of their injuries, and the awkward position that went along with being locked in stocks.
vi. So, how do they spend that time? Do they call their lawyer? Do they call a bail bondsman? No, they use that time to pray, and also to praise.
vii. Romans chapter 5, verses 3 and 4 tells us this - 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
viii. Paul was a man who knew how to experience joy in the midst of tribulation and tragedy. No doubt that the other prisoners wondered what was up with these two guys.
ix. Then something miraculous happened. We see that in the next two verses.
e. The Prison Miracle (Acts 16:26 – 27)
i. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed. 27 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.
ii. The other prisoners who were asleep and the rest of the city of Philippi were awakened by a big earthquake that night. I’ve been in a couple of small ones, and it feels so unnatural, to feel the ground moving underneath your feet, there’s no way you can sleep. One of the ones I was in when I lived in Australia, I was asleep when it started, but I jumped out of bed when I felt it.
iii. Same thing happened here in Philippi. Everybody got out of jail including the jailer. This earthquake shook the foundations of the prison so much that the gates were all thrown off their hinges, and the shackles were broken free from the walls of the prison. This had to have been a very big earthquake, to do that kind of damage to a prison. They don’t tend to build those very flimsily.
iv. You can imagine that numerous buildings were damaged in the town, and that you had a scene of mass confusion there. People standing around outside, maybe some looting.
v. Just look at what happens when a big one hits California. Now, the jailer has a responsibility to keep the prison secure though, so he goes down to check on the jail.
vi. The scene that awaited him was much more than he expected though. The prison doors were thrown open and the jail was all in disarray.
vii. The jailer’s reactions we see here was a normal one for an official in those days. Guards who let a prisoner escape faced the same punishment that the people they were guarding. That was the law in those days. If all those prisoners escaped, he faced certain death.
viii. It would have been easy for Paul and Silas to take off. Peter had escaped from prison miraculously, why not them? They could take off, and you can’t blame them.
ix. So, what happened? We see in the next sever verses.
f. Paul & Silas’ Witness (Acts 16:28 - 34)
i. 28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here." 29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31 So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 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.
ii. Okay, the first question is, “Why did they stick around?” Well, I believe that they stayed first because God led them to, but second is because they cared about this jailer.
iii. They knew that this man would be held accountable for their escape, and they had probably had some interaction with him earlier in the day. We aren’t told, but I would guess that one of the prayers offered that night was for this man’s salvation.
iv. Paul stopped him from taking his own life, by telling him that everyone was there. The jailer was shocked. He had to see this for himself.
v. He called for a torch, and went in to see for himself. This man saw in Paul and Silas a lifestyle that he wanted. He wanted that inner peace that passes understanding, so that he could be joyful and sing praises and pray when things were bad.
vi. Maybe you’re here this morning and you feel like the ground has been shaking underneath you spiritually. You don’t have the joy and peace in your life that you are longing for.
vii. Maybe you want to know what you need to do to get the peace, just like this Phillipian jailer. The question he asks is the most important one we can ever ask – “What do I do to be saved?”
viii. The answer to that question is the same today as it was two thousand years ago in Philippi. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
ix. A good number of people take the next part to heart – and your whole household will be saved. There are too many people in the world today that are relying on the faith of their parents or spouse to get them into heaven. People think that because they grew up in a Christian home, and went to church, and were baptized as a baby, and that’s enough. Nothing could be further from the truth.
x. First, no one will ever get into heaven through the works of anyone else except Jesus Christ. Second, infant baptism is found nowhere in scripture, we do see adult baptism, which is what we do here at Calvary.
xi. Acts 4:12 tells us this - 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
xii. Clearly, this passage does not mean that when we get saved our household does too. What it means is - You believe and you’ll be saved. And when your family believes, they’ll be saved as well. (Courson)
xiii. This is evidenced by the very next verse. If they got saved when the jailer got saved, then why would Paul and Silas have to go to his house and share the word at his house?
xiv. Obviously though, the people there believed what Paul and Silas has said, including this jailer. The same man that had locked them into prison was now ministering to them and tending to their wounds.
xv. Guys that is transformation. That is the power of God at work in someone’s life. That is fruit that this man truly was saved. Once we become saved, we see our life for what it is, and hopefully, we want to serve others, just like Jesus.
xvi. We see the end result of this man getting saved, too. His whole household got saved too, by seeing the change in this man. He then rejoiced at his salvation and kept the apostles under “house arrest” for a short while. We will close after we see the next part of what happened that day in Philippi. We see this in verse 35 to the end of the chapter.
g. Protesting Apostles (Acts 16:35 - 40)
i. 35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, "Let those men go." 36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, "The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace." 37 But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out." 38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. 39 Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city. 40 So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
ii. The local magistrates decided that Paul and Silas had had enough punishment, and that they should let them go. They were probably just trying to scare Paul and Silas into not going around preaching Jesus anymore.
iii. Look down at verse 37 though. Paul tells the jailer that they were beaten and put into prison without a trial, and that they were Roman citizens.
iv. This was a big offense. They violated the rights of a Roman citizen. So, why didn’t Paul tell them before they were flogged? Like, right when they brought out the rods?
v. He could have said something like, “Hey, you sure you want to do that? I’m a Roman citizen. So, why didn’t he? I believe that we get a clue in verse 40.
vi. If you remember back last week, all of the members of the church at Philippi were women. Verse 40 tells us that when Paul and Silas were brought out, they went to Lydia’s place, and they encouraged the brethren, but they had to wait a bit for them. It says when they had seen the brethren they departed.
vii. My best guess is that these brethren weren’t the jailer and his family. I think they were other prisoners that were led to the Lord by Paul and Silas. They got thrown in jail, so they started a jail ministry. That is the kind of servant’s heart that did a great deal in Philippi fighting the forces of darkness.
viii. I‘d like to close with a short story.
h. Conclusion
i. In the 1920’s Stalin ordered a purge of all Bibles and believers in Russia. In Stavropol, this order was carried out completely. Thousands of Bibles were taken and believers were sent to the gulags, where so many died for being enemies of the state.
ii. In 1994, a team of missionaries was sent to Stavropol. They didn’t know about the history of the city at that time. But when the team had difficulty getting Bibles shipped from Moscow, someone mentioned that they knew a warehouse existed outside of time, where these Bibles had been stored since Stalin’s time.
iii. “The team prayed together and one member had the courage to go to the warehouse and ask the officials if the Bibles could be removed and distribulted again to the people in Stavropol. The answer was “yes”.
iv. The next day the missionaries returned with a truck and several Russians to help load the Bibles. One helper was a young man- a skeptical, hostile, agnostic university student who came only for the day’s wages. As they loaded the Bibles one man noticed that the student had disappeared. Finally they found him in a corner of the warehouse weeping.
v. He had slipped away, hoping to quietly take a Bible for himself. What he found pierced him deeply. The inside page of the Bible he picked up had the handwritten signature of his own grandmother. It was her personal Bible.
vi. Out of the thousands of Bibles still left in that warehouse, he stole the one that belonged to his grandmother- a woman persecuted for her faith all her life.
vii. You see, that young man was a prisoner and he didn’t even know it. He was a prisoner to sin. The young girl at the beginning of our story was a prisoner too, under the influence of a demon.
viii. Paul and Silas were prisoners for a short while, too. What set all of these people free, the possessed girl, the young Russian, and Paul and Silas was Jesus Christ.
ix. Are you a prisoner this morning? I am here to tell you that Jesus is waiting to set you free this morning, free from your sin and free to embrace all that He has for you.
