Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning Calvary Chapel Lake City!

Please turn in your Bibles to Acts 16.

Acts 16:19-40 today… finishing the chapter.

As a recap, in Asia Minor, Paul, Silas, and Timothy were restricted by the Holy Spirit from traveling North or South… so they head west.

We don’t know how the Holy Spirit caused them to pause, but some think it was by Paul getting sick.

Illness may have brought Paul and Dr. Luke together… who joins their party at or near Troas.

I remember a time when I was restricted by the Holy Spirit.

I was supposed to share a message at a Pastor’s & Worker Conference in the Philippines, but got hospitalized instead.

At the hospital is where I heard some words from another patient that stirred my heart that it was our time to depart the Philippines.

God moves in mysterious ways.

And, during the wait in Troas, God gives Paul a vision… the Macedonian Call.

So, Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke answered this call.

We left off where our missionaries had made it to the chief city… Philippi (today in Northern Greece).

There they encountered Lydia, a seller of the purple die for royal fabrics.

God opened her heart and she and her household were saved, baptized, and she opens her home to the missionaries.

On several other days, while going to pray, Paul and his crew were followed by a demon possessed girl who screamed, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”

Even though the statement was true… coming from a demon possessed girl… it didn’t serve to herald their arrival in a positive light.

Having a demon as your forerunner is bad company.

A repellent.

And, this annoyed Paul… would the people of Philippi think they were associated?… that they were in leagues together?

So, after several days of this, we read in V18 “But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”

Immediately, she was free of this spiritual enslavement by a demon.

A victory, but as she passes off the scene… there is no indication of salvation… even though for days the demon through her shouted that Paul ‘proclaimed the way of salvation.’

How ironic?

A truth we’re not sure she heeded.

The Gospel is dangerous for anyone to ignore… but, especially for one formerly demon possessed… according to Matt 12:45.

As we come to V19, we observe… her earthly masters do not take kindly to Paul freeing her.

Which leads to Paul and Silas’ imprisonment.

Which is the premise of our sermon title today, “Imprisoned in Philippi.”

Let’s Pray!

Acts 16:19-21 “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.”

Last week I shared some examples of how Satan dilutes truth with omission… making it a lie.

People of the world often do the same when it comes to accusations against Christians.

Just as we see in the accusations these slave masters present.

The truth is they had NO complaints against Paul until he freed their golden goose.

V16 states she “brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.”

But now, since Paul cast the demon out of her, and she lost the ability to divinate… V19 states, “… her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone…”

Hope is a powerful word, appearing in the Bible 154x in 145 verses.

By def. it means “expectation.”

What was their hope?

Financial profit… even through enslaving a girl.

They were cruel masters.

Terrible men who hoped for earthly treasures.

And, when hope is placed in earthly treasures, disappointment follows.

In Matt 6:19-21, Jesus taught, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Earthly treasures fade away… literally or by ceasing to fulfill.

Keeping earthly treasures is like trying to hold sand in you hand… it slips through your fingers.

There’s another kind of hope.

Jesus said, “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”

Eternal hope does not dissipate.

Paul wrote about hope in Rom 8:24-25 describes hope this way… “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?

25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.”

If your hope is placed in the things you can see… the things of this world… that’s not hope.

True hope is not of this world… and we should wait for that hope eagerly and with patience.

If you don’t have hope of the future right now… read the Bible… and specifically what the Bible says about hope… there are many great promises that we hope for and can be confident in.

The men in Acts who enslaved this girl and took advantage of her being possessed… they didn’t have an eternal hope… and as Paul exorcised the demon… he also exorcised their profits.

Their hope.

Their idol.

Their god.

Paul taught Timothy, in 1 Tim 6:10 “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.”

Money is a cruel master, but in and of itself… money is not the root of evil.

It’s when one loves money more than God, then it’s an issue.

When one lives for, and stores up wealth instead of being openhanded… then it’s sin.

In Acts 16, wealthy people are contrasted.

Lydia was wealthy and blessed the church.

These men just wanted money for themselves.

If God has blessed you with wealth… praise God.

How will you use it for His glory?

These slavers had no concept of using money for eternal gain.

And, now that their finances were disrupted… they seek to disrupt the lives of Paul and Silas.

V19 says, “… they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.”

They physically lay hold of Paul and Silas…

Just those two… Timothy and Luke are sparred probably because Timothy was 1/2 Greek and Luke all Gentile, so they looked more Roman… where Paul and Silas looked Jewish.

Paul and Silas are grabbed and dragged down the street… to face false legal accusations.

This is an aggressive citizens arrest.

They drag them to the “the marketplace” by def “a place of assembly”… where they find the “magistrates” or “authorities.”

And it was typical for Roman colonies, which Philippi was, to have two Magistrates.

Paul and Silas stand accused before these men, but the accusation omits a charge against ‘loss of finances’… the charge is a smokescreen to cover their financial motivation… a charge also racially and religiously prejudiced.

Look again at V20, “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.”

First, racial prejudice is expressed… Paul and Silas are Jews… and assumed not Romans (which was wrong and will later bite them)…

Romans held their own racial pride… and were often anti-semitic.

Second, they are called trouble makers… which is a charge against the Pax Romana… the peace of Rome.

If you messed with Rome’s peace, Rome messed with you.

Rome was very big on ‘do not disrupt the peace.’

Third, they present the accusation that Paul and Silas are teaching an illicit religion… an unapproved religion in the Roman world.

Tertullian later coined this a “religio illicita.”

And, this accusation had some truth.

When Paul exorcised the demon… we don’t read of a great evangelistic work in Philippi… and a multitude of people getting saved…

On that day, all we read is that Paul, based on the authority of Jesus Christ… commanded a demon to leave a girl.

And, sometimes all is takes to be persecuted is mentioning the name of Jesus Christ and standing up for truth.

And, in Rome, there was one authority… Caesar… whom they deified as they cried out “Caesar is lord.”

So, to speak in Jesus’ name and authority… was to imply Caesar was less than… and this indeed violated a Roman custom.

In these accusations, the businessmen fan the flames of hatred and manipulate the legal authorities and the general public to side with their claim… and it works.

NO legal discussion or trial occurs… the mob rises up and they move straight to sentencing…

Acts 16:22-24 “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.”

This was a brutal punishment.