Trouble your city with the Gospel Acts 16:13-24

Introduction

In Acts we have seen the Apostles and Disciples of Christ share the Gospel boldly despite the repercussions they might face. The religious leaders have complained that they had turned the world upside down with the Gospel.

They had been stuck in a religious rut for many years and the apostles came in and showed them that the only way to heaven is Jesus Christ and their religiosity will never get them to heaven.

Here in our text this morning we will see that Paul and Silas would trouble the city with the gospel. They are going to challenge the religious norms and cast out a demon in Jesus’ name and some people are going to get upset.

Serving God is full of mountain tops and valleys, we, like Paul and Silas, must keep our eyes on Jesus, so that even in the valleys, we continue to trust him and His plan for our lives.

The Word of God opens the heart of Lydia vs. 13-15

In verse 13 we find ourselves by a river outside the city of Philippi.

Notice its the sabbath day and they aren't in the synagogue as Paul normally would, but are instead by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made

The word wont here means accustomed; using or doing customarily.

It almost implies that there wasn’t a synagogue, but prayer was made here on the sabbath instead.

As they are by the river side they sit down and spake unto the woman that resorted or frequented this spot.

The Bible gives us more details about this lady in verse 14

Her name is Lydia

She was a seller of purple - the people in the area she is from are famous for their skill in making and using purple dye

She was likely wealthy as purple goods were expensive and often associated with royalty.

She was of the city of Thyatira which is in Asia.

It’s interesting that in verse 6 we see that Paul was forbidden of the Holy Ghost to go to Asia, but through God’s providence he is still able to share the Gospel with a lady who is from Asia who happens to be in Macedonia and more specifically Philippi, where the Lord has Paul preaching the Gospel.

Like we said last week, we should never get ahead of God. God’s timing is always perfect he has never been early and praise the Lord he has never been late.

We also find that she worshiped God

She was like Cornelius, she was worshiping God, because it was the right thing to do, but she didn’t have a relationship with God.

She was a gentile that had likely heard about God in the synagogue in Thyatira, but what she had heard was incomplete and inconsistent.

She was listening to what Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke were saying and praying and the Lord opened her heart.

I like what one commentary said this means “It means that the God of all grace opened her Spiritual eyes so that she could embrace Jesus as Lord”

2 Corinthians 4:5–6 “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Paul didn’t win her with flattering words, but rather he preached the Gospel and the Lord opened her heart to receive the Gospel, and her life was changed because of it.

She went from having a head knowledge of God, to having a heart knowledge of God

Someone said “The difference between heaven and hell is 18 inches, the difference between your head and your heart.”

When she heard the Gospel she believed in and trusted Christ as her Savior and was baptised.

We also see her house was baptised, showing that they believed the Gospel as well.

You never know what your testimony might do for others. I remember one year at church camp, the speaker gave his testimony at the service right before lunch and around 50 kids got saved in that service.

After the baptism she comes and offers them a place to stay.

They had found her faithful, meaning she had proven herself faithful to the Lord and so they stayed with her.

The amazing thing about Lydia’s House is that it would become the meeting place for the church in Philippi.

God used Paul and Silas to reach Lydia because they were yielded to his will.

The Name of Jesus casts out an evil Spirit vs. 16-18

Here we find Paul, Silas, Luke and Timothy headed back out to prayer and this time instead of meeting Lydia they meet a damsel or young lady that is possessed with a spirit of divination or what we would call a fortune teller.

This girl was used by her masters to bring much gain

the word gain here means to have advantage or profit; to grow rich.

And the way they used her to bring them gain is by her soothsaying or telling of future events.

This young lady followed them crying that “these men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation”

She was not doing this out if reverence or respect for God, but rather mocking and ridiculing God.

What she was saying is true, but the way she was saying it because of the demon that possessed her was doing more harm than good.

one commentary put it this way “Paul wanted no such testimony. It was true indeed that he and Silas were the servants of God Most High, and it was equally true that they proclaimed the way of salvation. However, it was the province of the Holy Spirit, not an evil spirit, to bear witness to that.”

Jesus also didn’t allow evil spirits to testify of him. Evil spirits lie and deceive and Jesus nor Paul wanted people led astray by them.

Notice that this girl didn’t just do this once, but the Bible said she did it many days.

Paul was grieved by it

He was grieved for the damage it was doing to the cause of Christ

He was grieved for what it was doing to the poor, lost, slave girl.

His heart was grieved by her lostness

When is the last time we were grieved by someone who we knew was lost?

Paul knew the trouble that would be caused by freeing this girl from the spirit she was possessed with, but he had too free her.

We see Paul command the spirit in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her and that same hour it did.

She was free from the bondage of that evil spirit, but she could no longer make her masters any money because her ability to tell fortunes was gone, which leads us to the last point.

Paul and Silas thrown in jail for doing right vs. 19-24

After the girl is freed from the evil spirit we find her masters coming to the realization that they were out of business.

“the hope of their gains was gone”

Instead of rejoicing that the girl was no longer possessed by the evil spirit they chased down Paul and Silas down into the market place with the rulers of the city

The went so far as to bring them into the magistrates, which would be like the President here in America.

Look at their accusations

These men (Paul and Silas)

Being Jews (Luke was a gentile and Timothy was half-gentile and probably looked gentile so they were left alone) There was anti-semitism going on even in that day as Philippi was largely influenced by Rome, so thats why they picked on Paul and Silas

do exceedingly trouble our city

Teaching customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe being Romans.

The trouble they had caused the city was they preached the Gospel and cast out a demon in the name of Jesus.

The only trouble this had caused them was they lost their profits from their slave.

The multitudes that were there in the middle of the city and the magistrates were so angry with them that they rent their clothes and beat them.

they thought how could these Jews come into our city and do what they want with my salve and teach something that is illegal to teach here.

After they had recieved many stripes they were cast in to prison and the jailer was charged or commanded to keep them safely.

There were no excuses if they were to escape, the jailer was warned. These men were to be treated as dangerous prisoners

He took special precautions as he put them in the inner prison and put their feet in stocks, making it impossible to escape.

Application for today; I think sometimes we try to distance ourselves from stories in the Bible because we don’t think it applies to us. This might be one of those where we think; how does this apply to me? If God can free this girl from the spirit of divination, what can’t he free us from? He can free us from anything, we just have to yield it to him.

Conclusion

This morning we have come to a time of decision.

We saw two mountain top experiences for the missionaries to Macedonia, Lydia accepting Christ and being baptised and a young lady being freed from an evil spirit, but now we find them in a valley as they just recieved a beating and now they are in the inner part of the prison, with their feet in stocks. They could’ve easily given up but instead they kept their eyes on Jesus as we will see next week.

Christian; Will we like Paul and Silas continue to preach the good news of the Gospel no matter what adversity we might face or will we give up when things get hard?

If your’e not a Christian maybe you find yourself like Lydia, you know how to play Christianity well, but you don’t have a relationship with Christ, will you come this morning and place your faith in Christ? I would hate for anyone to miss heaven by 18 inches.