The Power of God in the Mission of God

INTRODUCTION

We have been in the book of Acts for about a year and a half now.

We have stopped along the way for some special series and special Sundays, but for the most part, we have been plugging away since the early months of 2023.

In this time, there has been one Scripture that we find ourselves returning to again and again.

It is what you might call the “key verse” or “theme verse” for the book of Acts.

After the resurrected Christ has been with His disciples for forty days, teaching them about the kingdom of God (v. 4).

In light of this teaching, the disciples have a question about the kingdom.

Acts 1:6 ESV

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

This is not an ignorant question. It receives no rebuke from Christ.

It is an honest question with theology in mind.

Here is David Peterson explaining it:

The Acts of the Apostles B. The Commissioning of the Apostles (1:6–8)

The apostles were expecting Jesus, as God’s anointed king, to usher in the restoration to which many Jews looked forward, and of which Jesus himself had spoken. Since the Spirit was connected with the end events in Jewish expectation (e.g., Jl. 2:28–32), they took it for granted that sovereignty was soon to be restored to Israel, so that God’s ultimate purpose for the world might be fulfilled

This is a theologically informed question from men who are certain, with all of their hearts, that they are talking to the Messiah.

But it was not yet the time for the end. It was not time for the consummation of the world. That will take place when Christ comes again.

But until then, the Lord would continue to build His Kingdom, soul by soul, through the preaching of the Good News of His covenant community that He has saved by grace.

And this preaching of the good news is not done in their own strength.

It is a work fueled by power from heaven itself. \

So Jesus told His disciples:

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

It was not for them to know the times and seasons when it comes to Christs’ return.

These are things fixed by God.

But what they are to be concerned with is being a faithful part of God’s Spirit-empowered mission.

This is the mission that we will see Paul on this morning.

It is the mission that we are on as believers and as a church.

It is the mission that all of God’s witnesses have been on in these end times, as they await Jesus’ return and the end of the age.

In Acts 2, the power that Jesus promised is poured out at Pentecost—the power of the Spirit of God.

And throughout the book, we have seen that power at work.

And we will see it again this morning in this passage.

Main Point: The POWER of God is at work in the MISSION of God.

And in light of that, we will have three implications.

If this is true—if the POWER of God is at work in the MISSION of God—then this implies that:

A) The power for the mission comes from above.

B) The power for the mission does not come from us.

C) The power for the mission produces something we could never produce on our own.

CONTEXT AND SCRIPTURE

Since it has been a few weeks, let me remind you of where we are:

Paul is in Philippi.

He came there after receiving his Macedonian vision at the beginning of this chapter.

A few weeks ago, he led Lydia to Christ.

This morning, ministry in Philippi continues.

Let’s read the passage and get into it.

Acts 16:16–40 ESV

As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and 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 bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.

THE POWER OF GOD AT WORK

The POWER of God is at work in the MISSION of God.

We can see that in four ways in these verses this morning.

I. The power of God casts out the demonic (v. 16-18).

As Paul and Silas are on their way to that same place of prayer where Lydia was converted, an enslaved servant girl, with a spirit of divination engages with them and then for many days, follows them around.

As she does this, she is crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” (v. 17)

When Luke says that she has a “spirit of divination,” the Greek word for the term is literally python spirit and it actually refers to ventriloquism.

Now, somewhere around the 18th century, ventriloquism became harmless performance art with puppets.

But in first-century Rome, it was spiritual.

Ventriloquists would “talk from their belly.”

And people believed there was a python spirit in their stomach that was channeling the voices of the dead and only the ventriloquist could interpret the voices.

When Luke uses this term to describe the demon within the girl, we can understand how her owners were getting “much gain” from her.

She seems to have a spirit within her, which Luke refers to as a python spirit, that is influencing her, if not fully controlling her, as she gives future-telling oracles to paying clients.

Now, why does she follow Paul around shouting that he and Silas are servants of the Most High God?

Well, first of all, “Most High God,” means something to you and I, as believers in Christ, that it would not have meant to the citizens of Philippi.

They would have thought of Zeus.

So already, the girl’s words are purposely vague and meant to confuse the population.

Secondly, her use of the term “servant,” is not the sort of devoted, Christian servanthood that we think of when we hear the word.

Instead, it is more in line with the idea of the way people served the Greek and Roman gods.

Servanthood to those false gods was one of pitiful fear.

Service out of guilt, obligation and the ever-present threat of doom.

Cringing and groveling like Smee to Captain Hook.

And then finally, when she says, “the way of salvation,” there is no definite article in the Greek, so she could be understood to be saying that Paul and Silas are proclaiming one way to salvation.

So I don’t think that this is mere mockery. Instead, it is deceptive misrepresentation.

Her words will likely be taken by the pagans of Philippi to mean that Paul and Silas are “miserable, crawling slaves of Zeus, telling you of a way of salvation.”

You can see why Paul would be eager to have this stop.

He is greatly annoyed or greatly disturbed, so he turns to the spirit and he commands that the spirit come out and it does at that very hour.

But notice why the spirit comes out—you can see it in Paul’s command.

In the name of Jesus Christ...

Paul does not do this work on his own authority.

Paul does not cast out this demon of his own power.

It is done in the authority and power of name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we studied Luke’s Gospel, we saw Jesus confronting the demonic forces of hell just like this, didn’t we? Remember the scene from Luke 8...

Jesus is in the country of the Garasenes and there is a demon-possessed man there who calls Jesus the “Son of the Most High God,” —which is very similar to the words used by the girl here in Acts 16.

The man has many demons in him and Jesus casts them out into a herd of pigs who immediately run off of a cliff into lake and drown.

Understand, that this is the same power at work in Acts 16.

In Luke 8, Christ incarnate is casting out many demons.

In Acts 16, we have a demon being cast out in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by an apostle of Christ, who is filled with the Spirit of Christ.

This is the same power on display, defeating the demonic.

This is the first way we see God’s power at work in God’s mission in this text.

II. The power of God delivered His servants from prison (v. 19-26).

When the owners realize that the python spirit has been cast out of their slave, they are furious. They have lost their cash cow.

So they grab Paul and Silas and bring them before the magistrates who are in charge of the Roman colony (v. 19).

They show their evil character by trying to appeal to anti-Semitic prejudice that existed among the Romans.

These are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. (v. 20)

In verse 21, you see them set Paul and Silas up as these sort of threats to the Roman customs and practices.

The message is clear: The Jews are here trying to mess up our Roman way of life.

They don’t worship like us.

They don’t eat like us.

They don’t live like us.

And they are here disturbing the peace with their strange ways again!

In v. 22, we see mob violence ensue and the magistrates tear the clothes off of Paul and Silas and beat them with rods.

This is a proper Roman flogging. An official punishment of the state.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul says that he receives this punishment three times in his life.

After they have received their punishment, they are thrown into jail (v. 23).

The fact that it is the “inner prison” and that their feet are in stocks, tells us that this is a maximum security imprisonment for Paul and Silas.

They are in the most secure cell.

They have their feet fastened in wood.

Notice how Paul and Barnabas react to this.

They do not silently despair.

They do not loudly complain.

With their bodies still cut and bruised and broken...

…They sing.

With their freedom taken, behind prison bars...

…They pray.

They are praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners are listening to them (v. 25).

They have probably been in jail for 12 hours at this point.

They are sitting on the floor with their feet in the wooden stocks.

They have open wounds and dried blood.

They are in utter darkness.

And yet—they do not employ their tongues for grumbling or grieving.

They sing of God’s virtuous deeds and praise Him.

They call to Him for help from heaven.

And God responds.

In verse 26, the Lord demonstrates His sovereign power by bringing about an earthquake that shakes the very foundations of the prison.

All of the doors and opened and the bonds are unfastened.

The force of the earthquake, which comes about by the power of God in the governance of God, literally frees Paul and Silas.

In Job 9, Job is responding to his friend, Bilidad, and he is asking who can contend with God or be made right with Him. And as he does this, Job recounts God’s power.

Here is what he says:

Job 9:4–6 ESV

He is wise in heart and mighty in strength —who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?— he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger, who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;

This earth-shaking, ground-quaking power of God that Job is referring to is what is at work in Acts 16.

The God who shakes the earth out of its place, shakes the prison to free His apostles and as we will see in just a moment, to free the soul of a jailer.

This is the second way we see God’s POWER at work in God’s MISSION in this passage.

III. The power of God converts the jailer (v. 27-34).

In verse 27, the jailer wakes up.

This man is likely a public slave—a servant owned by the city of Philippi who is put in charge of the city jail.

Believing the prisoners have escaped, he decides to kill himself, which will be better than what the Romans will do to him. A failure like this for a slave could result in crucifixion.

But Paul saves the man by calling out to him and telling him that he and Silas have not left and that all the prisoners are there. (v. 28).

Some have wondered how Paul would have known this, since it was dark and the jailer himself can’t seem to see what is going on.

I don’t think this is so strange though.

After an jail-rendering earthquake, escape would not have necessarily been easy.

It is still dark.

There is still lots of destroyed structure around.

Paul would have been able to hear if people were moving around and escaping the scene.

The jailer asks for light and then runs in and falls down before Paul and Silas, trembling. (v. 29).

The jailer knows that Paul and Silas are here for their devotion to their Most High God and the customs that it brings.

He is likely falling down at their feet because he believes they are in control of the power that shook the jail.

After bringing them out of the jail, he wants to know what he must do to be saved (v. 30).

In a pagan context, the jailer is likely thinking of sacrifices or rituals he could perform.

But he is not told to perform a sacrifice. He is told of One who has already made a sacrifice.

Acts 16:31 ESV

And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

So they go and speak the “word of the Lord” to the jailer and his family.

The “Word of the Lord” is none other than the good news of the Kingdom.

The Gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected.

And we know from their baptisms in v. 33 that they all repented of their sin and trusted in Christ to be saved.

We also know because we can see the immediate fruit of Christian hospitality coming to bear in this household.

After he jailer washes the wounds of the men, he brings them to his house and makes them food and rejoices that salvation has come to his home (v. 33-34).

When Paul wrote to the Romans, he said this:

Romans 1:16 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

In this passage, we are see the power of God for salvation in action as the jailer’s family hear the Word of the Lord and they believe.

They are not Jewish.

They are Greek.

But they have been told by Jewish apostles of a Jewish Messiah for the entire world.

And they place their faith in Him.

And the power of God has saved their souls.

This is the third way we see God’s POWER at work in God’s MISSION in this text.

IV. The power of God is with Paul as he goes (v. 35-40; 17:2-4)

As we get to the end of chapter 16, the magistrates who had Paul beaten show back up and they want Paul and Silas to be let go (v. 35).

We are not totally sure of their motivation in this.

It could be fear of more earthquakes.

It could be that they feel enough punishment was handed out already.

The jailer comes to tell Paul (v. 36), but he won’t have any of it.

Paul says:

They beat on us without due process—that’s what he means by “uncondemned” (v. 37)

They tossed us in prison (v. 37)

None of this should have happened because we are Roman citizens (v. 37)

And now, they have the audacity to try and let us go quietly after they humiliated us publicly?

No. Let them come escort us out in a grand show and let everyone know that what happened here was not just.

When the magistrates find out they are dealing with Romans citizens and that they have made an error that due process could have saved them from, they decide it is probably best to do what Paul asks and put this whole matter to rest with as little fanfare as they can (v. 38-39).

They apologize and escort them out and ask them to leave the city.

In verse 40, Paul and Silas’ team go to visit the fledgling church that is gathering at Lydia’s home and then they depart.

And I believe that the reason Paul demands that there is a public reversal of the beating and imprisonment in v. 37 is because of these people in v. 40.

If the Jesus-proclaiming Apostle is publicly apologized to, then maybe the church he planted will be more accepted in the city as it seeks to proclaim Christ to its citizens.

But if we could look ahead just a bit to the next passage we will deal with in Acts, look what Paul does next in Thessalonica.

Acts 17:2–4 ESV

And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

He keeps proclaiming and persuading.

Just as he did in Philippi.

In other words, after giving Paul the wisdom to leave the church in Philippi in a better situation with the city officials upon his exit, he goes in the very same power of God and gets to work in Thessalonica.

The mission continues and it is the power of God sustaining it.

The same power promised in Acts 1.

The same power poured out in Acts 2.

The same power present in Acts 16.

This is the power that persists as the Gospel will continue to be proclaimed in Acts.

This is the power that persists as the Gospel is proclaimed through us.

The power of God is at work in the mission of God.

THREE IMPLICATIONS

A) The power for the mission comes from above.

Our implications are not rocket science this morning. But they are important to state and understand.

First of all, The power for the mission comes from above.

This goes back to what Jesus told His disciples before His ascension in Luke’s condensed summary at the end of his gospel.

Luke 24:49 ESV

And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

The power that they are clothed with for the mission of proclaiming the Gospel to the world comes from out of this world.

It is a divine power that comes from on high.

It is a power that is connected to the promise of the Father.

The promise of the Father that is being spoken of in Luke 24 is the Helper who is promised in John 14.

John 14:15–17 ESV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

This Helper, the Spirit of truth, is the One who is empowering Peter to preach on the day of Pentecost, leading to the salvation of thousands of souls.

This Helper, the Spirit of truth, is the One who is empowering Stephen as he delivers his address to the Sanhedrin in Acts 6 and 7.

He is the promise of the Father who empowered Philip to preach to the Ethiopian eunuch.

He is the power from on high who clothed Peter as he led Cornelius and his household to Christ.

He is the power from on high that clothed Cornelius and his household as they, in turn, went and became witnesses to the world.

As Paul and Barnabas set out from Antioch on their church planting mission, it was the Spirit who was with them.

As Paul is receiving his Macedonian Call, it is the Spirit who is forbidding them to speak in Asia or go to Bithynia.

And as he goes to the place of prayer in Philippi, the Spirit is with Paul as Lydia’s heart is opened to hear the Word.

We know the Holy Spirit is at work in our salvation.

He is the One who regenerates the soul.

He reveals our inability to save ourselves.

He witnesses to our souls of the blessings we have in Christ after we believe.

He convicts us of unrighteousness and brings forth fruits of righteousness from our lives as we are sanctified.

But He is also at work in the proclamation of this salvation.

He is at work in the messenger, filling them to share the truth in boldness.

He is at work in bringing the truth of the Word of God to the hearer with conviction.

He is at work in opening hearts to receive the truth and to repent and believe.

He does these things because He loves to see Jesus glorified by saving souls and bringing them to the Father.

John 16:13–14 ESV

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The Spirit declares to us the revelation of God that is Jesus Christ.

He points us to God’s great revealing of Himself in His Son.

This led Charles Spurgeon to say this:

Where He is uplifted, there is all that is needed for the salvation of a guilty race. Judge every movement, then, not by those who adhere to it, nor by those who admire and praise it, but by this word of our Lord, “He shall glorify me.” The Spirit of God is not in it if it does not glorify Christ.

Charles Spurgeon

I would add to Spurgeon’s words that if the Spirit of God is not in it, there is no power in it.

B) The power for the mission does not come from us.

Our second implication is that, The power for the mission does not come from us.

There are certain things natural to some things that are not natural to others.

I can watch a fish swim and know that it is a natural thing for it to do.

I can watch a bird violently throw itself into the water to catch that fish in its mouth and I know that it is a natural thing for it to do.

I know those things are not natural to me.

I can swim, but I cannot stay underwater like a fish because I don’t have gills.

I can fly in a plane, but apart from that, I cannot fly because I do not have wings—just for starters.

The reality is that the power for the mission, if it comes from on high, does not come from us.

Instead, we are vessels that the power is working through.

Now, you might hear vessel and think, “That sounds awesome. What kind of vessel? Battleship? Aircraft carrier?”

No—a different type of vessel.

2 Corinthians 4:7 ESV

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

We are jars, or vessels, of clay.

We are frail and prone to breaking.

We are finite and our outer bodies are wasting away.

And yet, according to Paul, God loves to work through us because it shows that the power belongs to Him and not to us.

But many are not satisfied with this. They want to make up for what is lacking with human invention.

I think about Charles Finney, a preacher from the 19th century who was a revivalist.

In his lectures on revival, Finney taught that revival is no more a miracle than a growing crops is a miracle. You just need the right ingredients.

First of all, you need good marketing.

Secondly, you need protracted, drawn-out times where people can respond to the message.

Thirdly, the preacher needs to find ways address individual sinners from the pulpit, pressuring them to make a decision for Christ.

And fourthly, you must get them to take a smaller step before praying to become a Christian.

Get them to walk an aisle

Sit on an anxious bench

Small step after small step until you get them to say the prayer.

To use the man’s own words:

The preacher must produce excitements sufficient to induce sinners to repentance.

Charles Finney

Now, I find these words gross and I hope you do as well.

We do not bring about revival.

The power is not in us or in our invention or our method.

The power for the mission comes from on high.

But we have to be careful because we can fall into the same trap as Finney in smaller ways.

We can believe that our favorite method of evangelizing is the only way to evangelize.

We can think that the program we love the most at the church is the program that the church can’t lose or she won’t be effective anymore.

Or we can begin to believe too much in our own gifting and trust in ourselves as we go about the work of ministry.

A sign that you are doing this is that you are busy doing the work of the church, but you aren’t worshipping the Lord of the Church.

You don’t pray.

You don’t read the Word.

You effectively have no private faith.

What you see here is pretty much what you get.

And yet you are still doing the ministry in your own power, expecting divine results.

The bottom line is that the power is not from us. It is not natural to us.

The mission is empowered from on high.

C. The power for the mission produces something we could never produce on our own.

Finally, as we go this morning, we must recognize our third implication: The power for the mission produces something we could never produce on our own.

The thing about the power from on high is that it changes lives.

It resurrects dead men and women and makes them spiritual newborn children of God.

It is a total heart transplant. A complete work of grace.

It was foolish of Charles Finney and those who bought into his nonsense to believe that something like that can be brought about by human will and invention.

Because here is the reality—if we could change people we would!

I have a list of people I pray for everyday that don’t know Jesus and I love them.

I have dread for them.

I pray for God to give me opportunities to speak to them or that He would send someone else to speak to them.

I am sure many of you have these lists and you pray these prayers.

If you could go and change these people you would.

Your children.

Your grandparents.

Your best friend.

Your spouse.

You’d change them if you could change them, but the reality is that you can’t.

This is something that only God can do.

Turning again to Spurgeon, he wondered out loud in a sermon how two men could come to church together, here the same message and one of them weep in repentance and one them just go back to sinning.

How is it that the same truth has an effect upon the one and not upon his fellowman? Because the mysterious Spirit of the living God goes with the truth to one heart and not to the other. The one feels only the force of truth, and that may be strong enough to make him tremble, like Felix; but the other feels the Spirit going with the truth, and that renews and regenerates the man, and causes him to pass into that gracious condition called salvation.

Charles Spurgeon

You and I can’t change them.

But God will bring them into that gracious condition of salvation.

We simply must be willing vessels to preach the Gospel to everyone, trusting God to make dead hearts alive.

CONCLUSION

The power is from on high—it is not from us.

It brings about a salvation that no mere human could work in another.

The power of God is at work in the mission of God.