Acts Week 61 - Damsel in Distress

The New King James Version Chapter 16

Paul and Silas Imprisoned

Demonized Slave Girl (16:16-24)

Context

Macedonian Call (v. 1-10)

Conversion of Lydia (v. 11-15)

  Kaleidoscope of Conversions

Conversion of Lydia (v. 11-15)

Conversion of Demonized Damsel (v. 16-24)

Conversion of Philippian Jailor (v. 25-34)

Kaleidoscope of Conversions 

Commercial Realm (Lydia)

Religious Realm (Demon Girl)

Political Realm (Jailor)  

Flow of the Passage

Damsel in Distress (v. 16-18)

Missionaries Imprisoned (v. 19-24)

Missionaries Vindicated (v. 25-40)

Whenever God is at work as in the conversion of Lydia Satan is not far behind, note the demonized slave girl.

Damsel in Distress (v. 16-18)

Spirit of Python:

Herodotus says Python was a mythical snake demon worshiped at Delphi oracle.

Priestess would inhale smoke, incense, and natural gases to achieve altered state of consciousness (Gk. “manic” = Eng. maniac) and grant a vision.

No commander would set out on a major military campaign nor would an emperor make an important decree without first consulting an oracle to see how things might turn out. A slave girl with a clairvoyant gift was thus a veritable gold mine for her owners.

Theology of Demons:

cf. Matt. 8:29; Mark 1:24; 5:7; Luke 4:34; 8:28, 31; James 2:19.

Doctrine of Demons:

"A way of salvation" (1 Tim. 4:1)...

“Most High God” (cf. Is. 14:14)...

These acclamations may have been true enough, but they were open to too much misunderstanding for pagan hearers. The truth could not be so easily condensed for those from a polytheistic background. Jesus might be seen as just another savior in the bulging pantheon of Greek gods (NAC).

Power Encounter:

"In the name of Jesus Christ..."

Key theme of book (Acts 1:1-2; 3:12-16; 19:18)

Apollo vs. Python:

Greek myth taught that Apollo defeated the spirit of Python and took control of its soothsaying powers...

Clash of Two Juggernauts:

Most famous, lucrative oracle of antiquity...

The genuine, authoritative Word of God...

Apostles Imprisoned (v. 19-24)

The lictors were the official attendants on the chief magistrates in Rome and other Roman cities. They carried as symbols of office bundles of rods, with an axe inserted among them in certain circumstances—the fasces et secures59 —denoting the magistrates’ right to inflict corporal and, where necessary, capital punishment. It was with the lictors’ rods that the two missionaries were beaten on this occasion. It was not the only time that Paul had this treatment meted out to him: five or six years later he claims to have been beaten with rods three times (2 Cor. 11:25), although we have no information about the two other occasions. (F.F. Bruce)

The Slave Masters:

Motivation of Money: cf. Mark 5:15-16; Acts 19:24-28; 1 Tim. 6:10. Here the greed of the slave girl’s owners was in marked contrast to the generosity of Lydia, who shared her house with the missionaries. It says Paul was drug to the marketplace, contrast Acts 8:3 where earlier Paul did the dragging!

Method of Opposition: Accuse Christians of being counter-cultural & enemies of state (v. 20-21). In fact Cicero and Tertulian speak of a Roman law that made it illegal to follow a religion not specifically legalized by the Roman Senate, i.e. a religio licita.