The Servant and the Slave

Our message tonight looks at two stories from Acts that deal with two different people in two different circumstances.

One was a servant… the other was a slave.

On the surface… these two words seem very similar. In fact, there are several folks who might see these words as interchangeable. but as we will see in a moment, they are very different words indeed. And we will end tonight by asking which do you better identify with… the servant… or the slave?

Recall from last week that Paul and his traveling group was moving throughout the region bringing the gospel message to both Jews and gentiles.

God, through His Holy Spirit, had kept them from going in two other directions, and He led them through a vision to come to Macedonia. as we talked about, God opened the right door, and closed the wrong doors.

Being led by the Spirit, they encounter two interesting situations… situations that would involve a servant and a slave. First, let’s work to define these terms.

A servant is a person who performs duties for others, especially a person employed in a house on domestic duties or as a personal attendant.

Perhaps images that come to mind might be a butler or a maid. Servants are there to serve be it an employer, etc. They are in that position to “serve” the interests of the one they are serving. Servants do as they are told exactly how that person wants it done.

Servants do not serve themselves… but serve someone else.

A slave is a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them.

A slave is bound to their owner as their property. A slave is not employed, a slave is owned. In biblical times, slaves were often indebted to their owners so they worked to compensate for their debt. In our own national history, we experienced a time when people were purchased and traded not as people but as tools or commodities if you will.

Slaves have no choice… and they work for the profit of another.

These two words have some similarities… but also have some very big differences.

Servants are “employed.” Slaves are owned. Servants are in the role by choice… slaves are given no other choice. Servants desire to please the one they are serving. Slaves had better please the one they call master.

And with all this talk regarding these two words… these are words we don’t like to hear in our culture today.

You don’t hear many people talk of being a servant. You don’t hear many people talk of being a slave. Yet, both hold significant spiritual value and we are going to talk about that tonight.

Acts 16:11-19 tells the story of two encounters the traveling missionaries experience. Both encounters deal with two ladies… one we will identify as a servant, the other identified in Scripture as a slave. Both are working to profit another… One by choice, the other by possession.

Both were operating according to a Spirit… but what we will see is just how different their experiences were.

Here’s what I want us to understand tonight. The enemy is working to bind you. The enemy is working to enslave you. The enemy is working to influence you to fall into bondage. NO ONE, I believe, just says “Yes Devil, I will become a slave through sin.” Yet so many live in that reality today.

Jesus, on the other hand has come to set you free. Jesus is working to break the chains that bind you. Jesus wants to lead you to come out from under the weight of bondage. Jesus wants to save you!

John 10:10 tells us this truth directly, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

Tonight we are going to look at both encounters… we are going to study both circumstances and see how God moves in each situation.

Main Point: God desires for us to serve Him… and only God can set those in bondage free!

The Servant Encounter

The missionary group finds themselves in Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. They are there because God has led them to be there. And according to Acts 16:12, they stayed there several days.

Now, we have seen Paul very active within the synagogues throughout his travels in this region. But take notice of something in verse 13. This ministry does not begin in a synagogue, but takes place outside the city gate.

Scholars agree that this is likely due to there not being a synagogue present in this location at this time. In that day, all that was required was for there to be 10 Jewish men to constitute a synagogue. No amount of women could compensate for the absence of even one man necessary to make up the quorum of ten. This means there were very few resident Jews in Philippi. But this did NOT stop the advancement of the gospel.

Acts 16:13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

Lydia was from Thyatira and she was a dealer in purple cloth. Thyatira was known for their production of purple die so Lydia was in the region on business. I find it really interesting that while she was in the area, she made a point to do what? Join with other believing ladies at a place of prayer.

Lydia was identified as a woman who worshipped God. She loved God… not only by word but by action. She was at this place to honor God. And while she is there, she hears how the Son of God came to take away the sins of the world.

And look at verse 14. While she was listening, the Lord opened her heart to respond to the message. SHE BELIEVED in the message of the cross.

Because of her belief, herself and the members of her household were all baptized. They all make a public profession of their new faith in Jesus Christ. Then, she invites the traveling team to stay in their home… with this condition, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord.” And the last four words of verse 15 makes clear that they believed in her transformation. “And she persuaded us.”

What was it that “persuaded” these guys of her salvation in Jesus? I believe it was her obvious faith and willingness to serve.

Before coming to this place of prayer, Lydia was already a worshipper of God - she was there to pray and to join with other believing women to pray. They gathered here because of the area apparently had no synagogue.

While on business, her faith led her to serve the Lord. She could have skipped out… she could have let her business dealings rule the day. She could have made the excuse, “Well, since we have no ‘official’ place to worship and pray, I guess I’ll just be about my business and go home.”

Lydia’s faith did not allow for her to “skip out” on her time with God. And because of her willingness to serve God in this way, she heard the gospel message and believed and was baptized… her whole household was baptized!!!

She now knew the Lord in a way she hadn’t before and it was all because she desired to serve God no matter what.

How many times do we find ourselves making excuses? How many times do we find ourselves “skipping out” on what God has for us?

If the Covid 19 season taught us anything I hope that it taught us to appreciate our ability to meet together as the body of Christ. WE TAKE THIS FOR GRANTED and church… don’t take this the wrong way… but in many ways we are spoiled as a church in America… and it’s beginning to show.

We have to have the right building with the right seats with the right colors with the right carpet with the right lights and the right music and the right temperature and the right coffee and the right sound system and the right technology in order for us to get things done.

Well, correct me if I’m wrong but… Jesus said in Matthew 18:20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. If you have the people of God who are filled with the Spirit of God who desire to be about the plans of God then my friends… YOU’VE GOT A CHURCH! ALL WE NEED IS JESUS! ALL WE NEED IS HIS SPIRIT!

As we talked about this morning, If the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is not enough to motivate you to be missional, no earthly tool will ever be enough to get you moving!

Church, I fear we are forgetting what it means to SERVE! I fear believers are more interested in serving their own interests and preferences instead of serving and seeking the presence of God.

To serve God is to place His plan and His presence over our agenda and our preferences. Lydia had come to town on business… but her most important task was serving God through her pursuit and prayer. And because of her servants heart… God, though His Spirit, led this missionary team to come minister to her and… SHE BECAME PAUL’S FIRST CONVERT IN EUROPE.

How many in this room have ties back to Europe? How many of those family ties were believers? Then there is a possibility that this story is why and how your family knows Jesus!!!

Lydia served God and now knew what it meant to serve Jesus. Because of her faith… because she was a servant, she had come to know the Lord on a whole new level!

The Slave Encounter

Next we go another recorded encounter in Acts 16… one that involves an individual who is identified as a slave and as we will see… she is a slave to more than one master.

Acts 16:16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

Paul and his team encounter a woman who is a slave to two masters.

First, Scripture indicates she was under the influence of a “spirit” by which she was able to tell the future. How do we know this “spirit” was not from God.

We know this by the rebuke given. Paul drives out the spirit by the name of Jesus. We know there is power in His name but how does this helps us know the Spirit was not of God? Luke 11 tells us how. After Jesus had driven out a demon that made a man mute, there were spectators who were skeptical regarding what just took place. They said in verse 15, “By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.”

Jesus quickly responded with this truth in verse 17, “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. 18 If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul. 19 Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 20 But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

The “spirit’ granting the woman this fortune telling power WAS NOT OF GOD.

Secondly, the woman was owned by a man who used her “ability” for his own profit. And evidently, this brought this slave owner a great deal of money.

The enemy had possession of her spiritually… and she was the earthly possession of someone using her for profit.

We don’t know how it was she fell into this spiritual darkness but she was living in captivity… she was being used of the enemy and used of a slave master for personal gain. She needed to be set free.

This passage shows us a desperate picture of what unchecked sin in life can lead to. Again, we don’t know how she fell into this darkness… but it did nothing but lead her to captivity and bondage.

Satan wants nothing more than to destroy you. The more we entertain darkness in our lives… the more we become a slave to it. And the world will exploit you and use you and bind you with that darkness.

One thing leads to another that leads to another. One mistake turns into a habit that turns into an addiction. One compromise turns into a vulnerability that turns into a weakness.

We can say it over and over again in different ways but here’s the point church: SIN ALWAYS LEADS TO BONDAGE. Sin always leads to destruction. This woman had been trapped in more ways than one and she had no earthly hope or means of escape… that is until she annoyed Paul into taking notice.

This spirit… was a distraction to what God was wanting to do. This spirit was announcing that they had come to lead people to Jesus… but where was the attention going? To Jesus or to the slave woman who was “telling the future?” See the difference here?

The enemy was working to steal the focus off of God on onto himself.

But with one statement, the woman is set free from her bondage.

At the name of Jesus… that spirit had to leave.

Servant… or Slave?

Here is where we get really real tonight. Are you a servant… or a slave?

What kinds of things might we be enslaved to this evening?

Schedules that routinely get in the way of our time with God.

Busyness that drains us of life.

Sin… even secret sin that is tightening the chains link by link

Interests or desires that do not line up with God and His ways.

The list can go on and on...

What does the life of a servant look like?

Simple… a servant of Jesus is one that will follow Jesus no matter the cost.

Consider Lydia once more. She could have been selling her goods instead of spending that time in that place of prayer. but then she would have missed out on hearing the message of the cross.

When we skip out on our times with God, when we skip out on going to church and put other things in front of our worship, we risk missing out on what God has in store for us.

And let’s never forget this most important point: we get to serve God… the God who first served us through the giving of His Son for our sins. THERE IS NO GREATER ACT OF SERVICE THAN THIS! There is no greater act of love!

How far are you willing to go tonight for Jesus? Do you find anything in your heart that would hold you back?

If yes… then we need to do something very important. We need to tell that thing “In the name of Jesus, you are not getting in the way or distracting me in my service to the King!”

Jesus wants to and will set you free tonight… but you must first make the choice to serve Him. You must be willing to give it all to Jesus.