The Real thing

Good morning and welcome to another week of church here at the bridge. I am so glad that we can be here together and worship this morning.

It just isn’t the same.

Have you ever had a product that you buy that you decide to save a little money and you buy a different brand or you buy the generic. Or you might be visiting a friend or a family member and they buy something different than you are used to.

It’s that moment when you bite into something that you realize this is not what you expected. I experienced that recently when I was making a Reese’s Peanut butter cheesecake.

When I Make the crust of this cheese cake i do a mixture of Oreo cookies and Nutter butter cookies to make the crust. It is that all important mix of peanut butter and chocolate that makes up a peanut butter cup that i just had to have.

When i made one recently i was at Walmart getting supplies and they were out of Oreo cookies. I decided to buy the walmart generic cookies. Now for the cheesecake they were fine because enough things happen to change them that it wasn’ t noticeable. However, i did sit down and had a couple of the extras that I regret that i ate. I am sorry but the generic oreos are just not the same. IT was noticeably different.

That is the thing though with generic or off brands. They may look the same but often there just aren’t the same. I know there are some Generics that are better or comparable but there are just some that no matter how hard they try to look like the original they aren’t the original.

That is the truth though that sometimes things might like to copy but they aren’t the real thing and the same thing happens with our faith.

Let’s look at a story this morning that shows us how important it is to know the difference.

Acts 16:16–24 NIV

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. 19 When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” 22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Possessed Women

This story is an interesting one. It is not the first narrative story that we have with a possessed women. Jesus had some interactions and now it is Paul’s turn. Some interesting things that I wanted to share with you about the possessed women.

The word used in the Greek to describe the spirit that was in this women is translated as Python. This is a reference to the Greek snake in Greek mythology that lived at Delphi and was a Representative of the underworld. This practice of fortune telling was not uncommon in connection to this spirit. The people thought that those connected to this spirit, that the gods would speak to them through them. They were sought out and people hoped to find a divine deceleration to inform their lives.

This is why when the women was following Paul around it was bound do be drawing attention. People would have known who she was and what she did. One other interesting thing is that while v. 17 tells us she followed them the original languages translate it to more than just following. In fact it was thought to be “under foot” She was right behind them following them everywhere.

I imagine this was like what it would be for anyone who is a parent or has spent time watching young children. Sometimes kids just like to get under your feet and you don’t know where they are and you might trip on them because they just stay so close.

Imagine for Paul who is trying to spread this Gospel and he has this well known women following them around and shouting things like “servants of the most high God” or “that they know the way to be saved”

Now i know what you must be thinking that can’t be a bad thing even the Spirit recognizes who they are. That is the problem the phrases she was using are not uncommon outside of the Christian faith.

“God most High” in a Gentile culture could be a reference to a number of gods but must likely the people who would have heard this would have made the connection to Zeus not to God the Father or Yahweh.

“Way to be saved” would also be a phrase that wasn’t uncommon because it wasn’t unusual for political figures and even the emperor to use this idea. The Savior or the one who will save you. The people who would be hearing the message would have no idea that she was referring to salvation from sins through Jesus.

Paul Frustration

Now Paul had to be getting frustrated at this point. The women was pointing out that they were the real deal but people didn’t know that they thought they were looking at the real thing not some generic copy or want to be. They had no idea they were looking at a real oreo not some walmart generic ones.

Not only that she was right on top of Paul. He grew tired and he cast the demon out. Now some may ask why didn’t he cast it out right away. There are some practical implication here that are important. Paul would have recognized what she was and the fact that she was a source of income for her masters. Most likely Paul knew that if he cast the demon out it would lead to trouble (and it did) and he wanted to avoid that because he wanted to share the message of the Gospel to the people.

Of course after Paul does this miraculous act he is taken before the magistrate and flogged and beaten and thrown in jail.

Paul knew that if he did that he would lose the opportunity to share the message of the Gospel to the people who wanted to listen. Yet, Paul was human and he couldn’t take it anymore he cast the demon out.

The story though doesn’t end there.

Acts 16:25–34 NIV

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” 29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.

Paul and the Jailer

When we read this story it is easy to be captivated by the miraculous “Prison Break” or is it a prison break if now one escapes. That wasn’t the message that kept jumping out at me when i was reading this passage. Let’s go back and look at a couple verses.

Acts 16:29–30 NIV

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

What must I do to be Saved?

I read this over and over and I kept thinking about the some questions around this question from the Jailer. I couldn’t escape what i had been reading about earlier with the demon possessed women crying out that these men knew how to save people. She knew something more.

How did this Jailer know that he needed to be saved?

Did he know what he needed to be saved from?

Had he heard this women’s claims about them?

Was he just listening to Paul and Silas praying and singing hymns to God?

Did this Jailer Recognize the Real thing?

How did this Jailer know?

These aren’t new questions

These aren’t new questions that we are asking about how these two individuals recognized who Paul was and the message that Paul had was something more than any other message that had been heard by these people. We have been asking for hundreds of years about how to share the message of the Gospel to the world around us. Even today I hope that many of us are asking the question.

Why was Paul so different? Why did people notice that Paul was Christian?

What was it that set him apart. This is the question that we are examining this morning. Why was Paul and the message he had so powerful that these two couldn’t help but see it.

The truth is that Paul had a message that was so powerful that people couldn’t deny it. The presence of the Holy Spirit was on Paul and it was powerful. People knew after interacting with Paul that he was a Christian. There was no denying who he was and what he believed. He had a message that shed light on the world and he was set apart.

That is the truth that we have to face this morning. The Christian church needs to be marked as something different. We should be known not for how we accept the world but for how we are different from the world.

Now don’t hear that wrong. Yes, we are to be welcoming. Yes, we are to open our arms to all the broken and the lost people of this world. However, that doesn't mean we staying in our brokenness.

No we don’t hold on to sin we push it from our lives and we grow in our relationships with Christ.

We live in a broken world that needs to know Jesus and the only way they can see and hear that message is if we open ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Need proof of the brokenness of our world. Turn on the news for the last couple weeks. A killer shoots up a grocery store because he has a problem with the color of the skin of the people who live in the area. Another killer shoots up a school and we don’t know exactly why but honestly does it really matter. Evil is present. This isn’t some political statement this is a wake up call that evil is in this world and we have to be fighting against it. We are faced with it. The world is broken no matter how much we want to deny it.

We are called to be more though. We are called to rise above this evil and to reach to our neighbor and share love. We are called to rise above hatred and the dangers of this world and show kindness and compassion to those around us.

We live in a world that despereately needs the message of the Gospel and the redemptive grace of God in our lives.

WE need the real thing. We need the Oreo’s not the cheap knock offs that aren’t the same thing.

The Jailer saw this.

He recognized that Paul was more. He was something different just like the Demon possessed women was.

Does the world recognize you was something different?

Does the world see you like they would see Paul?

If we aren’t there its okay. I have to tell you though the only way forward in this is to start relying on the Holy Spirit to fill our lives. To allow him to invade every aspect of our lives and let him have control. To give ourselves to his leading and his direction and trust that He will guide us as we move forward in this world. Let us invite the Spirit to work and move in us and transform who we are so that when the world sees us they know we are the real thing.