Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

It’s been said that friends can talk about anything together, but good friends are those who never talk about politics or religion.

Well, I’m going to talk about both today, and I trust that most of us can be friends afterward.

To get us nudged in the direction I want us to go, let me ask you…

How many people know your political party affiliation?

Family members?

Co-workers?

People who drive past your house, and see various displays during voting seasons?

Do more people know your political party than the number who know you are a churchgoing, Jesus-following, Bible-committed Christian?

For those of you who do have strong political leanings… Do you see America like a “new Jerusalem,” a city on a hill, a light among the nations, and a country that has (in one way or another) gained a greater share of God’s favor than others?

Or do you see America more like a “modern-day Babylon,” an idolatrous nation full of blasphemy and sin, a nation arrogantly bent on power and greed, and a country that God uses in the world despite its wickedness?

Did you know that your view of America as “Jerusalem” or “Babylon” probably has more to do with your age than your politics or your theology?

If you’re older, Jerusalem… If you’re younger, Babylon.

For my part, I don’t really care that much – at least not today – where America might be in its rise or fall on the world stage.

I’m sure America isn’t the new Jerusalem of Revelation 21, and I’m also sure that America isn’t unique in its sins and idolatry that reflect the shadowy Babylonian kingdom that stretches throughout the fallen world (see Rev. 17-19).

I do know that nations have come and gone for thousands of years now, and I also know that my ultimate citizenship (every Christian’s citizenship) is inor with a kingdom that is not of this world… And that’s the kingdom I want us to focus most on this morning.

Every Sunday, one of my main pastoral goals is to pull our eyes off of temporal things (political maneuvering, celebrity gossip, the latest social media eruption… our health, our bank accounts, our hobbies) and to point our eyes upward toward eternal things (the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the character of God Almighty, the nearness of God’s Spirit… the genuine fellowship of the saints, the transcendent unity and love of the local church, the goodness and nourishment of God’s timeless word).

And today is no different.

However, today, since our text leads us into the subject, we are going to talk a little politics.

But very likely, we’re not going to talk politics in the way you might expect.

First, some context…

The end of Acts 15 is the beginning of Paul’s second missionary journey, which included “strengthening” those “churches” (Acts 15:41, 16:5) he had helped to plant during his first missionary journey (Acts 13-14).

If you’ll recall, Acts 15 is also the turning point of Luke’s overall narrative.

There Luke recorded the gathering of Apostles and elders, together with the whole church in Jerusalem, where they all clarified that the gospel of Jesus Christ is salvation by grace through faith alone (i.e., all good works, including keeping the laws of the Old Covenant, contribute nothing to our standing before God).

From then on, Luke’s focus in Acts is on the Apostle Paul and the expansion of the gospel and the kingdom of Christ (i.e., the Church) among the Gentiles – the “end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

That gospel expansion was next to happen in Philippi, as the Holy Spirit had supernaturally directed (Acts 16:6-10), and that’s what Acts 16 is all about.

The first convert was a God-fearing or God-worshiping woman, named Lydia.

“The Lord opened her heart” to believe the gospel message Paul preached, and the rest of her “household” professed faith in Christ along with her when they were all baptized (Acts 16:14-15).

And today, we are picking up with that storyline.

Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke (and maybe several others) went back to the same place they’d met Lydia, to do the same thing they did before, to preach the gospel.

Today, however, Luke tells us not about a conversion, but instead about a confrontation… an asymmetrical confrontation… where Christ’s kingdom flexes power to deliver, and the kingdom of this world flexes its might too.

Let’s read and consider this passage together, as we see this first-century example of the clash of kingdoms – one, the kingdom of this world, and the other, the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Scripture Reading

Acts 16:16–24 (ESV)

16 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.

17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”

18 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.

19 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.

20 And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city.

21 They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.”

22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods.

23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.

24 Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Main Idea:

In this present world, asymmetrical confrontations between Christians and non-Christians are bound to happen, because there is an ongoing clash of kingdoms that will only be resolved when Jesus Christ returns.

Sermon

1. Present Confrontation (v16-18)

On the surface, the first scene in this episode seems like a strange and fantastical one (fortune-telling, demonic possession, exorcism).

But we are to take note: there is a real spiritual war going on in the world.

Christ has already won the victory, but the occupying forces are still roaming around and causing pain where and when they can.

And when citizens of Christ’s kingdom (which is already here, but not yet fully realized) confront people who are presently held captive by the kingdom of this world, there is no doubt about who is really king.

A. A Girl and a Spirit

16 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.

1.

The Girl

a. Greek: παιδίσκην – literally, female slave-child

i.

The Bible speaks of various forms of slavery, some apparently good and at least one that’s very bad.

· Employment.

Unlike the western economy (which is quite new), most economies of history have been class or caste systems.

If a man didn’t own land, resources, and/or a political title, then he had to sell his labor to a master in order to survive and provide for his family.

The word “slave” or “servant” in the Bible can sometimes be used like the word employee (Gen.

40:20; Esther 4:11, 5:11).

· Socio-economic necessity.

Some people are not able (intellectually or physically) to work or earn well for themselves.

In such cases, slavery put a person into the care of another in order to eat from the master’s table and live under the master’s roof (Lev.

22:11, 25:6; Deut.

15:12-18).

· Debt repayment.

As people sometimes do today, some people back then would find themselves in overwhelming debt.

In such cases, slavery temporarily put the debtor under a master’s management.

This was usually a way that a man could also ensure food and shelter for his family while he worked off the debt he owed (2 Kings 4:1; Prov.

22:7).

· Spoils of war.

When one tribe would conquer another, the defeated tribe couldn’t simply go back to normal life.

Any survivors would become slaves among the new society (1 Kings 9:21; Neh.

9:36).

Each person would decide for him or herself if the conditions of slavery were better than death.

· Man-stealing or chattel slavery (Deut.

24:7).

This is the sort of slavery which is a stain on America’s history.

It’s important to note that America was not unique in its participation in the modern slave trade, but it’s also important to note that racialized chattel slavery (counting some humans as property to be owned instead of fellow image-bearers) was indeed horrific and appalling.

ii.

Chattel slavery is closest to how we might describe the situation of this “slave girl” (v16).

· She was the property of her (κυριοις) “owners” or “lords” or “masters” (v16, 19).

· Her work of “fortune-telling” or “soothsaying” (KJV) was not for her own “gain” or “profit” (NASB), but for that of her masters (v16, 19).

b.

We don’t know much about this “slave girl,” but we do know that her situation was terrible.

i.

Whatever responsibility she bore for the sin of fortune-telling” or “soothsaying,” she was certainly not the only one to blame.

ii.

She was owned by masters who exploited her, and she was possessed by a spirit that controlled her.

2. A Spirit

a. Luke says that the girl had “a spirit of divination”

i. Greek: πνεύμα πύθωνα – literally, spirit of a/the snake

· Pythōn is the name of the snake which supposedly guarded the oracle or seer or prophet of Delphi.

* Delphi was a Greek town, and the oracle was a priestess in the temple of Apollo.

* The Greek practice of visiting the oracle of Delphi dates as early as 1400 BC and as late as 400 AD.

· In the first-century Roman empire, πύθων was a word also used to mean ventriloquist.[1]

b.

Luke is telling us that the girl was demonically possessed.

i.

This is the only demonic possession that I know of in the New Testament where there doesn’t seem to be any overt reference to isolation, pain, or self-destruction.