Sermon Tone Analysis

16 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: 17 The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.

18 And this did she many days.

But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

And he came out the same hour.

19 And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, 20 And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, 21 And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.

22 And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.

23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: 24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.

27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.

28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.

29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Ac 16:16–32).

(2009).

Logos Research Systems, Inc.

The first is Lydia, the independent businesswoman of reputable character and God-fearing mind; as she heard the gospel, “the Lord opened her heart” and she believed it.

The second is a person of a very different stamp: an unfortunate demon-possessed slave girl, whose owners exploited her condition for their material gain.

She is described by Luke as “having a pythonic spirit” or being a “pythoness”—that is, a person inspired by Apollo, the Greek deity specially associated with the giving of oracles, who was worshiped as the “Pythian” god at the oracular shrine of Delphi in central Greece.

His priestess there was the Pythian prophet par excellence; the girl of whom Luke speaks was a very pale reflection of her.

This girl’s involuntary utterances were regarded as the voice of the god, and she was thus much in demand by people who wished to have their fortunes told or to receive information or advice which they believed could be supplied from such a source.

Bruce, F. F. (1988).

The Book of the Acts (p.

312).

Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

17 The slave girl’s deliverance demanded much more spectacular measures than Lydia’s quiet turning in heart to the Lord.

Day by day, as the missionaries went to the place of prayer, she followed them through the streets of Philippi, advertising them aloud as servants of God Most High, who were bringing the way of salvation to the city.

The title “God Most High” provided Jews and Gentiles with a convenient common denominator for the supreme being, and “salvation” in a religious sense was as eagerly sought by Gentiles as by Jews.

18 The missionaries, however, did not appreciate her unsolicited testimonials, and at last Paul, vexed by her continual clamor, exorcized the spirit that possessed her, commanding it in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

The words had scarcely left his lips when she was released from its power.

The superior authority which such spirits had recognized when Jesus himself commanded them to leave their victims was equally recognized when his name was invoked by one of his disciples, and proved as potent in exorcism as in other forms of healing (cf.

3:6).

Bruce, F. F. (1988).

The Book of the Acts (pp.

312–313).

Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

the loss of her cymbals and tambourine and of her gift of prophecy, which depends on them.

The righteous indignation of the Philippian slave girl’s owners was aroused at the missionaries’ wanton attack on the sacred rights of property (as they saw it).

Moreover, the men who had infringed these rights were not Roman citizens like themselves (or so they thought); they were not even Greeks, like the population around them, but wandering Jews, engaged in propagating some variety of their own perverse superstition.

Bruce, F. F. (1988).

The Book of the Acts (p.

314).

Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

The double discomfort of the lictors’ rods and the stocks was not calculated to fill Paul and Silas with joy, but around midnight the other prisoners, as they listened, heard sounds coming from the inmost cell—sounds, not of groaning and cursing, but of prayer and hymn-singing.

“The legs feel nothing in the stocks when the heart is in heaven,” says Tertullian.

What sort of men were these?

Bruce, F. F. (1988).

The Book of the Acts (pp.

316–317).

Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

27 The earthquake that rocked the prison foundations wakened the jailer out of his midnight sleep.

Immediately he went to investigate his charge.

The worst had happened: the prison doors were open; the prisoners, of course, had seized their opportunity and escaped.

For a man brought up to a Roman soldier’s ideals of duty and discipline, only one honorable course was open—suicide.

28 But as he stood there, by the outer door of the prison, about to drive the point of his short sword into his throat or heart, his hand was arrested by a voice from the darkness within: “Don’t harm yourself; we are all here!”

While he could see nothing as he looked into the darkness, those inside could see his figure silhouetted in the doorway and could see what he was about to do.

Not only were Paul and Silas still there, but they had apparently restrained the other prisoners also.

There was something uncanny about these two men! 29–30 So, calling for light, he rushed into the prison and brought Paul and Silas out.

First, according to the Western reviser (who probably imagined what he himself would have done had he been in the jailer’s shoes), he prudently secured the other prisoners again.

Then he earnestly asked Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?”

Bruce, F. F. (1988).

The Book of the Acts (p.

317).

Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

We have much trouble all around us

but we need to take lesson from Paul and Silas abut being in trouble

we have had many different problems but nothing can stop the move of God

it is time to remember what 2cor 4:8-11 says about the pressures of life

2cor 4:8-11 “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.”