The Book of Acts 16:16-40 Paul's 2nd missionary journey Part 2

All right, so I gave you the same map as we did last week, and we're in Philippi here now. This is the second part of a three-part series on Paul's second missionary journey. And this is verses 16 through 40, and just like last week, we're not going to read all these verse by verse, but we will take a look at some of them along the way. So I've entitled this first section, 15 through 24, as Paul and Silas are beaten and jailed. Kind of an in your face kind of title.

And we're in Philippi now. Remember, we got there last week and we're still there. And so today's section of scripture is entirely time in Philippi, where Paul, Silas, and the other apostles were there to spread the word. And notice as they went to prayer, what do you envision here? They went to prayer. It's kind of a daily get on your knees kind of deal. Or I raised a question here, is this down at the river with Lydia at all? Remember we talked last week about the fact that Lydia and the ladies went to the river to pray and that could have been for one of several reasons.

One is there was no synagogue because Philippi was not that large, at least didn't have that large of a Jewish community. That's possible. Although Theropi is a major city, I would think there would be at least enough Jews to have a synagogue. But all that aside, the women were typically not part of the ceremony. So perhaps this is a kind of a side deal, kind of like a home ladies Bible study.

So the question to you, when Paul and Silas went to prayer, I mean, what do you envision there? Is this time silent prayer? Is this a congregational prayer? What do you think? I just wonder if it's something like what we would do, you know, set off a certain day of the week to gather together and bring our prayers and petitions to the Lord. Together.

I think they actually went somewhere. I mean, I don't think they just... They had a designated place overlooking the river. I don't think it would have said they went to prayer. No. I mean, I would say it would say, and they prayed. They went to the place of prayer. Yes, but I think they must have gone someplace. Since it says the place, they must have had a designated... It says, now it happened as we went to prayer.

Well, how about you? Do you go to prayer? I pray constantly or not, but you know, Bouncing stuff off the Lord all the time, right? First of all, congregational prayer, you kind of wonder about that a little bit. I don't know, it just seems kind of sterile at times. It really does, and I guess I'm not saying we shouldn't pray congregationally, but it just seems kind of plastic.

I mean, the prayer that we have with the Lord is a relationship, isn't it? But here you get the idea that maybe just like Lydia and the women were down at the river praying, they probably got together and did pray and probably had specific items. Well, they're Jewish, right? Didn't Jewish people go have certain places? Mm hmm. They did. The synagogue was one for the men that gets the river for Lydian. The gals was another just left over, thought it was a good idea to do. Yeah. OK, well, you know, I just raising an interesting question about when they went to prayer. What was the nature of that? Was that a congregational prayer? Was it a group prayer? Did they each individually go to pray? Remember, though, the Lord Jesus Christ didn't didn't pray with the apostles. He prayed by himself. Right. Yeah. All right.

So then we're told that as they went to prayer, there was a certain slave girl or damsel who we're told is possessed with a spirit of divination. And the Greek term there is Python. And Python's really Greek mythology. And Python was the serpent who guarded Delphi and was ultimately slain by Apollo. Do you remember your Greek mythology? Every time I see something like this, it kind of brings back a glimpse of the past when you were in school, right? Well, anyway, Python is the source of this term divination.

And if you look at the Greek term in the original text, it's a present active participle, which implies kind of gradation. It's not like she was possessed with the devil. She was being divinated, if you will, In other words, in the process of being. In other words, not a permanent state, but perhaps a gradual process where, in fact, over time there's an increasing indwelling of the spirit. Yeah. That's kind of interesting because thinking about somebody possessed with the devil, you think, gee, they're just devil ingrained. Well, in fact, it may be that divination is a process and ultimately over time becomes More extensive or less extensive?

I wonder if there's any correlation to that in the serpent of, you know, Satan in Genesis came out of the serpent. I don't know if there's anything to that. You know, he was the sitting duck. You're referring to the serpent? Yeah, yeah. The python type. Oh, I see. I don't know if that's the same word as we use as python. I don't know what the Hebrew would be if that's an analogous term or not. I get the idea that Satan and the garden was Satan. I mean, there wasn't any gradated process there.

And, you know, in the same verse, we're told that she was in soothsaying, or I think some of your versions may say fortune telling. So this is a gypsy of sorts, right? This is kind of the manner in which she made her living. This is her income. And you read my palm tonight, right? That kind of stuff. So anyway, we get the idea that she's making herself known at this point.

And the next verse said that basically she was attracted to Paul and she kind of yelled out or cried out. And the point I would make there is that Ultimately, there could have been multiple motives why she was directed towards Paul. What might some of those motives have been? The girl fired Paul and us and cried out saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us the way of salvation. What might have been some of the motives?

It's like she's preaching the gospel. You think except for one thing in the Greek, it says a way of salvation, as if that's not willing to know. All right. Is it possible that this could have been good? Take your pick. There's really no information. But maybe the Holy Spirit was actually using her.

But why would Pong get annoyed? Doesn't it say in the next sentence, he's like annoyed? Seems like he wouldn't be annoyed by the Holy Spirit. I like that. It would seem that she made herself known, she cried out, and obviously she continued doing this for a while. So was it in a sarcastic way? Paul senses this was a source of grief, didn't he? He was grieved and annoyed. What?

Is it possible she was just, you know, kind of mocking them? Possibly. I don't have any answers for you, but is it possible she was interested in getting saved? That a way of salvation may have been her way of ultimately coming to salvation. I think it's unlikely because if Paul would have sent some motive that was directionally towards receiving the gospel, I think he would not have been annoyed, right? So she was kind of a nuisance, wasn't she? I mean, she's bothersome. except that he would have, being an apostle to the Gentiles, actually the real leader of the pack, literally, that he would have probably gotten special insight from the Holy Spirit as an independent source just because of that unique lesson.

Why do you say that? Because my mind says he was grieved. That's different than being annoyed. So what's the Greek word there? Grieved. It is grieved? Well, grieved is, I think, different than annoyed. Then why would he be grieved? Well, he was grieved because she was filled with Satan. She was possessed in a way. So maybe he was grieved because then in the next sentence it says, and he called to the spirit and told the spirit to leave her.

Yeah. So she wasn't like... doing it through the Holy Spirit, right? Well, why is she claiming that these... That's what I was wondering, more sarcasm or mocking. And she said these men are the servants of the Most High God. That's a pretty strong term, right? And how did she know that? I mean, really, if she'd never seen them before, how did she know? Well, is that part of the divination that she's being made a part of? I don't know.

My study guide says, Paul was upset not because what the girl said was untrue, but because the girl was being viewed as the source of truth. Like she was the one saying, like, oh, see, I know that these guys are. Yeah, I think that's possible. Remember, I said there are multiple reasons and that's what we're discussing now. What were the motives here? What's really going on? What's the environment surrounding Paul and this demon possessor? So maybe it's like for her to get all the attention.

Well, that's possible. I think there are a number of, and it's fun because commentators speculate just like we are, which is fine and good. I think it's fun to take the word of God and try to speculate on things we don't understand in a curious manner. It's just kind of, that makes the text and scripture more interesting, I think, to speculate on things that are not perfectly clear. I give you a number of verses here that say, you know, that demons cry out, and we don't have to look at all these verses, but in the gospel accounts particularly, demons shout and they cry out and they make themselves known. So I think this was, outward evidence of some inward processes that are going on in this young gal. By the way, damsel means bond servant or young girl.

This is not a woman of 50 or 60 years old. She's probably late teenage years. And she's really carrying on a scene here. And by the way, it says there that her behavior continued for days. Her masters were making some money on this. Yeah, well that comes up here. It shows Paul's patience. I will expect her the first day.

You say greed, whether it's being greed or annoyed, he's getting tired of this, right? It's kind of like that apartment you lived in once upon a time when your neighbors, in fact, kept arguing. Or I think of Archie Bunker telling his wife to stifle, stifle.

She might have been interrupting. I wasn't thinking of that, Tom, but that's good too. She was probably interrupting at that time. I remember that. Right. She'd say something. All right, so we got this young gal. She's kind of acting out here and basically Paul's getting annoyed. So let's see now, and after being grieved or annoyed, Paul's response was to command by the name of Jesus Christ that the spirit be cast out of her. All right, so he's kind of getting to the conclusion here of what's going on. And so we've kind of talked about this already. What was Paul grieved about? I think he would have been grieved that she was possessed in the first place because he would have grieved that. Okay. If grieve is the right word.

And I think what they also have said that the tension was being focused on her and what she was crying out and all this as opposed to Christ and the Holy Spirit. I think he was very well aware apparently that it was a demon that was within her. And that probably was more of a grievance to her. He grew up in pagan lands. You ought to be able to tell anyway. It was kind of the going market raid and stuff.

Just expand on the verb grieve. Here's the Greek definition, to work out laboriously, make complete by labor, to exert oneself, strive, to manage with pain, accomplish with great labor, to be troubled, displeased, offended, pained, or to be worked up. So I mean that those are all potential translations of the Greek term for grief. Take whichever one you think fits this best. I get the idea Paul was pretty distressed here.

I think Paul was learning He was learning in Philippians 1.15, Some indeed preach Christ, even from envy and strife, and some also from good will. The former preached Christ from self, selfish and ambitious, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my chains, but the latter loved, knowing that I am appointed to the defense of the gospel. Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached and in this I rejoice.

Yes. Mike, hit the mother load. Yeah, that really captures a lot of things there. I don't get the sense, though, that she really was preaching Christ, though, was she? Well, the way she was saying that these men are the servants of the Most High God, would show us the way of salvation. Like, you know, it's possible that it was more mocking, but we don't really know. There's not really much information about it. And here's something we else don't know. Is this another woman who comes to salvation here? With an idea of this damsel and packed up safe? We all know that the demon left. Okay. Does that equate to salvation? Not quite. Certainly doesn't, does it?

You'd like to think that this is another extreme of Lydia. Lydia being on one end of the spectrum and she being on the other in terms of being separated from the salvation message, that she's also now a young believer. But I think we don't know for sure. And also what I think he read is that maybe it explains why Paul let her go on for many days. Because it's like, hey, she's still sort of talking or preaching or whatever you want to call it, proclaiming about God, so maybe let her go on. Okay, so we don't know for sure.

I'd like to think she got saved, but you know the idea of the devil being cast out of her and this process of divination now being removed, that she's open to the gospel and in fact does recognize the Most High God. Notice the way he cast out the demon. How did he cast out the demon? By the word of mouth.

Well, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Okay, so there's the power. Paul, in fact, is enacting the power, but it's in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as Christians, you know, everything we are and do is the Lord Jesus Christ, right? Doesn't make us robots, but by faith, it's that light that lives out within us. And that's really, I think, what Paul was exemplifying here.

Are there demonized people today? Dallas is a country saturated with paganism like India. Okay, is that the process of demonization? I think it can be. Keep in mind that if this process is really a graded process and not being possessed or not being possessed, then perhaps to some extent everybody who falls short of the truth in a sense is paganized or demonized to some extent. I'm just throwing that out for conversation. There are a lot of missionaries and they would say, yeah, it can be. But whether they are or not, whether that's just a... as a result of unrighteousness.

I mean, I don't walk around thinking the unsaved world is demonized, particularly. I mean, that's not my mindset. But the process of being separated from God ultimately is a process that's being, you know, part of the cosmos or world system, which is really anti-God, is it not? So would demonized be that like a demon acts like somehow gets in a person's head and brain and acts like through them or totally takes them over. No. I think in context this is a process. This is not completely being possessed. Yeah. I think, I mean, obviously here it's a demon possession in the Bible.

We see that many times where a demon is controlling an individual, you know, not of that individual's, not without that individual's decision. As Romans 6 says, we yield ourselves in obedience to truth, or we yield ourselves in obedience to unrighteousness and death. And so as a person opens their mind and opens their heart to the influence of an evil spirit, then definitely if the Holy Spirit of God is not within them, that allows that opportunity for that devil or demon to come in and indwell and then control them. In which case the only freeing power of that is the power of the Holy Ghost to come and drive that spirit. So definitely there are today... evil spirits possessing individuals. We don't see that in our culture as much. And I think the reason being is that we have so many distractions to draw us away from Christ. Media, entertainment, you know, whatever it may be. Don't need it. Yeah, exactly. This is easy, you know. If I get these people, you know, stuck on their iPads, I don't do it. I'll go to where I need to work.

And because, you know, God is infinite. He can be anywhere at any one time. And he sends his angels as ministers. Satan is not infinite, neither are his demons. They are limited in the scope. Well, it's easy for Satan in the world system. I think perhaps the greatest act of the devil, if you will, is within the body of Christ, right? And that's where he does more harm.

Let's not dwell on this too much, but I'm just going to say to you, if people are demon possessed, it takes me back to the movie The Exorcist. Some of you remember seeing that movie? That's pretty creepy stuff, but in a sense that was the ultimate of demon possession.

But how would we deal with someone if in fact we thought they were divinated or demonized? Medication. Well, you know, priests do exorcisms. Priests will go in and do the exorcism, like I command. Can you see burn casting out demons? I don't know. Anyway, I'm not sure, you know, I listened to Macaulay on this and Macaulay said I wouldn't know what the heck to do if somebody came to me and they were demon possessed. He said I wouldn't know how to respond.

And I think, you know, we're not in the apostolic age. We're in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. These demons just get cast out. I'm just saying that isn't, you know. Well, I mean, I think there are miraculous things happening in that age. Does that mean it couldn't happen today? No, but I don't think we're even in the most sophisticated theological school stage you can reflect on this.

You're taught how to cast out demons, right? There are some schools that teach that. But my personal belief is that those schools that teach that and those people that operate in that manner, for the vast majority, are not doing so in a biblical manner or receiving biblical responses. Certainly we've seen from scripture where a person tries to cast out a demon, not using the correct power, and the demon actually turns around and beats the guy up. So that's in the Bible. It brings back how many more or whatever.

But in our modern day, because obviously the book of Acts is a transitional book, There's power evidence there. Not to say, as you just said, it's not to say that it's not possible. But the evidence that we see is that we know that the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. So a person who is influenced by an evil spirit can just as much turn on their mind and repent and be empowered by the Holy Spirit to have that new life.

And I'd honestly like to think that's what happened to this young girl. Yeah, exactly. If he's there teaching the truth and she no longer is under the influence of this demon, we would like to think that was her choice. So, let's go. I think we've dealt plenty with that topic.

What was the response of her masters here? They were probably not happy. This is verse 20. And they brought them to the magistrates and said, these men being Jews exceedingly trouble our city. While her masters, verse 19, saw that their hope of profit was gone.

What's going on here? Where's my coin? She's out there getting money for them. What if they demanded that the spirit be replaced in her? Let's turn to Acts 19. We're jumping ahead because we're going to be probably a month or six weeks from getting there. But Acts 19, 24 to 27 is an interesting parallel scripture in terms of the loss of potential income that relates to the systems of the world. So whoever gets that, please read it.

For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsman, whom he called together with workmen of like activations, and said, Let's unionize. No, she said, First, you know that by this craft we have our wealth. There, moreover, you see and hear that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods which are made with our hands, so that not only this our craft is in danger, he said it not, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence All Asia and the world worship us.

Isn't that kind of a neat parallel in terms of this loss of income that relates to Christianity? And I raise the question to the class. Is this an issue today, even today, where, in fact, the gospel or the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ impacts potential income and therefore influences people to take a position that's anti-Christ or, if you will, unsafe? Or even distorts the truth. I mean, look how many so-called Christian pastors, or turn on the television anytime, and you can see many, many that may be distorting the truth. But boy, they get a lot of money from it. Okay. Other examples?

Years ago, on Sundays, we couldn't find a place to shop. Closed, yeah. And just recently, in the past 10 years, North Dakota opened up Wal-Mart and stuff. Then you can shop on Sunday. Yeah, I mean, when most of the Star Age grew up, everything was closed on Sunday, basically. Except maybe a delicatessen or something. And selling alcohol. I mean, I wonder if the basis of that is like, don't sell alcohol on Sunday because religious people don't like it. But I think, don't you, that with kind of, if you will, and I'll use this term loosely, the mature view we have of doctrine and our faith, ultimately having a store open on Sunday is not wrong. I mean, there's nothing immoral about having a store open on Sunday.

It's how you put that into perspective in terms of the environment we're surrounded with. Remember, our citizenship's not here. We're in a foreign country. And that mindset, I think, was important to Paul here, as he ultimately experienced the things that he experienced. So let's move there now.

One of two physical attacks, ultimately, is what occurred here by the Gentiles on the apostles. The second is also in Acts 19, by the way. And the appeal was to the magistrates. And who are the magistrates? These are the commanders of the Roman army. And typically, there were two per Roman colony. And Philippi was considered to be a Roman colony.

Now was it because Paul, Silas and others were Jewish or Christian? What do you think? What is the offense here? Maybe they were being persecuted because they're Jews and it's not the Christian message. But we certainly know that Christianity was viewed as an illicit religion in Rome. I'm quoting one of the commentators, I forget which one. So Christianity itself was offensive and considered not consistent with Roman government.

But the Jewish people were not well accepted either. No, but you know what I would say is that the Jews had been there a while. And I would say that the Jews pretty much kept to themselves and didn't try to convert all these Romans to Judaism. And the Romans were fine with that, to just let the Jews have their own thing.

But the Christians, on the other hand, were, and Paul especially, was, his role was to preach to the Gentiles. And so he was out there, he was out there not, you know, I mean he was talking to everyone. A couple points related to that Margaret, that's good. I think number one is that Paul had a Jewish background. And now he was a Christian. And I think his relationship to the Gentile nations was very different than it was when he was a Jew and before he got saved. And by the way, remember what I said. This is the one of two times when the Gentiles themselves attacked and beat Paul. Most of the other beatings were really outside of the Gentile nations.

The second thing I think to think about here is that ultimately, it says the accusation was that they were teaching customs that were not lawful for them to receive. In other words, the Romans did not want to be influenced by any kind of dogma or any other doctrine that was extrinsic to their governmental rule. So this is in the scripture. I mean, it says that in verse 21, and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans to receive or to observe.

So there's another issue there. Now, the apostles were actually, the term is stripped naked. They were rent of their clothes. This isn't, you know, a bunch of guys in their underwears sitting around the street. These men were beaten and then cast into prison.

And Paul records three beatings with rods in 2 Corinthians 11.25, and presumably this was one of those three.

OK? We don't need to turn to that verse. And remember, and this is what I was alluding to before, remember persecution is a privilege for the believer. Let's take a look at Philippians 1, 28 through 30 as one of many examples in the epistles of persecution for the body of Christ. And that's a nice section. So I think it's worth taking a second to look at that. Philippians 1.

And in nothing terrified by our adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which he saw in me, and now here to be in me. All right, so that's just, you would agree, I mean, James, many places in the Word we see that persecution is expected and probably experienced particularly by the early church, and we do less so today. And the jailer further sent them to the inner prison and fasted their feet in stalks. I have a picture in your handout of the stalks.

This wasn't just being chained so they could walk around the inner prison. By the way, the inner prison was a dark area, probably secluded from everywhere else. This is for the, if you will, the most extreme and zealous of criminals. So Paul and Silas et al were put in these stocks. So their feet were actually in the stocks and they couldn't walk. I mean they were sitting on their backside with their feet and maybe their hands. That suggests that their hands could have been put in there also. So this was a pretty extreme kind of scenario. Now that was typically again reserved for the most dangerous of prisoners. So here they're being cast into the inner prison, which is just not a place to have conversation and coffee with a jail person.

The second part I've entitled Paul and Silas's heavenly response, verses 25 to 34. So it indicates immediately that they prayed and sung praises to God. And here's, I think, where their heavenly citizenship is portrayed. They're looking at this as, gee, what an opportunity. To have a literally active audience. That's right. And this could be, if you will, your first Christian chorus, right? Anyway, this is the choir of the inner prison.

And the prisoners noted, you know, you get the idea of all these other guys, presumably could be a woman or two, listening to them sing. And what's this all about? So all it says is that the prisoners were paying attention to this. And it doesn't say anything more about them. But they're listening to these songs being sung. And then an earthquake followed.

And this is very similar to that that was in Acts 4.31 that we looked at probably six months ago now, when the gospel was initially being spread by Peter and John. So here's an earthquake, actually. And again, it's a miraculous age in which Paul and Silas are living. And the foundations of the prison were shaken, the doors of the prison were opened, and the stocks released. Kind of like the bail being rent, right? I mean, this is a miraculous event. That's all we can say about it. This isn't just happenstance.

And what was the jailer's response? Verse 27, let's look at that. He was going to kill himself. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoner had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. So why? He was in real deep trouble. Killing himself would probably be a better death than what he was going to experience from the rug.

This reminds me too of what Vern said when Christ was put in the tomb and the guard said, We fell asleep and it's like you don't fall asleep when you know the punishment for having someone escape is death. And it's not just death. It was probably torture. Yeah. Death would have been easy. Right. So that's a good motivator to stay awake. Yeah. So it's probably that. Yeah. Yeah. Acts 12, 19 revisited. We can take a peek at that if you want, but I don't think we have to. It's very, very similar in terms of the responsibilities given to the jailer in terms of prisoners. Where have all the prisoners gone? Remember the song, where have all the flowers gone? Where have all the prisoners gone? So, you know, with all these prisoners are scattering here, there and everywhere. And this jailer says, oh, my goodness gracious, I'm supposed to be responsible for all these people.

Now, what was Paul's response? Verse 28. It's a note of comfort, if you will, during these trying times for the jailer. Now, how important was this in what followed? Paul's response. Because the people who were there with Paul in prison, of course it wasn't just his stocks that were released. That's right. Everybody was, right? And so they were probably still wanting to know more about this Paul character.

Maybe the Gentiles respond better to miracles than the Jews did, right? I mean, this clearly opened up the door. What the heck's going on around here? These people are associated with some power from some place where there's earthquakes and stocks being opened and prison doors being opened and everything happening to the benefit of us here in prison. An unexpected comfort for sure is what I put here. Paul's response was an unexpected comfort. The jailer said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? prisoners even further. So I'm saying from whence did this inquiry arise?

Well, number one, because he had heard all the singing. And here they were rejoicing in prison. And then there's an earthquake. Then all the doors open. And the other miracle is that all the prisoners are still there. So obviously he's thinking there's some big power here that I don't understand. He didn't lock them up again. He brought them out. He knew that there was something big. But I'm going to give you two choices here.

It was this potentially a an inquiry that related to his potential suicidal ideation. You know, what does it take to get saved? Saved from death? I mean, maybe there was something very personal and specific about this. Or secondly, and I have up here, or was Paul and Silas' testimony well known in Philippi? I mean, apparently, you know, they were getting around in Philippi here some, and maybe there was some knowledge of this. And now he's seen through the evidence of this miraculous sequence of events that maybe the message is true.

What were they singing though? Because throughout scripture when we see praises being sung to God, especially as the people of Israel crossed over the Red Sea and Miriam led in a praise chorus, they just recounted all of what they had just done and all of what God had done and they recounted God's working and their salvation through it. And so as Paul and Barnabas sang, Doubtless they sang, Lord God we have been here, we have been tortured, we have been beat and yet you have remained faithful and perhaps sharing the gospel message through song and praise to God. That's a neat perspective, thanks Jim.

And included in that I would think somewhere it would be that they would have said and Christ saved us from our sins and everything because where else would you come up with that terminology, how do I, what do I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? Notice the verb. What must I do to be saved? Isn't that the truth about most people today about salvation? There's something they have to do when salvation is already done. Notice the jailer said do, but the response was believe. Paul's response was not what they had to do. What was Paul's response?

He said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. Now that's a stepping stone into further class discussion. Does this verse teach us that his entire household will be saved when he is saved or when one person is saved, your entire household will be saved?

Sounds like it. I think in this instance, Paul had the ability to to speak that. I mean I can't tell you, when I was in an evangelism explosion, when I first came to the Lord and I was entering into this get out and work for God kind of scenario, we used that verse a lot. That if we'd go into somebody's home and knock on their door and force the gospel down their throat, that if we brought him or her to salvation, their whole household would be saved. And we would keep that in mind as we shared the Lord.

I don't believe that's what this says at all. It's also possible that in spite of the ill treatment that J.R. has given to all the people in his purvey, they might have at least had some instances secretive though it might be saying I'm really afraid because I was a slave once too or something like that it's just I'm just trying to do my job and then they might have listened a little more than they would have ordinarily. Sure there's no question I mean I came to the Lord through my late wife who got saved I mean there's no question that that the impact of a salvation in a household could in fact bring the whole household to salvation.

Take a look at Acts 2.39 for a second. That's an interesting verse in context here. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call. Okay, so similar kind of scenario. The promise is not only to you, but to you and your children.

Where did the jailer take them to clean them up? Probably to his home. Don't you think? And there's the opportunity for the gospel to the rest of his family. His wife was probably involved in... Absolutely. I think you're on the right track. Not only that, the wife would say, and you did this to him? He might have gotten pulled off. Well, I think everybody's on the right trail.

No, but it implies the process of salvation is the same. So in fact, if the jailer found out about the Lord and has come to be saved, boy, he's going to go home and tell Sally and Sue and George and everybody else around the house about what's going on here. But the process of salvation is the same. So you and your household also can be saved by faith, right? It's the process of salvation. It's no guarantee. And I think that's really what we're talking about here. And notice this is in fact covered in verses 32 through 34. Let's look at those verses.

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, meaning all the wounds, right? And immediately he and all his family were baptized. And when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

So exactly what we're just saying in terms of process is what occurred. This wasn't a miraculous salvation of people in his home. I mean the jailer went back, shared what had happened, and they had an open mind, and I'm sure their salvation is by faith just like yours and mine, right?

And what do you envision this baptism was like here? Water immersion. What water? And his house, he's got a swimming pool? It could be spirit baptism. It could be sprinkled. Is it possible that the baptism was not water baptism, that the real term of baptism is baptism unto faith? I don't know. I think they were ordered to wash their stripes. They took them down to the local river, stream, whatever, bathing hole, and wash their stripes. Remember in the Roman homes, And we've seen some of these old Roman homes. They actually had pipes that ran through. The Roman cities were so sophisticated. Well sure, that's a possibility.

Either way, when the Bible talks about baptism, unless it specifically mentions the spirit baptism, it specifically means immersion in holy water. But don't you think he wouldn't want to go in public? I don't think he cared at that moment. I think that when he repented and believed in his sins, he said, you know what? If I perish, I perish.

I said earlier and I'll say it again, it's fun to speculate on things we don't have detail on because it's just kind of fun to put our minds back at that time. I don't think this was kind of the formal baptism we think about today. That's a given, yeah definitely. We make so much pomp and circumstance over things that I know a great many preachers and such that have all kinds of different baptisms. You know, one preacher says, the Bible never tells us we need to be in the church.

He'll actually, if there's a town hall fountain or whatever, and somebody trusts Christ, he'll take them right there in that fountain. And that may be a little extreme for me, even. But, you know, where's the formality in that? And where's the formality in Scripture? You're exactly right.

But let's think the way we interpret baptism today. How do you interpret baptism today? Water baptism. How do we interpret it? Symbolic that you are going to do that in front of people? There you go. A reductionist, simplistic view of baptism is an outward sign of an inward change.

Not required for salvation. In fact, I have five children who are all saved. And to my knowledge, only one has been baptized. Does that mean I doubt the salvation of the other four? Absolutely not. But why they haven't chosen to be baptized, only they can answer. And I've never confronted them with it. But that's just the way it is. All right, good.

And I've entitled the last section, Paul Appeals to Roman Justice. And this is really the beginning of a signature that Paul is going to exemplify throughout the rest of the book of Acts, and also some of his epistles. And that signature relates to him exercising his full rights as a Roman citizen when needed. Notice when needed.

Paul's not stupid. He's not going to pull rank unless he feels that it's time to pull rank. And I like this about Paul because Paul's living in a real world despite the fact that his citizenship is in heavenly places. And he's going to use that to allow the spirit to work through him to bring the message of the Lord Jesus Christ to as many as possible. It's not wrong, he's just strategic in how he uses this to the advantage of the gospel.

And notice who responded, not just the rad douches, or if you will, lictors, which basically are policemen. So the magistrates, remember, were the top guys. And so the lictors, or the policemen, were those who responded. But the magistrates themselves responded to this. Vincent quotes Cicero. And this is kind of interesting. This is historic.

It is a dreadful deed to bind a Roman citizen. And it's a crime to scourge him. And it's almost parricide, meaning murder of a parent, to put him to death. This is Roman law. And this is what was told to Cicero, a Roman leader, ruler. So the idea of him being Roman and ultimately being persecuted or put to death is just unacceptable to do this to a Roman citizen in the absence of a crime. I mean, I think if Paul committed murder, I presume he might have been killed.

So they actually, ask him to depart, and I'm going to put in kind of a subjective manner, I bet they did it politely, don't you think? Here are the Massachusetts who are putting Paul and Silas in jail and beat them and scourged them and put them in stocks.

And now they're humbled by the fact to find out this guy's really a Roman citizen. And I'm sure they didn't say leave the city. I'm saying, Mr. Paul, we think you and your group would be comfortable somewhere else. I think it was done very gently, very humbly, and very politely, just an opinion. These guys had rank pulled on them when they found out Paul was a Roman citizen.

And why was this important, do you think? The fact that the magistrates, I think, asked him, and by the way, what's it say in the text? What's the term that's used? In verse 39, verse 38, and the officers told these words to the magistrates, meaning the policemen told the words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans.

And then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out and asked them to depart from the city. If you look at the Greek for ask, for ask them to depart, it's really, you know, a very non-pejorative term. Requested, I mean, it kind of implies that this wasn't in your face, get out of the city. This was gently asking them to depart.

So my question to you, why was this important? It was quite likely that if word ever got out to some higher Roman official, they'd probably initiate official acts against those who did it. Yeah. I think there's a lot of kind of structure in human government as God has allowed it to be designed to ultimately pull rank. And I think this could have gotten back to Rome, perhaps, ultimately, in some way. Maybe, maybe not. And then it says, how does this relate to the church and the world system today?

Don't we, if you will, consider ourselves U.S. citizens, citizens of Colorado, and we will use that to our advantage when appropriate, right? We're citizens of heavenly places. We're positioned in Christ, but we live in earthly bodies. And we have citizenships that are related to our country and our state. We dwell in Jefferson County or Denver County or whatever county we dwell in. So we are citizens of heaven but yet we live here. This is our business address and when we need to, we are in a foreign country, US citizenship means a lot.

We got robbed on a train many years ago between St. Petersburg and Moscow. Unfortunately, my passport had not been stolen. They stole a bunch of stuff from my briefcase. They came into our room. We think we got gassed. They took my briefcase and they took things out of it. Got my wallet and took all the American money, but no Russian rubles.

But anyway, when we got to Moscow, even though the line at the US Embassy was quite long, if I had lost my passport, I would have claimed US citizenship and ultimately been able to survive in a foreign country without a passport. They would have given me a temporary one. Anyway, just an example, we use our citizenship at times here when needed. We can claim our heavenly citizenship, but in fact we are citizens on this planet. I think ultimately that's really how it relates to us in the world system today.

And note where they went. They went to Lydia's place. It's kind of like the local hangout. Let's go down with Lydia and the girls and pray or something. But anyway, that's where they went. Lydia, remember, is a hospitable woman. She's got a big house. She's well to do. And where else should we go? Not to the capital B-I-G-H-O-U-S-E. So Lydia obviously was welcoming of them. We have no reason to believe she wasn't. And the interesting thing is they didn't stay there very long. And they're off to Thessalonica. And that's really the next step along Paul's second missionary journey.

And I'm not sure who teaches next week, whether it's Jeremy or Roger, but somebody will pick this up next week. It's kind of funny because I've I shouldn't say this, but I potentially could teach next week and do all three parts of Paul's Secondary Journey, but don't tell them because I think they're... Well, don't say it into the microphone. You're being recorded. Too late, Bob. Actually, there is a reason why it's better to somebody else next week. On Saturday, I have some other things that would keep me from preparing, perhaps, as usual.

Anyway, it's an interesting section of scripture, isn't it? I mean, the neat things that happen to Paul and Silas along the path to evangelism here. And this jailer's experience is really one that people often quote in terms of bringing someone to salvation in their whole household. I just think we have to carefully interpret that for what it really says. Father, thank you for your truth in the word and for the study that we can see your working hand in all of our lives. Thank you in Jesus name. Amen.