When God is at Work. (Acts 16: 11-40)

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Welcome:

We can get so caught up in the daily details of living that we begin to wonder sometimes if God is working at all. In today’s episode, we really see God working in some interesting ways that might just serve as a reminder to us of what God is doing and how He's doing it in all sorts of situations.

Introduction:

The story involves three different encounters they had with three different groups of people. First, there is Lydia, a seller of purple. Then, there is this interesting young slave girl who is demon-possessed and follows Paul around. Finally, there is the most famous story, one of those classic Bible stories—the Philippian jailer.

Episode Outline:

1. Lydia’s Conversion:
   • Scripture Reading: Acts 16:11-15
   • Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke travel from Troas to Philippi, a leading Roman colony.
   • They find a group of women praying by the river, including Lydia, a worshiper of God and a seller of purple cloth.
   • God opens Lydia’s heart to respond to Paul’s message. She and her household are baptized, and she offers her home to Paul and his companions.
2. The Slave Girl and Paul’s Annoyance:
   • Scripture Reading: Acts 16:16-24
   • A slave girl with a spirit of divination follows Paul and his companions, proclaiming their mission.
   • Paul, annoyed, commands the spirit to leave her, and she is delivered.
   • Her owners, angered by the loss of their income, drag Paul and Silas before the magistrates, who have them beaten and imprisoned.
3. The Philippian Jailer’s Conversion:
   • Scripture Reading: Acts 16:25-40
   • At midnight, Paul and Silas pray and sing hymns in prison, despite their suffering.
   • A violent earthquake opens the prison doors and loosens their chains.
   • The jailer, fearing the prisoners have escaped, prepares to kill himself. Paul reassures him that all prisoners are still there.
   • The jailer asks, "What must I do to be saved?" Paul responds, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household."
   • The jailer and his household believe, are baptized, and rejoice in their newfound faith.
   • The magistrates order Paul and Silas to be released, but Paul insists they be escorted out publicly to acknowledge their wrongful treatment as Roman citizens.

Key Points:

• The conversion of Lydia highlights God’s work in opening hearts to the gospel and the resulting generosity that comes from faith.
• The deliverance of the slave girl shows God’s power over spiritual oppression and the liberation it brings.
• The dramatic events in the prison emphasize the importance of faith in Jesus Christ for salvation and the profound impact

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• 21:02 (Cont.) When God is at Work. (Acts 16: 11-40)

Transcript

When God is at Work.  (Acts 16: 11-40)

Transcript:

 We can get so caught up in the daily details of living that we begin to wonder sometimes if God is working. In today’s episode, we really see God working in some interesting ways that might just serve as a reminder to us of what God is doing and how He's doing it. 

Welcome….

Today we turn to Acts chapter 16. We're going to pick up where we left off yesterday at Acts chapter 16. I'm going to start with verse 11.

This is Paul's visit to Philippi, and it takes up quite a bit of space in the narrative. It will cover more verses than his whole visit to Thessalonica, which follows this, as well as his time in Athens, which follows, after that, and even Corinth. 

Perhaps that's because, as I mentioned last time, Luke has joined them—notice the use of the term "we" in this passage. This tells us that Luke first-hand experience of these events.

The story involves three different encounters they had with three different groups of people. First, there is Lydia, a seller of purple. Then, there is this interesting young slave girl who is demon-possessed and follows Paul around. Finally, there is the most famous story, one of those classic Bible stories—the Philippian jailer. 

In each of these cases, God is at work. So, I want us to go through quickly what is recorded here and notice what God is doing and how He does it.

Let's begin with Lydia. 

Lydia’s Conversion.

11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we travelled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

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.

(Acts 16: 11-15)

We are told in these opening verses that they made their way from Troas to Philippi, which is identified as one of the leading cities. That means it was not necessarily the capital, but it was a very important one.

He also says in these opening verses that Philippi was a colony. Now, that is particularly important for what happens at the end of the story. What he means by that is that this city was declared a Roman colony, which means they did all things Roman. They were Roman in dress, they kept Roman customs, they spoke the Roman language, and they were very proud of being so. That's the city they were in.

The text tells us that they went outside the city to the riverside. Now if you have been tracking with me as we've been following Paul through Acts you’ll know, they always started by going to the synagogue. 

But this time he goes to the riverside. What's that about? Bible experts believe the answer is because there were probably not enough Jewish families to start a synagogue there. They needed a quorum, somewhere around ten families, to do that. So, I think that if there were not enough families, they would meet for prayer, usually down by the river because they would use the water for some of Jewish purification ceremonies. 

So, in effect they went to an outside Jewish prayer meeting.

When I say "they," remember we're now talking about Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke. That's the main quartet that came to this city. So, they get there, and it tells us they sat down and spoke to the women who met there. 

There were probably not many men or families, so they spoke to these Jewish women, and a woman named Lydia heard them. We are told Lydia was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God.

Now, you’ve heard me say before that if a Gentile wanted to connect with Judaism, there were two ways to do that. One, they could become a "God-fearer," which meant that they met with the Jews and observed the Sabbath but didn’t go all the way with the Jewish law. 

The other way was to become a full proselyte, which meant they went all the way with all that the Jewish religion required of them. So, what Luke is telling us is that amongst these Jews meeting down by the riverside, Lydia is a Gentile God-fearer. She has been attracted to Judaism, and she was a seller of purple. Purple in the ancient world was very, very expensive. This means she sold purple fabric itself. So, this indicates that she was a wealthy woman.

The text says that the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. 

Now we know from the rest of Acts that Paul’s method is to go to a meeting, take the Scriptures, and prove that the Christ was the Messiah because He came, He died, and He rose from the dead. 

Paul says in 2 Corinthians that Satan has blinded the minds of those who do not believe and that the gospel is a light that shines into that darkness. That’s the imagery here—the gospel hit her darkness like the beginning of light, and she said, "I see Jesus is the Messiah. He did die; And He did rise from the dead." 

She heard the message of who Christ was, and she believed in the Lord, backing up Paul’s message.

The next verse tells us that she was baptized. As a matter of fact, it says that her whole household was baptized. That means she had a family—some say she was a wealthy widow, and her household may have included servants and workers. At any rate, a number of people came to Christ because of her. So, it seems she persuaded the other in the household. 

This is significant—God did something in this situation. He opened her heart. She saw the light, she responded to what she saw, and the Lord saved her.

And the results of that, in her case, is that she opened her home as well as her heart. She became a believer who shared what she had. She was wealthy, so this wealthy woman became a generous believer, sharing her material things because of the spiritual blessings she had received.

What we see here is that God is at work. God opens people’s hearts; God saves people when they respond to the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the results that should follow is that you become a generous person.

The next episode at Philippi is also rather interesting….

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.

(Acts 16: 16-24)

So, there’s this slave girl, a demon-possessed person who told fortunes, met them. She has delved into all kinds of dark spiritual things, but she was owned by a group of people—masters who profited from her fortune-telling. You might call them pimps, in a sense but not in a sexual connotation, but because they were making a lot of money off of her.

She followed Paul and his companions around and cried out, "These men are the servants of the God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation." This suggests that some secular people believed in God and at some level recognised their need of a saviour.

It actually says she did this for many days. 

Just imagine this young slave girl following them around and saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim the way of salvation.” And she’s just following them, repeating the same thing. Paul goes back home, and there she goes again, saying the same thing, saying the same thing day after day. 

Notice Paul’s reaction in verse 18. It says, “Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’

Paul was annoyed. This is a great comfort to know that even an apostle can be annoyed. I love this. She just wore him out. He just got fed up and so he turns to her and says to the spirit in her, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her,” and it came out that very hour.

God was at work, even though the narrative shows Paul being annoyed. Yet God still delivered the slave girl from demon possession, delivered her from her bondage to the demons and her human masters. 

God was at work in her life. On the surface she appeared to be an out-of-control slave girl, and as the result of God working in her life was that she was no longer being controlled by a demon. She was now in control, of her own lives at two levels. Spirituality and no longer under the control of these men who profited off of her.

God was at work. He saved this girl and made her gentle as compared to what she was.

So, God was at work with Lydia, and He took a wealthy woman and makes her generous. And God was at work with the slave girl, dealing with her spiritual manipulation, and making her calm and gentle. 

There’s a third story in this chapter, and this one you know is one of those famous stories from the book of Acts….

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.

35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”

37 But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”

38 The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. 39 They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. 40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.

(Acts 16: 25-40)

What happens next is this slave girls’ masters get all upset. Why? Because this hit their wallet. She just got saved, and that took away from them their means of making money, and they got upset. So, the text tells us when her masters saw that their hope of profiteering from her was gone, they seized Paul and Silas, dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities, and brought them to the magistrates.

Notice carefully, they “These men, are Jews, exceedingly trouble our city.” 

So, in their first accusation they identified Paul and Silas as Jewish, and then they said, “They teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” What they’re doing is a violation of Roman law they say. 

The Romans had a state religion, and you needed to have state approval to practice any other religion. The Romans allowed the Jews to practice their religion. But if you started a new one, that was another matter.

The implication of the charge is that they are not recognizing them as part of Judaism. So, they’re being accused of violating Roman law. Without a trial, without an investigation, the magistrates simply say, “Beat them,” and after that they strip them and throw them in jail.

Let me explain to you that this is heavy-duty stuff because there was no limit to the number of stripes a Roman soldier could give. Among the Jews, it was a maximum of 40, usually only giving only 39 to avoid going over the legalistic rule by mistake. The Romans had no such limit, so to say that they were beaten by a Roman means that it was severe. 

Their backs were probably whipped raw, with long, open wounds. They put them in stocks, with their feet bound. Imagine sitting in your own blood, no doubt with open wounds, that were really in a painful mess.

Now, let me make a couple of points. There’s going to be persecution, especially when you interfere with the economics of people’s lives, and that’s what’s happening here. A lot of our persecution these days is just verbal, or discriminatory but it’s increasing. Christians are being made fun of today, and Christians are being cancelled, but it’s nothing like what they experienced here.

One more observation. It’s late at night. The lights are turned out. They’re nursing their sore backs, their feet are in the stocks, and they’re in the inner prison. And this is what it says they were doing. Listen to at verse 25. “At midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.” 

Now, let me just tell you, that’s not normal, that’s not natural. How about praying and singing at midnight even when you’re in great pain and have been folgged.

But that’s only the beginning something amazing happens, it tell us, “Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains fell off.”

Let me just remind you that under Roman law, if a jailer allowed prisoners to escape, he would face the same punishment the prisoners were meant to receive. Facing such severe consequences, the jailer considered it better to commit suicide. Seeing the prison doors open and assuming the prisoners had escaped, he drew his sword to end his life. However, Paul intervened, shouting, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!" This prompted the jailer to ask, "What must I do to be saved?"

So, witnessing what he has just seen the Roman jailer asks how can he be saved.

Paul's response to the jailer's question is crucial: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved—you and your household." This is one of the most important verses in the Bible, along with John 3:16, for understanding how to be saved. It emphasizes believing in someone—Jesus Christ—rather than doing something.

The Philippian jailer and his household believed and were baptized. Some use this passage to justify infant baptism, arguing that the whole household was baptized. However, Acts 16:32 clarifies that Paul and Silas spoke the word of the Lord to all who were in the house, indicating that everyone was old enough to understand the message and believe, there is no evidence there were any young children or infants there

I believe the Bible teaches what is called  believer's baptism, where one professes faith in Christ and then is baptized.

After this dramatic event, Paul and Silas were invited to the jailer's home, where they spoke more about Jesus to the whole household. The next morning, the magistrates decided to release them, sending word via a messenger.

But Paul refuses to leave quietly.

Let me just tell you, these magistrates must have been worried. Not only were they about to release Paul a Roman citizen, but without an investigation, they had also publicly beaten and imprisoned him without a trial. 

So, in fact the magistrates came down and plead with Paul and Silas to leave the city quietly. Paul agreed, but not without making it clear to them what had happened, and what God has done.

In each case today we someone and some people saved, God was clearly at work in all three circumstances. So this passage teaches us that God orchestrates all these different moments of salvation.

It was the Lord that opened Lydia's heart to respond to Paul's message. 

It was the Lord who freed the slave girl from her demonic possession. 

It was the Lord who sent the earthquake. And it was the Lord who gave Paul and Silas the joy to sing even while imprisoned. 

It was the Lord who saved Lydia, the slave girl, and the jailer. 

In each of these conversions, we see God producing generosity, gentleness, and gratitude in the lives of the newly saved.

Lydia, a wealthy businesswoman, came from the top of the social ladder. 

The slave girl, freed from her possession, was from the bottom.

The jailer represented the middle class. 

This passage shows that God saves people from all walks of life—rich, poor, slave, free, male, and female—when they hear and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God's work in salvation is seen here to produce a transformation in believers, leading to generosity, gentleness, and gratitude.

At the beginning, I asked what God is doing and how He does it. This passage illustrates that God is at work in various ways, and our role is simply to speak the gospel.

Let's look back at the events in Acts 16. At the riverbank, Paul and Silas spoke to the women gathered there, and Lydia listened. When they encountered the demon-possessed girl, Paul commanded the spirit to leave in the name of Jesus Christ. When the jailer asked how to be saved, Paul and Silas said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ."

To see God work, we just need to speak up. We don't have to be eloquent or highly educated; we just need to open our mouths and share the message. God will do the rest.

Our responsibility is to proclaim the gospel, and it is God's responsibility is to open hearts and minds to those who will believe.

The point is, we just need to open our mouths and share the good news. Not everyone will respond, but some will. Our job is to simply speak up. 

It is God's job is to save.