Jesus in His Church - The..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.

He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them, for observance, the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily. And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. When Paul had seen the vision immediately, we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. So setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neopolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, and a Roman colony.

We remained in this city some days, and on the Sabbath day, we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her whole household as well, she urged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us.

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. She followed Paul and us, crying out, These men are servants of the Most High, who proclaim to you the way of salvation. And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having been 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.

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. And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, these men are Jews and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice. The crowd joined in attacking them and the magistrates tore their garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.

Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the socks. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying, singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and 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 bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.

And the jailer called for light and rushed in and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds.

And he was baptized at once, he at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them out into the house and set food before them. And he rejoiced alongside his entire household. that he had believed in God. But when it was day, the magistrates sent police saying, let those men go.

And the jailer reported these words to Paul saying, the magistrates have sent to let you go, therefore come out now and go in peace. But Paul said to them, they have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens and have thrown us into prison. And do they now throw us out secretly? No. Let them come themselves and take us out."

The police reported these words to the magistrates and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. So they came and apologized to them and they took them out and asked them to leave the city. So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them, and then they departed. Amen, amen.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord, it remains forever. Brothers and sisters, we are well over the book, well over halfway the book of Acts. And so we've seen the movements of this book progress, where salvation has first come to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. And then we've seen the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, that speaks to the apostles being sent out by Christ, being witnesses in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, and then to the outermost parts. of the earth.

We've seen that. We've seen that progression happening as we've studied together for many, many weeks now in the book of Acts. And we've also seen accompanied alongside the salvation of the Lord, alongside the gospel advancing into the world. We've also seen the power of Satan. We've seen the enemy attack the church every single step of the way.

Now, last week, I said some of those attacks happened from within the church. And that is true. And it continues to happen. And some of those attacks happened from outside the church. The Jews that were quite firm and devout in their Judaism, unbelieving Jews that didn't want anything to do with this resurrected Jesus, and they continued to attack the apostles and the gospel, and we'll see this all the way through to the end of the book.

Last week, together, we considered a momentous chapter, right? There's smack bang in the middle of the book of Acts, in chapter 15, and that chapter was summarized, or titled, the Jerusalem Council. And that is because the enemy who is always looking at ways of attacking that which Jesus is putting together, that which Jesus unites, he's looking at breaking apart. The salvation and the joy that Jesus gives He's looking at tearing that away from his people and bringing grief and suffering instead. And so he's found a way to not only find a way of attacking the church from the inside and the outside, but he's amalgamated too.

Because what we found in last week was that there were believing Jews. These are believers who had come to believe that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. They'd come to believe that this Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament anointed one, the Messianic King to come. They believed in this Jesus, but there was a problem because they were still apprehending and holding on to Judaism. They didn't abandon Judaism.

They didn't understand that Christ has fulfilled the law of Moses and all the rites and the rituals with it. They didn't understand that. So they've come in and bringing in their Judaism. They brought that into the church and now are disheartening and unsettling the Christians in Antioch and we know in other regions as well. And the biggest problem that we found in them, in what they're doing, wasn't simply that they held to this view in and of themselves, but they were teaching this error, and they were creating harm to the people of God.

Imagine a young convert that hears that he needs to do more than just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he needs to follow these rituals, that he needs to obey the law of Moses, that he needs to also be circumcised and so forth. So beloved, this is the thing. We spoke about this last week, and we said that anything being added to the true gospel, anything being subtracted from the true gospel, leaves the gospel impotent to save. It's no longer the gospel. Paul says in the book of Galatians, you cannot add to it.

And if you take anything away from it, it loses its power. You see, the problem with these Jews were, even though they believed to some degree this Jesus, yet they were holding on to Judaism, the problem was that they didn't see Jesus as being sufficient. They didn't see Him as being all-sufficient. And the question that one needs to ask is, what more can you add? What more can a man or a woman add to what Christ has done for those who would come to believe in Him?

What more can you add? Because, beloved, if you add anything to what Christ has done, what you're doing is you're actually demeaning and deriding the precious, invaluable, infinitely valuable blood of Jesus Christ that He shed upon that cross. You can't add to that which is already perfect. So there are many things that one can be silent about, but the gospel is not one. Anything that is called to the gospel cannot remain as an error.

One needs to stand up for it, and that's what we see Paul and Barnabas do. We see this last week, because they know that the gospel is being attacked, and the very fabric of what it is to be saved in Christ is being attacked, the very work of Christ is being attacked, and so they go to battle for the gospel. They go and battle for the gospel. The Jews. The Jews had one in particular thing that they were saying, which is very relevant to our study this evening, And one of the things they were saying was it was necessary, back in chapter 15, verse five, they were saying it was necessary, or it is necessary, to circumcise a person and to order them, that is the Christian, to keep the law of Moses.

We need to remember that. They wanted circumcision to be mandated for Christians who have come to trust in Jesus Christ. They were saying that this is necessary for salvation, necessary for someone to be saved. These spirit-filled men, Paul and Barnabas, they knew the gospel. They were able to identify the error because they knew the gospel.

They were spirit-filled. And they not only knew the gospel, but they proclaimed the gospel. And in the first missionary journey, and even before when Antioch, when the Spirit of God was being poured out in Antioch, and the church was formed, and more and more were added daily, it was them who witnessed with their very eyes the gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of God unto salvation, where people had come to believe, Gentiles mainly, had come to believe in the gospel and they were added to the church. Powerfully working the Spirit of God was among these people, and they knew that the gospel they proclaimed was not a gospel of works. It wasn't the gospel of merit.

It wasn't the gospel of Jesus plus anything. It was Jesus alone. It was by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. That's the gospel they were preaching, and it was a free gospel of grace. And they saw the power of the Spirit working among the people of the Gentiles who were believing and coming into the faith.

They know the gospel, they preach the gospel, and they were aware of the effects of the gospel. And they knew that there are no prerequisites. and there are no further requirements needed. Gentiles didn't need to convert to Judaism in order to be saved. They simply and only needed to look to Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice by faith and they would be saved.

You see, the Jews had an example of this already, and Jesus brought it up when he was speaking to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, you might remember it, referring to the Old Testament passage where it's spoken of the Jews were in the wilderness, and God had sent a plague of snakes, fiery snakes, that had bitten the Jews, and there was no remedy. You get bit, you're going to die. That's a painful death. And the Lord, in His grace, commanded Moses to erect a bronze statue of a snake, put it into the wilderness. And you remember what the command was?

Not to do, but simply to look and live. To look and live. But these Jews just couldn't accept that. They need to do. They couldn't just simply look to Christ and believe in His finished work, believe that His blood is infinitely valuable to cleanse us from our sins.

They wanted to look to Christ, but then that history that they had, they wanted to somehow bring that in and say, no, but you needed still to do these things. And that was a damnable error. And so last week we considered together the Jerusalem Council. And this was brought about because Paul and Barnabas knew of how devastating this era would be if it started to permeate into the churches of Jesus Christ. So they went down to Jerusalem to meet up with the other apostles and the elders, to stamp this error once and for all, and praise be to God, a victory was had.

Because everyone in that council, we're told unanimously, believed that the gospel is a gospel of free grace, that we are not to add anything, that the Gentiles are not to be burdened with anything. Nothing needs to be accompanied to their belief for their salvation. There were some requirements stipulated, but that was for table fellowship, if you remember, and for them to turn their back on paganism. But that wasn't directly associated with their faith, the faith that would save. It wasn't directly associated with the gospel or additions to the gospel.

It was simply, you have to trust in Jesus Christ and in Him, and in Him alone. Beloved, there will always be opposition to the truth. Always. We saw that last week, and as we continue in the book of Acts, we're going to continue to see that throughout the book. And this week, we'll see the opposition of Satan also come in different ways.

There's always, always opposition to the Church. But what was critical about the Jerusalem Council is that they That the Christians gather together to be unified on their belief of the core tenets of the gospel. Because that's foundational. That beloved, the enemy will attack. But Christ came to unify his people, and he unifies his people through his word.

through the Word of Truth. And so as His people, Spirit-filled, continue to study and meditate upon His Word, our Lord is unifying His people. And the stronger, the more unified they are in the Word of God, the stronger they are to oppose the enemy and all his attacks. That is critical for us to understand. See, I said before that Barnabas and Paul were able to say no That's not right.

We're going to fight for this. And this is the hill we'll die on. That the reason why they're able to stand and say, no, we're not going to believe this. You don't need to be circumcised to be a Christian. No, you don't need to become a Jew to be a Christian.

The reason they are able to stand in that way is because they knew the gospel of Jesus Christ. They knew. They knew the Lord. They were spirit filled. They understood and knew the gospel.

And so the more we understand that which Christ has revealed to us in his word, The better we're going to be by His Spirit to oppose the enemy who is always, 24-7, trying to attack that which Jesus has built together. But with that mammoth victory, if you remember last week, we also saw quite a sad ending to that chapter, and it was a sad separation, the partnership of many years, Paul and Barnabas has come to an end. after a sharp disagreement whether or whether or whether not to take John Mark with them because he'd abandoned them in Pamphylia on the first journey. They disagree among each other, there's a sharp disagreement and then they go their separate ways. We examined the nuances of that separation last week so I'm not going to go back into them this week but as a result Barnabas does end up taking John Mark and they sail over to Cyprus, that's where Barnabas is from, and the Apostle Paul the apostle that Jesus has commissioned to the Gentiles, he partners with Silas, and together they begin the second missionary journey of the apostle Paul into the Gentile regions.

Now, Silas, if you remember, he was introduced to us in the last chapter. He was one of the brothers that was sent from Jerusalem with the other brother, being Judas, to accompany Paul and Barnabas to Antioch, so that they can proclaim by mouth the contents of the letter, and to encourage the brothers, to strengthen the brothers, and to affirm in unity what Paul and Barnabas and the other apostles and the elders all came to agreement upon, and that is that the gospel is not to be added to. Now, some time has passed, and the apostle Paul must have sent to Silas, because we know after Silas and Judas landed in Antioch, they stayed there a little bit and then they went back to Jerusalem, but now we're told some time has passed, And Paul now takes Silas along to go on a second missionary journey. So he must have called for Silas from Jerusalem, and then together they're commissioned and blessed by the church. and they start their journey.

So Barnabas goes over the island to Cyprus, Paul goes up north from where they are into Syria, the rest of Syria, and into Cilicia. And if you remember, Cilicia, Tarsus is in Cilicia, and that's why Paul is Paul of Tarsus, because that's his birthplace. So he goes through that region, and then they progress to the west and continue through the west of what we now call Turkey, which is Asia Minor in those days, and then they cross over to the region of Macedonia, which is a little bit later in this chapter. From there, after strengthening the churches, they continue west to the cities that the Apostle Paul had visited with Barnabas only two to three years ago. It's hard to say exactly how much time has passed, but it's likely no more than probably three, maybe four at the most, but around two to three is about accurate.

from their first missionary journey and the second now, where initially they go over the same grounds that they went on last time. And of course, when Paul visits the churches, he encourages them, strengthens them, and they fellowship with the brothers. But also they share the findings of the Jerusalem Council. They shared a letter that was written by James, if you remember, to encourage the mostly Gentile Christians in these places to know that you don't need to become Jews to be saved. You don't need to become a Jew to be a Christian.

And the question is, why did they inform all these churches that that letter, if you remember, was addressed to Antioch? Syria, because the Antioch is in Syria, but to the northern parts of Syria, and to Cilicia. But we're told that they continue to share the news of that letter and beyond in the whole in the region of Phrygia and Galatia. Why would they do that? Well, brothers and sisters, it's not only to encourage the churches of this unanimous decision, it's not really a decision, it's an acknowledgement that the gospel is not to be added to by anyone, and that's really encouraging news to all the Christians, to the converts who have come to know Christ through faith and faith alone.

It's really encouraging. But also, brothers and sisters, because we know that these Jews, the believing Jews or the Jews that are still holding to Judaism, were infiltrating those areas. And they were still going through and causing havoc. They were preaching this poison. And Paul and Silas, no doubt, wanted them to know, The whole church is united.

We are in great agreement over what the gospel is. This is what it is. Be encouraged, brothers and sisters. What you've been taught initially is the true gospel. Hold on to that.

Look to Christ. And when someone comes and adds to that message, then you need to know that that's not the gospel at all. And if you remember, last week we went through the book of Galatians, many chapters in the book of Galatians, and that essentially is what Paul is rebuking the Galatians over. You heard the gospel. You know the gospel.

Why would you accept something that is not what you heard? If you started in faith in Christ alone, why would you now continue with the works of your hands?" the Apostle Paul says to the Galatians. So they do this so they can remove any unnecessary reason for doubting amongst the Christians, because Paul's heart is very much a pastoral heart. We've seen that already, and we'll continue to see that as we move on.

Now, when they arrive to Lystra, who can remember what happened in Lystra? The Apostle Paul's got some fairly dark memories of that place. It's in Lystra that he was stoned and he was left for dead. You remember that? Our brother explained that to us, I think it was in Acts 14.

But it's here in Lystra that Silas and Paul meet a young man by the name of Timothy, we're told. And it is the same Timothy that becomes one of the elders at the church in Ephesus. And it's the same Timothy that the apostle Paul writes two epistles to, and the apostles are named by his name. Now Luke gives us two very important pieces of information straight off the bat about Timothy when he introduces him, and we have to keep those in mind because they explain what he's about to say, and explains actually a very important detail that comes in this paragraph. The first is that Timothy's mother, and we know her name was Eunice from 2 Timothy, Timothy's mother was a Jewish woman.

Now his father was a Greek, But his mother was a Jewish woman. And the second thing that we need to note that Luke tells us in verse 2 is that Timothy was well spoken of by the brothers in Lystra and Iconium. You see, he was respected amongst his peers. Because we need to understand those two points in order to understand what comes next. You see, Paul decides at this point that he wants young Timothy to accompany him on his missionary journey.

He wants young Timothy to come along. He sees in him that he will be of great help in their mission. But before he does, we're told, before he takes him along, verse 3, interesting verse, And he took him and circumcised him, that's Timothy, because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. Now, you see, this detail about circumcising Timothy might seem very strange, especially here, especially after chapter 15, in light of the momentous outcomes of the previous chapter, the very results that were communicating to all the Gentile churches that you don't need to be circumcised as a Christian. So what's going on in this passage?

Why is Timothy needing to be circumcised so so close to the results of the Jerusalem Council which denied that very notion? Beloved, there is no prerequisites. And there are no requirements for a Christian for their salvation apart from, as I said earlier and on many occasions, faith. Faith in Jesus Christ. There are no rites that they need to observe, no rituals, and especially no circumcision is required for salvation.

That was the message, essentially, that Paul and Barnabas had known and been preaching, and after the Jerusalem Council they continued to teach the churches in Asia Minor of that exact same message. So why now Paul would you circumcise young Timothy? Well those details that Luke gave us earlier come in handy because we need those to understand why. You see it wasn't for the brothers in Christ because you remember the brothers in Christ were told The brothers in Christ had highly esteemed young Timothy. They'd held him in high esteem.

He was respected among his peers, whether he was circumcised or not circumcised. They didn't care. You're our brother in Christ. We love you, brother. We don't care about these things, right?

So it wasn't for the brothers. But the unbelieving Jews, you see, they wouldn't be so gracious. You see, Timothy had a Jewish mother, remember that, we said that earlier, yet he wasn't circumcised. His father was Greek, he probably had his way, but his mother was a Jew. His mother was a Jew.

Had he had two Gentile parents, it wouldn't be a problem. Luke, for example, he's a Gentile, and it's very likely he had both Gentile parents, and he accompanies Paul. Actually, later on in this chapter, we'll see he accompanies Paul and Silas from this point in their missionary journeys. However, he doesn't need to be circumcised. But why would Timothy need to be circumcised?

You see, as a Jew with a Jewish mother, if her son wasn't circumcised, then Timothy would be an affront to the Jews. They would not want him in their synagogues. Even proselytes were meant to be circumcised, right? Gentiles who converted to Judaism. How about a boy born to a Jewish woman?

A Jew who doesn't bear the sign of the covenant in their eyes is as good to them as an apostate. Can you imagine what some of these devout, unbelieving Jews would have thought if Timothy remained uncircumcised? Can you imagine? This young Timothy comes along, and he and Paul and Silas are preaching the good news of the gospel, and he's opening up the scriptures and he's saying that the fulfillment of scriptures is this Jesus, he's the Messiah, he's the Christ, he's the anointed one of God, and all those Old Testaments that you've come to, to memorize Jews, and they go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second, you're not circumcised. Like, what gives you the right to come and tell us what the Scriptures mean, and how to interpret the Scriptures, and Christ is the Messiah that is the fulfillment of Scriptures, when you can't even obey a fundamental, clear thing for us Jews?

Why should we listen to you, Timothy? And actually, why should we listen to this character by the name of Paul, who has allowed you to accompany him on his missionary journeys? You see how they can lose quite a bit of credibility in that. Considering that the Apostle Paul, everywhere he goes, and we've said this on earlier occasion and it's actually going to continue, wherever he goes, he's always looking, even though he is the Apostle to the Gentiles, he's always looking to the Jews. So wherever he goes, he always looks for the Jews, he looks for the synagogues or the Jewish gatherings.

and then he'll go and he'll preach the gospel to the Jews. Normally he gets kicked out, he gets rejected, and then he overflows into the Gentile cities and other places. But he always goes to the Jews first. So he is the apostle of the Gentiles, but he's also an apostle to the Jews. So considering that they're going to be meeting up with a lot of these Jews, if Timothy is an affront to these Jews, then what does that do to the gospel proclamation?

Now another distinction, Another distinction that we need to make, apart from the fact that Timothy being uncircumcised won't work, it'll be a hindrance, an obstacle, is one that we need to clear up because many have said, or some have said, that Paul's been inconsistent. You see, in Galatians chapter 2, Paul notes that Titus, who accompanied him to Jerusalem, Titus came with Paul, we're told, in Galatians 2. Now, the dating, there's disagreement on when that could have been. I personally lean towards an earlier dating. I personally lean towards Acts chapter 11, when they went to hand over the relief from the church of Antioch is what's spoken of there.

in the time of the famine. But irrespective, Titus was a Gentile. And when he accompanied Paul, we're told that Paul actually says that he was not circumcised, nor was he forced to be circumcised. So Paul proudly says, even Titus wasn't circumcised. Why?

You see, why would Paul agree that Titus wouldn't be circumcised? He wouldn't push that upon him. Yet Timothy, he says, no, you need to be circumcised before you come to me on this missionary journey. Because what was the topic of contention when Paul went to Jerusalem with Titus was that the Jews were wanting the Christians to be circumcised as a requirement to be a Christian. That's the issue.

It's a gospel issue. You see, Paul would not allow Titus to be circumcised to appease people with faulty beliefs, those who think that you must be circumcised in order to become a Christian. See, that would violate the power of the gospel. But in the case of Timothy, gospel fidelity, gospel faithfulness is not at stake. The circumcision of Timothy in Acts chapter 16, the chapter before us, is not a matter of the gospel or a requirement of God's law, but a matter of liberty.

Choosing to be circumcised is not making a statement that it's necessary for salvation. but rather that Timothy, in love, has chosen, as well as Paul, to give up some of his liberties, painfully bear a burden, bear some pain temporarily, in order to take away any hindrances and any obstacles from the gospel of Jesus Christ to be preached among the unbelieving Jews. Beloved, this is an activity of love. on Timothy's behalf. He's prepared a sacrifice for these Jews that he loves because he wants nothing, nothing to get in the way of preaching the gospel.

But when they say that you need to be circumcised in order to be Christian, or they add to the gospel, then at that point, the Apostle Paul is going to dig in his heels and say, no, not going to happen. I'm not going to circumcise because now you're opposing the true gospel and you're making circumcision a requirement for salvation. It's not going to happen. I'm going to stand my ground on that. However, if circumcision means that you're giving up some of your liberty in order to reach a group of people who may be offended, then, beloved, is that not what the Apostle Paul means in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 when he says, to the Jews, I became a Jew in order to win the Jews?

So Timothy joins the Apostle and Silas and they continue west. They're unable to preach in the places, in many places, in Asia Minor because the Holy Spirit had forbidden them to do so, verse 6. Then we're told the Spirit of Jesus was holding them back from preaching in the regions in Asia, because he had a different agenda for these men. Now, I want you to notice how Luke says, the Spirit of Jesus, the second time around. It's the Holy Spirit first time, and then he says the Spirit of Jesus, because he's saying the Spirit of Jesus is in control.

He's in control, and it is the Spirit of Jesus directing these men. This wasn't Luke, who is a great writer. But it wasn't him making good use of synonyms, your Holy Spirit on one side and the Spirit of Jesus on the other. No, I believe through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the text is meant to remind us of something. It's meant to remind us that Jesus is in complete control, and he's the one directing his people in their gospel endeavors.

I think it's meant to remind us of the very first chapter, and actually the very first verse of the first chapter, and I'll read it to you. It says, In the first book, O Theophilus, and that's the gospel according to Luke, because Acts is the second volume of that, I have dealt with all that Jesus began, hear that word? All that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up, and after giving commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. You see, what Jesus began in his earthly ministry, he's continuing to accomplish and to work out through his Spirit and through his appointed people as he sits at the right hand of the Father. Jesus is building his church, beloved.

He's personally directing his apostles and his missionaries according to his agenda. because he's personally gathering his sheep from all over the world, from Jews and Gentiles alike. He's bringing them all into his own sheepfold, a united sheepfold, which is his body. Jesus, beloved, is in control, and I think Luke wants us to see this. The Spirit of Christ is the one who says, don't go there.

I've got another plan for you. I've got another plan. What is that plan? We're told here, when the evangelists were in Troas, and that's a seaside community, the Lord gives Paul a vision, verse 9. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night, a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us.

And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately, immediately, we, you hear that, see that we? This begins the beginning of what is called the we passages, that Luke is now bringing himself into the narrative. He's now, from this point, an eyewitness. We, he says, we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God has called us to preach the gospel to them. I love that conclusion of the apostle.

You see, he sees a man from Macedonia urging him to come, come, come and help us. That's the vision. Now there's no details. What is the type of help this Macedonian man is requiring? We're not told.

But Paul knows exactly what is needed. He knows the deepest need for the unconverted sinner, even if they don't know yet what their needs are. It's to come to trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, and to be made reconciled to God. That's man's greatest need. And if anyone's going to call out for help, as far as Paul's concerned, then that help is going to come in the way of him preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because that help, the greatest need of their soul, is to hear the good news of the gospel. That speaks volumes about the heart of the Apostle, does it not? And beloved, as the Apostle Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ, I think this is something to be imitated. Because although we can expect that the Lord now speaks, he doesn't speak in visions as he did with the early church, when the early church was in her infancy. That's unique to that New Testament era.

But we can ask ourselves this question, what would my thoughts be if I was confronted with that vision? What would my thoughts, what details would go through my mind if I heard someone say, help? If you had a dream or whatever, and you thought of that, you thought of that scenario, and someone's screaming out, help, would your mind firstly go to the physical things or the spiritual things? See, the thing is, we should never undermine the need to help physically, beloved, because to be Christian is to also lend a helping hand when we can to the physical needs of our brothers and sisters and even our enemies. But beloved, does your mind instantly go out to a people who need help in the spiritual things?

or does it first acknowledge other things? Do you recognize that everyone in this dark world apart from Christ is in desperate, desperate need of the gospel? That everyone, that when we walk out of this door, everyone we meet in our days, everyone who we meet who have not come to know Christ as Lord and Savior, every one of those people are crying out. And the only way we can help them is to be Christ to them. We don't know the elect.

We don't know who Christ will and will not save. But beloved brothers and sisters, I think that we ought to have in our hearts a great desire to think about the spiritual reality and what they would be confronted with if they die without Christ. And we should have the heart to at least preach and share the gospel of Jesus Christ at any point that we can. Because even though they don't know, they don't know the need that they desperately have. People, we're told, who are in sin are basking in that sin.

They know they're suppressing the truth of God in unrighteousness. They know that much. But they don't know their desperate need for the Saviour and Beloved. It's not a case where the Pharisees, the Lord accused the Pharisees of the blind, leaving them blind. If you have been saved in Christ, you're no longer blind.

You actually can see, and you're able to go and lead the blind by hand, and pray that the Lord will bring them into that perfect light of Jesus Christ, and redeem the soul. And the only way we can do that is through the proclamation of the Gospel. And so when Paul saw this vision, he concluded, we're told, that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. That's our conclusion. The gospel is to be preached.

to those in Macedonia. Verse 11. So setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neopolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in the city some days. Now, we're all familiar with Philippi.

It helps when there's a letter in the New Testament written to the people of Philippi, which are the Philippians. But geographically, Philippi was in the region of Macedonia, and Philippi was the northernmost coastal region in Macedonia. It was named after Alexander the Great's father, Philip. and it was a Roman colony, we're told, meaning the residents there enjoyed the same privileges and the same rights as a Roman citizen would in Rome. So that meant, because of these perks, places like Philippi, which are Roman colonies, had a larger percentage of Roman citizens than foreigners.

It was a leading city, we're told. So some have confused the fact that leading city, that this way Luke describes Philippi to say that it was the capital city, but it wasn't. Thessalonica was the capital city in these days. And Paul will make the trip down. We'll see that next week in chapter 17.

But Luke's description of it being a leading city or a leading region, I think, is more in regards to its importance. He may have had the fact that the city was so well known for a couple of things in particular, the rates or the quality of education and the quality of the education facilities, in particular the famous School of Medicine they had in Philippi, or it could be the strength of the economy because they were known for their gold mines and it was said that every year those gold mines produced at least 30 tons of gold yearly. That's a lot of gold. So financially they were quite affluent, but beloved brothers and sisters, the Apostle Paul and his companions didn't care about any of that. They didn't care about that.

Those details weren't a concern to them. As far as they were concerned, the Lord wanted them in Philippi for one reason, and that was to preach the word. That was their conclusion. And as he does always, the Apostle The apostle went to preach first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. That means synagogues first, but it seems that in this city there weren't very many Jewish residents because we know that if there are more than 10 Jewish family heads, then a synagogue would be established.

It doesn't seem like there's a synagogue in Philippi at this point, so maybe there wasn't a great deal of Jews. So they went and they found a place where Jewish women were gathering to pray. Now at this point we know that there shouldn't have really been any restrictions for the Christians, just a bit of background, for the Christians to practice their religion or for Jews to practice their beliefs. Now the Christians of course hadn't penetrated the gospel, hadn't penetrated the city as of yet, But the Jews didn't have an issue with practicing Judaism because in the Roman Empire that was still okay. It was still lawful to practice Judaism.

Now, Claudius in Rome, probably this year, probably a little bit earlier than this event here, had ejected the Jews because of some riots and some trouble that they were making. But that wasn't the case here in Philippi. So they still had a reasonable amount of man of freedom. So the ladies would go and they would gather together and they would pray outside the river gate, we're told. And they were worshippers of God, and that is to say that they knew or heard of these Jewish scriptures and they'd come to believe, at least they'd become sympathetic to the God of Abraham.

But they weren't yet fully proselytes. That meant they weren't yet fully accepted as Jews. And so these women would meet together on the Sabbath and they would pray. And one of these women is Lydia. We know the story of Lydia.

She's from Thyatira, that's back in the mainland of the modern-day Turkey, which is Asia Minor. And we're told here that she was a seller of purple goods. Now that's Luke's way of saying she was a woman of means. had a bit of money because purple goods meaning purple clothing and in those days they didn't have dye that was available artificially. They would have to go to the Mediterranean Sea and they would have to farm out shellfish and they would extract a few drops of dye from the shellfish and there's estimates of up to 10,000 shellfish to just give you a few grams of this colour.

Very potent And so that's why purple was the royal color. Those who had a bit of money, they would order purple clothing because the dye was expensive, not the linen. It was the dye that was expensive. So she had a business that dealt with quite wealthy people, which explains the home that fits quite a few Christians. And she'll become instrumental in this area where she becomes generous and allows her home to be used for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that's probably why we've been given so much details about Lydia. But Paul and Silas and Timothy approached these women who were praying, and they sat down with them, we're told, and they began to teach them. Luke doesn't tell us what they taught. But it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that the Apostle and the rest sat down and taught them about Christ, taught them how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Because these ladies were God-fearers, they were worshipers of God.

They'd heard about the God of Abraham, and they'd heard of him through the Scriptures. So I would take it that the Apostle Paul would have sat down with them, with Silas and Timothy, and they would have spoken to them about how Christ fulfilled the Scriptures. And I want you to see something incredibly profound in verse 14. Verse 14b, as Paul was speaking, the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. You know, sometimes we can overlook some of the smaller details, some of the smaller things, which are probably incredibly, like incredibly profound, these words.

It's a huge theological point that we have before us. You see, brothers and sisters, if something is being opened, what does that mean the original state was? Lydia's heart wasn't open, Lydia's heart was closed, and it required opening. And the beautiful thing, how Luke describes this on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is not that Paul's words were the ones that opened her heart, but rather it was God that opened the heart. Because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, but beloved, if someone only preaches the gospel, and the construction of words are faithful, and they ought to be, and the grammar is good, and it ought to be, but if God's not behind that word, then hearts aren't open, and salvation doesn't happen.

You see, it is God who is the power. behind the salvation, because salvation is of the Lord. It is He that is required to press the truth of the gospel into the heart of Lydia, to open her heart in this way, in order for her to respond favorably and embrace Christ in faith. You see, Jesus said it this way in John, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. You see, without God taking the initiative, Without God doing the heart surgery, there can be no salvation.

People are closed to the gospel. Beloved, this is an awesome truth for you and I, because we ought to be faithful in our gospel proclamation, yes. And we ought to preach it in gentleness and truth, absolutely. We can't speak authoritatively, standing upon the Word of God and the truth in His Word, absolutely. But beloved, if God is not at work, the miracle of salvation never happens.

All our efforts will come to nothing unless God is behind the Word to bring about salvation. That's why you and I ought to be on our knees, pleading with Him, not only to give us the boldness and the words to speak, but also pleading with Him that He would open people's hearts to listen. And that's extremely important, especially this week as we go to evangelism on Friday. Even now we ought to be praying, O Lord, would you even now prepare the hearts of those that we come across so that you would bring salvation to that soul. It's not the power of my persuasion that brings them into the salvation that the Lord can give through Christ.

It's not the power of my argument. That could be human. That could be fleshly. We ought to be faithful to the gospel, but then we ought to know and recognize that that salvation only comes from the hand of God who is the one who moves. The very God who brought about the whole earth into existence and said, let there be light.

He's the one who can shine the light of the gospel in the heart of a person where there was only death. It is God, it is God and God alone who brings about salvation. And so he did that. He looked favorably upon Lydia and he did that. She was elected from eternity past and he brought her into his kingdom.

And he brought her, not only her, but she believed, and her family also believed. Now, we're not told that, because Luke is quite concise. He's summarizing the story. But we know through the testimony of the New Testament, through the testimony of the book of Acts already, that Luke wants us to presuppose what is already being taken place. We know how the gospel is preached through the mouth of the apostles.

We know that already. So, the family believe, and then the family is baptized. What a blessing. The church, the New Testament church in Philippi begins. Then what we have is on the, it seems like the next week we're told, Verse 16, the apostle and his companions begin the journey to the place of prayer again.

They know that this time around Philippa and her household were redeemed, but there are a lot of people there who are yet to hear the gospel and their trust in the Lord for salvation. They come across a very interesting person, a young girl, a slave girl, who had the spirit of divination. She was the prized possession of her owners. Her owners loved this girl. They were making a serious killing, a serious income from her services.

She was demon-possessed, we know that. But she was making a lot of money because she was the demon's mouthpiece. She was fortune-telling, probably predicting the future. Now, yes, her powers were real, but Satan is not omniscient. So no, Satan doesn't know the future.

But he is very deceptive, very deceptive. And that deception was evident in this girl, and she was making a lot of money for her owners. And now we're told where she began to follow after Paul, and she was crying out words. The words in the original, the crying out, is like screaming or screeching even. And her words seem to be true at face value.

I mean, look at them. These are the servants of the Most High. True. who proclaim to you the way of salvation, true also. Right?

You can't deny what she's saying. I mean, the truth. And we know that throughout the Gospels, it's the demons who knew the true character and the true identity of Christ. How many times, Jesus, Son of the Most High, Son of God, they knew. The demons, no.

So she's uttering, it seems truth from her mouth. But beloved, what's the motivation behind what she says? You see, if the enemy is behind it, then he's to undermine the Gospel. She followed after Paul for many days, and she was screaming out the same words apparently over and over and over again, and even though the declaration was true, she agreed with what Paul was actually doing, because the girl was demon-possessed, this is an enemy of the cross. You see, everyone in Philippi associated this girl with other pagan gods.

You see, the designation given to her in the original language that says that she's a diviner or divination is actually Python. It speaks of a serpent that's associated with pagan mythology. So beloved, her confession may have been true, but there is so much more than simply agreeing on some truths that goes in gospel ministry. The motivation and the power behind her matters. Remember what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6?

For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with unbelievers? You see, the words are similar to what Paul is speaking, but the Spirit is completely opposing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Spirit opposes Christ. She practices dark arts, and Christ is the brilliant light. The two are completely incompatible. And so after days, I don't know why Paul persevered so long, but after days, he turns around, and in the name of Jesus, he casts out the demon. And in doing so, he brings on a world of persecution.

upon himself and Silas, because the owners find out, and they put two and two together. Their lucrative business of making a lot of money through this girl, and they didn't care about her oppression, they didn't care about the fact that she was demon-possessed. As far as they're concerned, all they were concerned with is that their wallets were fattening up with her services, and they heard about it, and beloved, you know how money can take a hold of one's heart. It becomes their master. They're furious.

And so they go and grab the apostle and Silas, and they drag them before the magistrates. You realize what they charge Paul and Silas with? Did you realize this? It's dishonest. To make sure that they receive maximum penalty, they fabricate charges against them.

Verse 20b, these men are Jews, true. They're disturbing our city. Wait a minute. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice. Where'd they get that from?

What about the real reason why you dragged Paul before the rulers? What about the real reason why you want Paul and Silas out of the city? What about the real reason your income has gone down to zero? That's why you've dragged them there. You see, the enemy is not bound by truth.

He'll do anything, and he'll use any means to destroy that which Christ is building. In Philippi, on that day, that translates into having the gospel proclaimers who have entered into that city and have already started to see some fruitfulness of the gospel, to have their voice muffled and taken out of the equation. That's what he equates to. Now, Jewish religion was permitted in Rome. I said that earlier.

as long as there was peace and the peace was upheld. So it wasn't a matter of them breaking the law or the customs of the Romans. So although the owner had the right to bring their case to the officials, they have the right. If they've lost income, they can bring peacefully Paul and Silas and put their case before the officials, but they dragged them and they laid dishonest charges against them. Beloved, the interesting thing is, if Paul had left the slave girl in, just to continue to chant as he had done for several days, then they would not have had a problem with what he said.

The fact that they said they're disturbing the city, the fact that they said that they became customs that are not lawful for Romans, that's just a guise to say, we don't want these people out, they've just affected our income. That's all that is. And they don't even mention the real reason. So because of the pity of the city, the people of the city were mainly Roman citizens. They were probably patriots.

They were probably very much into their law and their customs. They loved their lifestyle. They enjoyed the things that they enjoyed. Even though they heard the accusations against Paul and Silas, and even though those accusations were not true, they wanted to protect their city. So what did they do?

Together, they engaged. They were stirred up, and they engaged in the anger. they engage in the anger. And so they publicly attack the evangelists, we know that, and probably keep attacking and beating them until the magistrates, without trial, order the public beating of the men and then throw them in jail, and ordered the jailer to fasten their feet with chains. You see, the whole thing that we just read now and thought about, it just spells a gross injustice, does it not?

Paul and Silas hadn't had a chance to defend themselves of these false charges. There was no trial. They just took the accusations at face value and they began to beat the people, began to attack Paul and Silas. And then the magistrates, they ordered them to be flogged. There was no trial.

Things traveled so quickly for the two. Before they knew it, they were just there, battered and bruised and bleeding in a cell of a prison under lock and key. But what comes next is amazing, beloved. I love this. I often wonder what my reaction would be in this situation.

What would I be thinking if this happened to me? It hasn't happened. A lot less has happened. But what would you be thinking if a gross injustice had occurred against you? Some may have experienced this injustice for the gospel and for the name of Christ, and others may have just experienced injustice because we live in a fallen world.

But beloved, the natural thing for us is to become resentful, bitter, and even angry at those who have done injustice to us. You see, we start to think our rights are being violated. That's not fair. How often have we uttered those words? That's not fair, we say.

And then our minds begin to take us to a series of scenarios of what we think should have happened, and what we will do next time, or what we will do when we're confronted with the officials, how we can get out of this doozy, and that's what our minds go to. It just becomes all these imaginary things that we think about in that moment. The more and more and more we think about the injustice that has been given against us, the angrier and possibly the more bitter that we become against the person who has inflicted the injustice. And sometimes we call those emotions zeal for truth or justice. It's just a cover.

Because they're probably most likely sinful fleshly desires that are manifested within us. All the while, beloved, all the while, the sovereignty of God is placed aside. It might be in our minds, but it doesn't cause our actions. It doesn't empower our actions in the moment. To our shame this can happen.

To our shame it does happen. But beloved brothers and sisters, what we see in this passage is this, the remedy, the remedy to deal with injustice, the remedy to deal with being oppressed unfairly, the remedy for Paul and Silas who are now in prison, Their anxieties, or whatever it is that they're experiencing, their remedy is to know who your God is. It's to know who He is. It's to know His sovereignty. It's to know that He's in complete control over every event of the universe.

Listen to what he says here in verse 25. About in the midnight, Paul and Silas were praying. They were praying in the inner self, and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. praying and singing hymns to God at midnight. If we get out of this place, they're thinking it's the Lord who will get us out.

And so we'll pray and show our complete dependence upon him in all things. But as long as we're here and as long as we have a little bit more air in our lungs, no matter the flesh that's peeling off our bones in the back, no matter. But we've still got some air in our lungs. We're going to sing praises to our mighty God. If we can breathe, we can praise the Lord.

What a witness. What a witness to the prisoners that were in the prison that day. Beloved, true saving faith, true reliance on God in all of life and death brings a settled supernatural peace to the soul when you know who your God is. This is the problem. Unfortunately, many of us go through so many difficult times mentally and spiritually and emotionally and all these things because we may know in our minds But we don't really, really believe in our hearts how great our God is, how big our God is.

Because the sure remedy for our anxieties and our stresses, for the uncertainty of the uncertainties, and we don't even know what tomorrow will bring, beloved, is to know who He is and to know who we are in Christ Jesus who has saved us, not because of anything we have done, but because of what He has done for us. They knew that Jesus is in complete control. And beloved, if he takes our lives tomorrow, they're thinking, well then to die is gain. And if he does that, what about the gospel? Well, he'll raise up men to continue to preach the gospel.

What about the kingdom advancing through the gospel in the church? Well, that will continue. Why? Because Jesus said it will continue, therefore it will continue for us. Right now, what we need to do is trust him and give him the praise and honor and the glory that he is deserving of him.

And this is such a lesson to all of us, such a lesson to my heart. because it doesn't really matter what the outcomes are. It matters not what the outcomes are, beloved. Our rest ought to be in the person of Jesus Christ, no matter what the outcomes are. We know the story.

That night an earthquake comes and rumbles the prison, probably Philippi as well, and all the doors of the prisons were opened. Now, this is supernatural. What we're seeing before us is a supernatural event. The sceptics like to say otherwise. They'll say there's always been documented earthquakes in Philippi.

I'm not giving that. That's true. Fair enough. And they'll say, yeah, look, maybe some of these doors were on hinges. They're pretty heavy.

If you rock them hard enough, they may come off the hinges. Now, I would say that's unlikely. If it's a prison, you'd think. They'd make a way that prisoners can't just carry those thoughts. But if you give them that much, let me ask you this, what about the shackles on their feet?

Not only on their feet, but on the feet of everyone there? Beloved, you can shake your foot as much as you want, that shackle, that sock, steel sock that's on there, ain't going anywhere. This is a supernatural thing going on here. The Lord Jesus wanted them out of that place, but before that, He wanted to do something amazing first. He wanted to do something amazing first.

Because when the jailer, who was asleep at the time, probably went to sleep because maybe from hearing the singing of Paul and Silas, he woke up and he saw the door open. What was his first instinct, beloved? To kill himself. That would have been the penalty for what he had done by his superiors because allowing prisoners to escape under your watch in Rome would carry with it the death penalty. You may remember back in chapter 12 when Herod, when Peter escaped from prison, you remember Herod?

He ordered that the soldiers of that prison who were guarding him to be put to death. That would be the penalty. But it would be probably less dishonoring for himself and his family than to stand before his executors before all and to be executed by them. He'd just fall on the sword and get it over and done with. It's going to happen anyway.

I might as well do it now. But Paul cries out, don't do it. Don't do it. We're all here. No one has escaped.

Lights are turned on. He confirms the words of Paul and comes before Paul and Silas. There were others in that prison also. But he comes directly to Paul and Silas. Why?

He made a beeline to them. What's the first words we're told, he says, falling before them? He's not asking for explanation. Now, man, now, now, I know you're responsible. Tell me how.

And tell me why. And tell me when. Tell me. I'm going to put this all in my report. Tell me what's going on.

None of that. When he comes to them, the first thing on his mind and his heart is that these men are definitely servants of the living God. And the only question that he has to ask them is this. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Beloved, how would you answer that question?

If someone directly came to you and sincerely said to you, how must I be saved? What would the economy of your own words be to that? Because beloved, Christian faith is more deep and more profound than anything I know, but at the same time, it's so simple. The words of Paul, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. you and your whole household.

What a beautiful, beautiful passage that comes on the back of Acts chapter 15. The Jews wanted to complicate it all. You've got to do this, you've got to do that, you've got to be circumcised, write rituals, obey the laws of Moses. They wanted to complicate it all. Here we have the Apostle Paul saying, you want to know how to be saved?

Believe. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Look to him in faith. Now, of course, Luke summarizes the narrative, and we know that later on he speaks to them the gospel of Christ to them and their family. But essentially, they had to look to Christ and believe in him and be saved.

He realizes there's no pluses there. Simply believe and be saved. Believe that Jesus is all-sufficient. Believe that Jesus is the one who can cleanse you from your sins. Believe that Jesus is the one who can reconcile you to God.

Just believe. Believe and be saved. And beloved, we know, because we have a New Testament theology, that to believe would be that God himself has drawn the heart and has brought about regeneration, a new heart of flesh from the heart of stone, and given eyes and ears to hear the gospel, apprehend Christ in faith, and be saved. Hours earlier, hours earlier, the jailer was about to plunge the sword into his heart. My apologies, I want to say hours earlier, this is after he was baptised.

And if He did, He would have been met, or He would have met with the most terrifying reality in judgment, right? He would have known immediately, and then on that judgment day, when Jesus Christ judges the living and the dead, He'll be faced on His own. What a terrifying thing! What a terrifying thing! Now, we know beyond that, we know that God has His elected purposes before creation of the world.

But those who die in their sin, It's a scary thing. But instead, the mercy of God was poured out on this man and on his household. They believed, and now they enjoy the eternal glory that is found in Jesus Christ. Think of all the events and the exact timing that needed to take place. The Spirit not allowing Paul and Silas to go to Asia in the South.

He didn't allow them to go to Bithynia in the North either. And then they get a vision, or Paul gets the vision, of a man in Macedonia saying, come, help us. Think of all the events that needed to take place. The slave girl. Paul doesn't cast out the demon on the first day or the second.

It is a few days later. We don't know exactly how many days, but it's a few days later he casts out the demon of the servant girl. Think about the owners who grab them and drag them into the marketplace before the rulers in a false trial, not even a trial. The people start to beat them and attack them, and then the magistrates order the beating so they can be beaten and then imprisoned. And then, beloved, think about the timing.

The split-second precision of the words of the Apostle Paul when he said, don't harm yourself. The jailer probably had the sword and was just about to plunge it into his heart. And Paul says, no, don't harm yourself. Like this earthquake had just happened, and the shackles were open, and he had the presence of mind to look at the jailer and say, don't do it. Don't harm yourself.

That's incredible. You can't say that God is not in complete control. You cannot say that he's not the one and it's his timing that is absolutely perfect in all these things. It's a supernatural work of God in the heart of the Jailer. We know that.

But it's God showing, this text is showing us that Christ is the one who's sovereign over all the events of the universe. And he's the one sovereign over the building of his church, the proclamation of the gospel, the pervading, the invading of the gospel into the dark world, and he's the one who's gathering his people. And this is it, beloved. This is why he's able to say in John chapter six, that the will of the Father is to save all that he has given me, he says, and he will not lose how many? Not even one.

Not even one. You might say, but what if that jailer plunged onto that sword? It was never going to happen. Because now we look in hindsight and we know that. But beloved, we don't have hindsight.

And therefore, when we look into the world, we see we see many Philippian jailers who are on the brink of death. And without Christ, they will perish for all eternity. Christ knows his people. He uses a means and that is us to proclaim the gospel through these fallible sinful mouths. But this is the means he has chosen, and it's a glorious thing to be included in that.

The next day, and we'll finish with this, the next day word came back to release Paul and Silas, but Paul digs his heels in. It's quite interesting because it's unlike Paul to demand his rights like this. Putting on the Putting on the table a pretty big piece of information now. By the way, Silas and I are Roman citizens. That's a big deal for these men in this situation.

You see, public flogging was allowed for the foreigner, but the Roman citizen was protected from such shameful treatment. That's not the way you treat a Roman citizen. The Romans, they treated their people well. Actually, they treated them really well. They had a lot of good rights.

Also, the law prohibited Roman citizens to be imprisoned without trial, so there's another strike. And that's why you have the magistrates who are quite fearful at this point in time. There's a lot wrong with what went down in Philippi. A lot wrong with what went down in Philippi. But you realize there's a lot of questions out there that ask the question, why did Paul not bring that detail up before?

Why did Paul not bring up the detail that he's a Roman citizen, and so is Silas, because if he had, immediately they would have gone, whoa, whoa, we've got to deal with you differently. But let me tell you something. The reason why he didn't bring it up is this. That Philippi in Jaila had an appointment to be saved. God wanted it to happen.

It's incredible. It's just as simple as that. God wanted to save the Philippi in Jaila, and this is the way he was going to do it. But then we have to ask the question, so why does he demand the magistrates? He says, we're not going to leave like this.

You've flogged us publicly, and you embarrassed us publicly, and now you want us to go secretly? He says, no, the magistrates need to come, and they need to take us out. They need to release us out of prison. That's what Paul is saying. You see, the key of the matter to understand this passage, I think, is in verse 37.

Paul says, he and Silas were publicly beaten and humiliated, yet secretly they want to release them from prison. That's what's said there. You see, the citizens of the city heard the preaching of Paul. They heard the preaching of Silas. They heard the proclamation of the gospel.

They knew they were Jews, and they knew they were Jewish Christians, so they'd heard the gospel. They made that connection. The next thing they hear is that these men are opposing the customs. and the laws of the city, a Roman colony. That's what they hear.

Straight after that, they see a riot and people attacking because people start to believe, who are you to come in here and destroy what we have? We don't want that to happen. So there's a riot, a mob of attacking, and then Paul and Silas are dragged away from that scene. And then publicly, the magistrates order the beating of these two men. And all the onlookers are looking at what's taking place, and they're thinking, guilty.

Our rulers, our magistrates have now condemned these men to beating and then we know they've sent them to prison. These men are guilty. What were they preaching? Must be wrong. And anyone who believes that must be in error.

So automatically these people are probably thinking that these people who are like this, if we come across people who believe the same thing and say and preach the same thing, then they're an enemy of the state. They're an enemy. So I believe Paul and Silas, or Paul at least, dug his heels and said, no, no, they need to come. They did it publicly and now they need to come themselves and they need to free us themselves and walk us out. I think he was doing it for the Christians who were left behind.

Because they didn't want the rest of the city to think that these Christians are troublemakers. The church had begun in Philippi. and it was going to grow. And Paul knew that this reputation may be left behind if they left things secret. If they'd gone out of prison, and as we know later on, the magistrate ordered them to leave the city.

If it was all done in stealth under the carpet, then it may have given a bad name for the Christians in the city. And beloved, we know that Christians in any city are the law-abiding citizens. There is nothing on the law if you're in Christ. Because those who obey Christ obey the government, right? They don't cause riots or break down the peace.

They'll be perfectly okay in the Roman colony. I think that's what Paul was doing. He was protecting the Christians. So that's why he dug his heel. his heels in.

I don't think he was prideful at all, but I believe he was protecting the Christians who remained behind, and at least what he did legitimizes the church and her beliefs in the eyes of the officials, as well as the people of Philippi. From there, they obey the magistrates. They go to Lydia's home, which is now being used as a place where the congregation of believers come together. I think that's why we were told so much details about her earlier, because now she has a big church and the church is now congregating in that place. And we do know, the next time Paul comes, that the church grows and grows and grows and grows.

True converse is what we see here. So Beloved, what we've seen in this passage is this. The gospel continues to advance. Jesus is in complete control. The enemy will attack the church.

He always has throughout all the generations. He will continue and continue and continue and continue. But Jesus Christ is sovereign. He's sovereign over every event of this universe. He's sovereign over his people and beloved.

He's also infinitely sovereign over the gathering of the lost sheep to bring them into the sheepfold. He does that work through the proclamation of the gospel and his people ought to be obedient to him, looking to him in faith and trusting his work explicitly and implicitly. To trust in Jesus. Let's pray.