I please the Lord to bless us
together for a few moments as we continue our meditation in
the Acts of the Apostles and this evening we'll speak from
chapter 16 and from verse 16 down to verse 24. The Acts of
the Apostles chapter 16 and from verse 16. Most of you will remember that
last week we reached the point where the Apostle had been commanded
to go and preach in Macedonia, in Philippi of Macedonia. And
he'd gone there and he'd been blessed and he'd had that blessing
with Lydia. who was that Sarah Purple who
had heard the word and she and her household had been blessed
and they were therefore baptised and she constrained Paul to stay
with her and obviously Silas as well and so we read and it
came to pass as we went to prayer After they'd stayed there, we're
not told how long, but sometime they went to prayer and that
would seem to mean that they went to a place of prayer. They
came to pass as we went to a place of prayer. Then it was good and
they desired to meet together to pray. It's good that we're
able to come together to pray and it's important the Church
of God do meet together to pray because God is a prayer hearing
and a prayer answering God but he has said he will be inquired
of by the House of Israel to do these things for them, so
that we must remember to pray. And so here was the apostle then
going into prayer, or a prayer meeting, and a certain damsel,
possessed with the spirit of divination, met us, which brought
her masters much gain by soothsaying. So she was obviously involved
in witchcraft or similar kind of things or telling, forecasting
what was going to happen in people's lives and obviously she was well
equipped and well able to do this and we realized that if
she had an evil spirit that was within her and which made her
pursue this line of things. But obviously it was beneficial
to her masters, those who were in charge of her, and we're told
that she brought them much gain. So it wasn't just a little bit,
it was obviously considerable income for them. While she continued
following Paul, and Silas, where it says Paul and us, so there
may have been others, and she cried saying, these men are the
servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of
salvation. And this she did many days. Now
If we just read that casually we may think well that must be
very wonderful but in fact what we should recognize is that there's
that great adversary the devil and he clearly was with this
woman and possessed her so that she was able to do that work
of divination and now she speaks these words which appear to be
good words, well they are good words but they come from her
and we must remember that the devil goes about as an angel
of light and he takes on different guises for different situations
in order to win over people to himself and therefore on this
occasion we can assume that it was the devil that had given
this woman these words to speak. And she spoke them, but of course
they weren't really from her heart. And we can think of many
people today in other churches, other denominations. We can think
of the Roman Catholic Church, and many things which you might
say of them would be right and true. It doesn't mean to say
that they are amongst those that fear God. The devil uses who
he can. if he can, to persuade God's
people to turn away from that narrow way. And so we see this
situation with this woman speaking these things. And this she did
many days, but Paul being grieved. Now he wouldn't have been grieved,
would he, if she was speaking the truth as a godly person.
He wouldn't have been grieved. but he was grieved because of
the situation which existed and so he was grieved and he turned
she was obviously behind him speaking these words and he turned
around and said to the spirit the evil spirit that was within
her I command thee Remember, not in his own strength. He says,
I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of
her. And he came out the same hour. Now, just looking back for a
moment to Paul's visit here to Philippi. It had been prosperous. You may remember that God had
told him to go to Macedonia in that vision. A man had asked
him to come over to Macedonia to help us, and he'd immediately
obeyed the Word of God, and no doubt he would have anticipated
it would be a good and profitable time, and so it had appeared. But now there was going to be
a sudden change, a very difficult change for the Apostle, because
we are told, and when her masters who she'd made a lot of money
for, saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul
and Silas and drew them into the marketplace under the rulers. They would obviously took hold
of them and dragged them down to the marketplace under the
rulers. Well, that wasn't a very pleasant
experience, was it? Having dismissed this evil spirit
and now they were finding themselves dragged into the marketplace
and they brought them to the magistrates saying these men
being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city and of course that was
really a gross exaggeration because there had been no evidence of
them really travelling the city, but clearly those things which
had occurred to those masters of this woman, they were very
unhappy and therefore they endeavoured to make a big case against them. And often the children of God
find sometimes that the adversary tries to make a big case against
them. not anything they may have done
really wrong, but here we see the devil striving, if he can,
to defeat Paul and Silas in that path that the Lord has set them
to. And when her master saw that
the hope of their game was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, drew
them into the marketplace under the rulers, and brought them
to the magistrate saying these men being Jews do exceedingly
trouble our city and teach customs which are not lawful for us to
receive neither to observe being Romans well here they were Paul,
of course, was a Roman, he was a Jew, and he was teaching the
truth of God, the truth that God had given him to speak. And
he was, therefore, serving the Lord in that way. But these people
were very unhappy with these truths, because they were contrary
to that which they were used to hearing. They wanted to hear
easy things, smooth things. They didn't want to hear things
like this, which no doubt the Apostle had exalted, speaking
of sin and speaking of salvation and speaking of the only way
of salvation. And it had a good effect upon Lydia and her household,
so much so that she believed and was baptized with her household. But now we see this statement
made against Paul and Silas. and then there they were in this
place and there was a multitude there listening to what was said
and we read the multitude rose up together against them that
obviously means sitting listening to what was being said about
them and now they rose up together against them and the magistrates
rent off their clothes that wasn't the magistrates clothes that
was the clothes of Paul and Silas they ripped their clothes off
so that these poor men were naked in a very humble situation and
what have they been doing they've been obeying the voice of the
Lord. So we must remember, we should
not expect an easy path, a path of without any trouble or opposition. If we are true followers of our
Saviour, doing his will, obeying his voice, we should expect perhaps
in measure that something like the apostles had to suffer here. So here they were humiliated
amongst the multitude. The magistrates had ripped off
their clothes and commanded to beat them. Well, The people there,
the magistrates, no doubt, all those who were called upon to
carry out this, they did just that. And when they had laid
many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison. And remember
the Apostle Paul, when he wrote to the Corinthians, and in the
11th chapter he gives us a little list of some of those difficulties
he passed through and amongst that he tells us verse 24 of
the 11th chapter of the Jews five times received I 40 stripes
save one thrice was I beaten with rods Well, there he was,
five times received stripes and thrice beaten with rods, and
this was one of the occasions when he was beaten with rods.
So we can think there were eight occasions in the life of the
Apostle Paul up to this time when he was beaten, either with
whips to cause stripes or with rods, all because he was a faithful
servant of the Living God. well we should recognize today
how by comparison our life is so so easy isn't it we may have
opposition and difficulties we don't have to face in the moment
anyway situations like this so here was the apostle remember
don't forget he was obeying the voice of the Lord, doing his
will. And this was still God's purpose
for him. And as we'll go on to next week, God willing, we'll
see what a wonderful blessing it was. But the Apostle didn't
know what the future held. He had to face the situation
which existed at the present time. And here he was, stripped
naked and being beaten many times with rods. And when they had
laid many stripes upon them, it wasn't just one or two, many
stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging a
jailer to keep them safely. Now you would think surely they'd
receive the punishment that the magistrates thought was due to
them, but it would appear no, they were going to give them
worse. Perhaps they were going to try and have their life taken
away. And so they cast them into prison. Well, what an opposite situation. No doubt to what Paul and Silas
would have thought when they set out on their journey to Macedonia. Well, these things are, aren't
they? They're a warning to us. May they be an encouragement
to us. when we don't always see things go smoothly, as we may
anticipate, we may find sometimes that are very opposite, and we
may perhaps be tempted to ask why these things should come
upon us. Well, we don't see the apostle,
we don't see him complaining, do we? We don't see him moaning,
we don't see him asking the question, why am I having to endure this? He endured it for Christ's sake. We have a glorious example in
the Lord himself and we also have a wonderful example in the
Apostle. Enduring these things all for
Christ's sake. that his name might be honoured
and glorified that he might be able to proclaim the everlasting
gospel the great and glorious truth of it he was not ashamed
of the gospel of christ was he and bless god if we're not ashamed
of the gospel of christ and so here we have this statement and
when they had laid many stripes upon them they cast them into
prison charging a jailer to keep them safely who, having received
such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their
feet fast in the stocks. And we can imagine the inner
prison was a very uncomfortable place. We have some little idea
of the days of Jeremiah when he was cast into prison, cast
into the pit, into those places of slime. no doubt filthy and
dirty, no doubt totally unhygienic. There he was, a just man, cast
into the prison, and not only so, his feet made fast in the
stocks. He couldn't even move around.
What a situation, what a scene there was for the Apostle and
Silas. Well, it was all in God's purpose. We need to, don't we, compare
our little lives, and when we sometimes think things aren't
going too smoothly, well, nothing in comparison with what these
two men had to endure for Christ's sake. But remember the word,
if we are to reign with him, we are also called to suffer
with him. We could conclude therefore,
no suffering, no reigning. One may be encouraged by a little
account like this, to realise how good and kind and gracious
our God is to us. And we think of many today perhaps
in the world, who may suffer likewise. those who preach the
gospel those who follow the truth of God in many lands where they
have to face great opposition help may the Lord help us to
remember them and to pray for them and to thank God for our
liberty and our freedom and may we use it for his honor and for
his glory and it may be for the salvation of many souls amen