Acts 16:13-40

So we're continuing on with our series, Christ Our Hope in Life and Death.

I want to pick up today in Acts chapter 16, verses 13 to 40.

Acts 16:13–40

So if you got your Bibles, maybe you got a, you know, an old one that was an old family Bible and you'd like to study through it today, that'd be awesome.

I think it always makes for an interesting thing to read it in different translations and that sort of thing.

We're going to look at the second missionary journey of the Apostle Paul.

I'm going to put a map up on the screen for you.

And you'll see the white line kind of traces.

He begins to the right there in Syrian Antioch.

And he'll go across land with a guy named Silas along the way.

They'll pick up a guy named Timothy in Lystra, and then the area of Galatia, and then on through Asia, Asia Minor, as he gets to Troas along the way there, though.

What's fascinating is that God will literally prevent the Apostle Paul from going to Bithynia, we're told in the book of Acts.

At Troas, which is at the end of the little pink or red section there, they're going to jump on board a ship and head up to Philippi, which is where we will study most of the events that we'll study today come from that uh part of the world.

So there's your map.

And now if you'll turn with me to the text, I'd like to read for us.

By the way, I'm going to be jostling back a little and forth a little bit.

I'm not used to this setup.

I don't have my normal podium.

I don't have my normal stuff.

But uh if you'll just forgive me and bear with me, that I would appreciate that greatly.

I'll start verse 11, uh, where they put out on board ship.

They picked up a man named Luke who ends up being the guy that writes the Gospel of Luke and writes the book of Acts itself.

And you'll notice he uses the first person plural multiple times in the book of Acts, indicating that he was there for the events he's describing.

It's not something he uh researched, but he was actually an eyewitness to.

And this is indeed one of those sections it says, Therefore, putting out the sea from Troaz, we ran a straight course to Samo Thrace.

And on the day following to Neapolis, uh, and all the way to uh Philippi is where they're going to end up, as uh verse 12 says us, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony, and we were staying in this city for some number of days.

That's about a 156-mile journey on water in a you know ancient rickety boat.

Uh, not a nice yacht, not a well-built uh craft of some kind that, you know, some some some kind of a ship that would be put together in our own day and time, but uh uh travel by sea was still common back then.

And uh we read all about that.

Matter of fact, the book of Acts is one of the one of the best uh references for ancient nautical information and data uh that we have in the world today.

Well, on the Sabbath day, they went outside the gate to a riverside where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer.

And we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled there.

Uh so they're in Philippi, the ancient cities established a couple hundred years before this time, uh by father or grandfather of Alexander the Great, and it's a Roman colony, uh meaning that Roman citizens who lived there had some extra rights and privileges.

And uh that will even come into play here for the Apostle Paul and for his companions who are now with him, Silas, Timothy, and Luke, the four musketeers as they head over, uh, the four gospel musketeers as they head over to Philippi.

And so here uh in verses 14 following, we have the the first series of converts in Europe.

And I love it that this story here actually, as we sit here reading this today, we're actually beneficiaries of the fact that this happened, that the um that the gospel went forward, um, and that the Lord opened hearts along the way, and that people uh believed and churches were established, and the apostle Paul was so uh uh such an eager evangelist, caring for and loving, especially this church in Philippi, as he sets it up.

When you read the letter to the Philippians, you you you really see uh Paul's pastoral heart.

But there was a certain woman there named Lydia from the city of Thyatira.

Not sure where Thyatira is, uh it hasn't really been discovered, but uh.

She was a seller of purple fabrics.

So she was a successful businesswoman.

And um we're told here also she was a worshiper of God.

Now remember, in that day and time, uh most uh Gentiles would have been polytheistic uh in their belief system, many, many, many different gods.

But there were a number of them that would have, in the book of Acts, it would be referred to this way.

And it means they're leaning in the direction of uh sort of a monotheistic worldview and theological stance.

So that there must be one God who, if the title God means anything, if it means supreme being, uh one that is completely other, uh, not subject to the sort of capricious moods of how the weather's going or how their particular part of the, you know, their domain, so to speak, what part of creation they're in charge of the rain or the sun or the moon, how things are going there.

No, this is the person who is leaning in the direction of believing that there's one God, one true God.

And Lydia's there and she's got a prayer meeting going.

It's really awesome.

And it says that she was listening, and notice this in verse 14, and the Lord opened her heart.

You could underline that in your Bible, you could underline that in your anybody's Bible in the room, and that'd be great.

Because just to remember that, you know, this isn't all about us discovering God.

This is about God revealing himself to us and God opening our hearts.

And I don't know where you're at right now today, given all that's gone on uh in the world around us or in your own life.

Um, but there are times when, you know, I just you we just have to recognize it's gonna take God breaking through here.

And this indeed is uh uh great evidence of the fact that God does that and does it often.

You'll see it through here.

The Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul when she and her household had been baptized.

Notice that influence that she had on her household.

And man, that's one of the hardest places on the planet to be a Christian, isn't it?

And all of you in the room, wherever you're sitting, are shaking their heads up and down, I'm sure.

Uh, but yeah, it's hard because those people that you live with, those are the people that really see the real you.

Um and uh that's unsettling sometimes, isn't it?

Well, she and uh her household, they had been baptized.

She urged us, Luke writing here, uh, saying, If you've judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.

And she prevailed upon us.

Now, I I like the way that's said.

I like the way Luke said that because I don't I don't think of the Apostle Paul as a guy that could be prevailed upon much.

Um I mean, there are you know different different kinds of personality types, but Paul isn't the one that I would think could be prevailed upon, you know.

Um, but here's the apostle Paul.

Um here is uh his his friend and one of the early leaders in the Christian church in Jerusalem, Silas.

Here's Luke, a well-educated uh medical doctor who writes like a historian.

Um, and and some even say had even poetic tendencies as well.

And then there's this this young man, Timothy.

And they're all together, and she prevailed upon.

She must have had a very nice house.

Uh, she must have been wealthy and successful in her business of selling uh fabrics.

And it happened, verse 16, that as we were going to the place of prayer, so they joined her in that, perhaps multiple days in a row, that there was a certain slave girl having a spirit of divination, and she met us.

Um what does that mean?

Um it means that uh uh she was uh a young slave girl that uh was probably demon-possessed and being exploited by uh whoever her uh supposed owners uh were at the time.

Um I want to make it really clear to everybody listening or watching.

Um the Bible is reporting here, the Bible's not endorsing.

Um there is no justification whatsoever for anyone to think they can own another person.

And the scourge of human trafficking that we have in our own day and time um uh cries out for justice, and uh and we we pray against the darkness uh that is slavery, uh whether it's in the ancient world or in the modern world or anywhere in between.

Um this girl uh is unnamed, but she was bringing her masters much profit by fortune telling.

And so evidently uh they were in control, these uh business people, and their business uh was flourishing because of the power of Satan and darkness at work through this uh uh young gal who's a victim in every way in this case.

Well, following after Paul and us, verse 17, she kept crying out, saying, and I'll just kind of do my best version of a uh uh of a demon-possessed young girl, these men are bondservants of the Most High God who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.

And you know what I always find fascinating is that whenever uh folks who are uh uh controlled by some kind of a uh a dark spirit or some kind of a demon of some sort, whether in the gospels or here, they actually have it right.

I mean, they they they say some things that are actually you would expect for other people to get those things, and those other people who are religious don't get those things.

Um these men are bondservants of the Most High God.

Well, that's exactly who they are.

And they're proclaiming to you the way of salvation.

Well, that's exactly what they were doing.

And uh, I mean, when we read in the Gospels, Jesus uh being confronted by demon-possessed folk, they're usually saying, Who are you, son of God, and what have you to do with us?

And again, their theology is better than the theology of some that you would expect to have gotten it, uh, some on the religious side.

So um she continued doing this for many days.

Paul was greatly annoyed, and you know what it's like to be annoyed by somebody just perpetually, you know, screaming and hollering and chasing you around.

I uh maybe, maybe you do, maybe you don't, I don't know.

Maybe, maybe as you've been trapped in your own house, you you you feel that way, and and you find yourself trying to find just a closet or a little space that you can get a little bit and maybe tr learning how to trade off and and uh and uh sort of relieve each other of duties and things like that in the household.

That maybe that's a good thing.

But uh this must have been something much uh much worse because at one point verse 18 says the apostle Paul was greatly annoyed, and he turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

And Dr.

Luke, the man of medicine, the man that knew the difference between uh what would have been physical sickness or possibly even psychological sickness and actual demon possession, he says, and it came out at that very moment.

Uh so this man, Luke, who's recording all of this, uh, wouldn't have been easily convinced.

I think he would have been one that would have had to uh see some some evidence that to him was irrefutable, and this happened and happened at that moment.

And you can imagine that for this girl, the very uh as her humanity was pushed so far back into darkness, uh uh and and for Paul, even out of his annoyance to turn to her and to speak these words and to set her free uh to exorcise this spirit and get it out of her, I wonder what that moment would have been like.

I wonder what it was like for her to open her eyes and see this group of four men there who did not want to exploit her.

Um, when her master saw that her hope, their hope of profit was gone, uh, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.

Hmm.

Shows you what was important to them and what wasn't important to them.

Um sad.

They're mad about their business going down.

Uh, and yet people, this young girl, is being set free and her humanity restored.

Um, and God is being glorified in and through it.

And well, they brought uh Paul and Silas and dragged them before the magistrates, and they said these men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.

And so what we got going on here is not uh not just financial anger, but racial prejudice and religious bigotry and prejudice.

And again, I'll say it again the Bible leaves no room for any of that whatsoever.

Uh not only are we to love the brethren, but we're to love um even those that don't believe what we believe.

And so uh when this happens, uh these folks are showing their true colors.

They only care about uh this girl in terms of as long as she could be a commodity for them to sell and to make money uh off of.

And so they go complaining to the magistrates that uh that that that Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke are causing the city to be brought up, you know, brought into confusion.

They're proclaiming customs which it's not lawful for us to accept or to observe being Romans.

Uh they were to offer worship to the Roman Emperor, and here comes these guys, uh Paul and Silas, telling them that Jesus is Lord instead.

So they weren't real concerned about the life of this girl, were they?

They were just concerned about themselves.

Paul and Silas are now imprisoned.

The crowd rose up together against them.

The chief magistrates tore the robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods.

When they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely.

And he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in stocks.

And that's important for us to note the details that are there.

A damp, dark, probably rat-infested uh prison, and they're already bloody and beaten by all of this.

And again, as I pointed out earlier, Paul's a Roman citizen, he had rights, and they now have been completely violated, and that will become clear uh even more so in just a second.

So their feet are in stocks, they're in a cell, it's dark.

Verse 25, but at midnight, Paul and Silas were one praying, and two singing hymns of praise to God.

It's always you think about this kind of a situation, man.

I mean, if you're trying to silence people, if if you're if you're trying to shut it down, this movement of the gospel back in those ancient times, and you got you got a couple fellows or four fellows, they're gonna be in prison, down in the deep dark prison, with their feet secured by chains, and they start singing at midnight.

Man, you you've you've got a real uphill battle to to silence these guys and to shut them up.

This is awesome.

Verse 26 uh or verse 25 ends with it saying this, and the prisoners were listening to them.

So that's fascinating, too.

The other prisoners are hearing all this.

What were they singing?

I don't know.

You know, their ancient version of Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.

Oh, what a foretaste of glory.

You know, I don't know what they're singing.

You know, your grace is enough.

I don't I don't name Christ alone.

Who knows what they were singing?

But they were singing maybe the Psalms of Ascent, Psalms that they would have known really, really well, but certainly praising the Lord their God.

And what happened in verse 26 says this suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken.

Immediately all the doors were opened.

That's interesting.

The doors just swung open.

And then even in more detail, everyone's chains were unfastened.

Now you would think with an earthquake, some of the walls would have fallen down, some of the, you know, a big old, your your chain, if you if you're in chains, you're it might still be attached to a giant old rock or piece of rock or something like that.

But here it says that their chains were unfastened.

Right at the time when worship and prayer were going on, as they respond to God, God responds to them.

Um I love it.

I think that's such fills me with such hope.

Myself.

Um, there they were in all this is going on.

Well, the jailer, the Philippian jailer, who's also unnamed, just like the young girl, when the jailer had been roused out of sleep and had seen the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing the prisoners had escaped.

See, Roman law uh demanded that if you were given charge over some prisoners and if they escaped during your uh overwatch, then you would receive the punishment that was due to them.

And so this guy thinks his life is over and he knows that the Romans, if they're gonna, even though he might be a retired Roman officer who typically might take a post like this uh as a jailer in a cell, um, uh he knew that his life would come to an end if these guys all escaped.

And and so he's literally just gonna fall on his sword and make it make it make it easy on himself.

Uh but Paul cries out to him, verse 28, says, with a loud voice, do yourself no harm, for we are all here.

And uh and the man calls for lights and torches like that, and they rush in, trembling with fear.

He fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, so he brings them out of the rubble of all of the earthquake and all that, he says to them, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Now, folks, um, I don't know, you know, I I I don't know if you've heard me say this before, but sometimes it seems like we're reading things in the New Testament that are real uh slow pitch softball when it comes to evangelism.

And that's what this is right here.

This this is, excuse me, but would you please tell me what I must do to be saved?

It's just amazing.

Um and then you gotta you gotta at least ask this question too.

Why did he ask that question?

Um, I mean, why didn't why didn't why didn't you just say, uh, what are y'all doing here?

Or or or why not why don't you just kill me yourselves, or or why didn't you leave, you know?

Um and I think it's because he wanted what they had.

He wanted in the most inconvenient, horrible, horrific circumstances that Paul and Silas, Luke and Timothy were in.

In prison, not knowing if they would be put to death the next day.

They've been beaten already by many, many people.

A crowd, a mob.

What's gonna happen to them?

They don't know.

And this jailer knows that.

And he sees this happen.

And he heard them singing too.

Because you know that's you know that music just drifted up the cavern like that.

When I was in college, we used to play music with our guitars and in the in the music department at Northern Virginia Community College.

We'd sit in the the bottom of the stairwell and um and we'd play our guitars and just you know, make up songs and sometimes try to sing covers and stuff like that.

But I gotta tell you, man, it was such a cavernous thing that we really sounded good.

I didn't say we were good, I just I just said we sounded good.

Uh it just, man, it reverberated.

It was so awesome, you know.

And uh and these guys are singing, and you know that guy heard all of this.

And so he wants what they have.

And I ask myself that sometimes.

Do I have in my faith life, in my walk with God, is there something that somebody else finds so admirable that they want it and that they ask about it at some point?

Man, I hope I hope that can stir us all up a little bit more to be thinking that way.

Um, they said, here's the response, verse 31, believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved, you and your household.

Uh didn't say join the church, didn't say tithe, didn't say serve uh as a deacon, didn't say memorize the Bible, didn't say be nice, uh, didn't say vote a certain way, none of that.

Just believe in Jesus and you'll be saved.

And your household.

You're gonna have an influence on your household.

There it is again, just like with Lydia.

They spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house.

He took them that very hour of the night, washed their wounds.

Immediately he was baptized, he and all of his household.

There's two households now that have been impacted by this.

Oh, amazing.

He brought them into his house and set food before them and rejoiced greatly.

So he's gone from self-destruction to rejoicing.

He's gone from the depths of despair to rejoicing.

Something's going on there.

Something we need.

Something all of us will need multiple times.

Uh not just now, but in the future as well.

He greatly, they rejoice greatly, not just regularly, uh, having believed in God with his whole household.

I love that.

I hope you're You're considering all of that.

This is a time when the world's going through what it's going.

This is a time for us to consider the impact that we're having for the gospel.

And how much we're listening to the Holy Spirit as He leads and guides us to speak.

Now, when they had come, when the next day came, verse 35 says, The chief magistrates sent their policemen saying, Release these men.

And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, Well, the chief magistrates have sent to release you, so therefore come out and go in peace.

This is amazing.

This is one of the most amazing turns of a storyline in the New Testament.

But Paul said to them, They've beaten us in public without trial.

Men who are Romans.

And they've thrown us into prison.

And now they're sending us away secretly?

No, indeed.

No, no, no, no, no.

But let them come to them themselves, come to us themselves, and they can bring us out.

Oh boy.

Again, this is why I said earlier, I don't always think of the Apostle Paul as somebody you can prevail upon.

But no, he's gonna test them on all of this.

Well, the policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they, meaning Paul, uh likely Timothy, uh likely Luke, were all Roman citizens.

Um Silas probably not.

But they came and they appealed to them, and when they had brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city.

It's okay, just go ahead and go.

Just no, no, no, no, it's just go ahead.

Because they those magistrates knew they would be in trouble with the Roman Empire, because Paul had rights.

And they went out of prison, Paul and Silas, Timothy and Luke.

They went out of the prison and they entered the house of Lydia.

And when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and they departed.

Like I said, Lydia, um uh, so so they don't leave the city right away, but but Lydia um must have had a really nice house.

I mean, so they they come out of the, they come out of the prison cell, they go back to Lydia's house in Belmide, and then they they all sit down, have a nice meal, and this is before they're gonna they're gonna go on and they're gonna they're gonna move on to Thessalonica Brian and a couple other places, but what an amazing story this is.

And and a couple of things that I want to point out.

This first slide, Acts 16, 13 to 40.

Number one, the God of meticulous providence.

Let me just say a couple words there.

Here we have the story of an infinite God employing divine intervention in every human life in these stories.

Whether you're talking about the Apostle Paul and Barnabas getting into a little bit of a row, and so so Paul and Silas end up going over land up north and headed in the direction that they go, whereas Barnabas and uh John Mark go another way.

Think about the way God meticulously led and guided these guys the entire way on this second missionary journey, with the appointment at the river in mind, with the jail cell time in mind.

Um God, a God of meticulous providence.

Don't miss how engaged God wants to be with you and in your life and in my life by just looking at our context right now and be overwhelmed by the circumstances.

You know, people will say, How are you doing?

Well, under the circumstances, and I once heard an old preacher say, What are you doing under there?

Um, you belong to God, you don't belong to yourself.

God is your father.

God has the power of life and death and resurrection power as well.

Um, so let's don't miss how engaged God wants to be with us, even when the world seems turned upside down, inside out, um, even when our soul has been stretched so thin and we're fearful about the future.

We're fearful about finances, we're fearful about the damage that's been done.

Um here's a quote from David Gooding from An Unshakable Kingdom.

God has appointed us a captain of our salvation, made him responsible for seeing us through this world home to glory.

Thank God we can count on his faithfulness.

And know that he will never fail, never once lose his patience or his temper with any of us, but will fulfill his appointed task to the very end.

He will save to the uttermost all who come to God by him.

And that includes you and that includes me.

And that includes this ongoing work of redemption and salvation that he does in our lives.

Not just the aspect of our salvation that's about eternity, but even now.

He is our light and our salvation.

He is our refuge and strength.

He is our refuge, our defensive help that we need.

He is our strength, our offensive need, our courage that we need to continue to serve him, to continue to pour our lives out for others as he would have us to do.

Number two, seven unlikely converts.

You got Paul, you got Silas, you got Timothy, Luke, Lydia, an unnamed demon-possessed slave girl, and the unnamed Roman jailer.

First of all, you have to at least notice the diversity of this crew.

I mean, this is amazing.

Here's Paul, a former leading Jewish Pharisee, persecutor of Christians himself, and now he's the band leader.

This is awesome.

Okay.

You got Silas, the leader in the first Christian church in Jerusalem, companion of Paul, uh, on on uh at least this second missionary journey, perhaps on the first one as well.

You got Timothy, a young man that Paul met in Lystra.

Timothy, a man of mixed racial background and religious background.

Uh his mother was Jewish, is Gentile, uh, or his father was a Gentile.

You got Luke, a Gentile believer who was a well-educated man, physician, historian, um, rational, reasonable.

I mean, they're different psychologically, they're different racially, they're different from a religious perspective.

I mean, this is the most diverse group you can imagine.

Um, and yet here's the God of the Bible through the person and work of Jesus Christ that turns the gospel into the most inclusive and diverse group, you know, possible that you could imagine.

Lydia, successful Gentile businesswoman, uh, the unnamed demon-possessed slave girl.

Man, I just thinking about her especially just gets to me.

And the way the gospel sets her free.

Unnamed Roman Philippine jailer, older guy, probably retired guy, wondering if his life has any meaning.

What's the point?

Hey, listen, God is at work in the hearts and minds of people that you would never ever expect him to be at work in.

Yeah, and I mean you, I mean me too, because there's a whole lot of people I've already written off, and so view.

God is at work.

And I pray that he will continue to do that no matter how I might want to hold him down on that.

Uh, I read this quote last week.

This is by Jackie Hill Perry.

I'm gonna put it up on the screen for you.

God is up to something.

If anything, he's rerouting our dependence and adjusting our expectations, and he's doing it communally.

He's putting us uh into a fellowship of unlikely converts.

Uh, fellowship is a bunch of fellows in the same ship.

They just find themselves in the same ship.

We don't, again, these seven wouldn't normally be in the same ship.

Uh, village chapel is that way too.

Normally, when I look out and I can see all your faces, uh, I see people sitting next to each other that typically would have all kinds of reasons not to be friends, not to be sitting next to each other, um, whether that's for socioeconomic reasons, political reasons, um, uh, age reasons, whatever it might be.

But in Christ, we are one.

And he is able to unite people uh in a way that none other can do.

Third, don't waste your waiting.

This is this is so big when you think about these guys sitting in the prison cell.

You think about Lydia waiting by the river for something, haunted by she's she's got everything going for her, but she's haunted by the holy.

She knows there's more.

She's seeking God somehow.

She just knows she needs to hear the gospel.

Um, this jailer is just kind of biding time.

He's got a, he's got, he's got a, you know, uh what he might consider to be perhaps a meaningless and a dangerous job because he he, even in this case, thinks about he's gonna he's gonna have to kill himself.

Well, when we're waiting on the Lord, I think it's quite proper for us to come before God and ask, along with the psalmist, how long, O Lord?

How long?

Um and even having to go through things we don't prefer to have to go through.

I think it's legitimate for us to wrestle with God, to ask questions, um, like King David did.

Like I'm pretty sure Silas, Luke, Timothy were asking to Paul.

Like Paul probably asked multiple times after he got run out of town, you know, people throwing stones and rocks at him trying to kill him.

For too long, I think we've been taught that this is somehow disrespectful to God, that somehow it's a sign of unbelief, to be honest and to lament the conditions in the broken world around us, or even the sinfulness and proclivity toward temptation and sin in our own lives.

But folks, the Bible is overflowing with an invitation for us to bring our grief and our laments to the Lord.

And there's so much, don't waste your waiting.

There's so much legitimate pain, evil, and suffering in this world.

Don't miss this.

Okay?

It's proper and right for us to grieve and feel the sadness of all of that.

Um, and that's why the Bible trains us up in the ways of proper lament.

Lament that leads us to cry for mercy and help, and leads us to the place where we were then ready to receive comfort and hope from the God of all comfort who cares about us.

This is a quote from Dale Ralph Davis, uh, ironically, from our uh his commentary on 2 Samuel, which we took a break from.

The lament form of the Bible assumes that our grief is deep and ongoing.

It invites us to enter the discipline of expressing that grief in words that convey our anguish, in images that picture our despair and written prayers that verbalize despondency.

So I want to say today that whatever you're going through, whatever you're feeling, however much of the weight of the world is on you, or just uh your own uh sense of isolation, maybe causing you despair or depression.

Bring that to the Lord.

The door is open for you, the door is open for me to bring all of who we are to him, to cry out to Abba Father, uh, to let him know exactly what's going on.

And then we can also be honest at the same time to remind ourselves that we're not alone in it.

See, so it's not just us raging and howling and sort of a youngion scream, you know, ah! No, it's God.

Help.

And that I don't know about you, but that gives me such hope that there's somebody to hear my cries for mercy.

There's somebody I can appeal to for what is so wrong with the world that we live in.

Leads me in my fourth point and final point.

Fourth, the witness of worship you saw in this passage.

Um, this is what we were made for, this is what we were designed to do.

Um, and it it what brings uh it's what brings to the life uh brings us to this life-giving realization of that first bit from the Heidelberg Catechism that I mentioned last week.

Uh first question is um what is your only comfort in life and death?

I'll put it up on the screen for you this time.

Uh, that I, number one, am not my own.

Two, I belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

Three, who with his precious blood, four has fully paid for all my sins.

Five, and set me free from all the power of the devil.

Six, and so preserves me.

Seven, that without the will of my Father in heaven, not a hair can fall from my head.

Eight, indeed, that all things must work together for my salvation.

All things.

Nine, therefore, by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life, and ten, makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live unto him.

You see, God is always about the business of transforming us.

And sometimes he's doing it through circumstances that we would never choose.

Um, prisoners in sequestration, like Paul and Silas and perhaps Timothy and Luke were.

Like perhaps in a very much softer way, we might be feeling ourselves in our own day and time.

But I'm praying that the Lord will lead us beyond survival and onto revival, that he will use this in powerful ways.

Again, not that I would ever want to, this, these to be our circumstances or your circumstances, but that whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, that God would use it to bring us to a place of revival.

Paul and Silas and those who are with them begin to sing at midnight.

So the response while they wait is to be honest with God about the realities that they're in, but then to turn to God and to begin to worship God, and in their prayers to pray for God to deliver them from their bonds.

And Paul did that many times.

Umesirable circumstances or desirable circumstances, like Lydia, who's got everything, her business is booming, she's got a big house, plenty of room for everybody, can take care of all that, but needed still yet.

Something more something was missing.

And uh, no matter where we're at, no matter how good or bad our circumstances are, this is the beauty of the gospel.

As it moved westward, it eventually made it here.

And here we are hearing about it right now.

And as your pastor, as a Bible teacher, speaking to myself as much as anyone else, um, whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, let's turn to him.

Um, he's the God of all creation.

He has the power of life and death.

Uh, he waits for us to worship, and he waits to use our worship as a witness to others, a witness to the uh the women, the other folk that lived in Lydia's house, a witness to the people uh in the prison cells there where Paul and Silas were, a witness to the jailer.

Uh uh and such an interesting turn uh that, you know, ancient the ancient Jewish male uh, it is said, would often pray this prayer uh every day.

I thank God that I am not a gentile, a slave, or a woman.

And that's um that's just the way it was back then.

What's fascinating to me is that here in this moment that God has superintended in his meticulous providence, he's gonna start a church in Philippi, the ancient city of Philippi.

And the core group for that church, it's gonna be a Gentile, a slave, and a woman.

And they're all gonna be renewed and given life in Christ.

And they're gonna be united in the person and work of Christ.

And that, my friends, is why Christ is our hope in life and in death.

And it's all for his glory.

Whatever he's doing, I trust him.

He knows what he's doing.

His purposes will be accomplished in your life and in my life and in this world in which we live.

Um, and I know that he is working to root out those kinds of uh racial prejudice, religious uh bigotry, horrific plagues and pestilence, all of that, world wars, all that's gonna be gone when he comes and sets all things right.

John Rylan was an English Baptist minister, religious writer, wrote some hymns.

Uh he was well known.

Uh, but he's the guy that actually baptized uh one of the most famous uh missionaries uh you know, back in the uh 18th century, 19th century, a guy named William Carey.

And John Ryland wrote these words.

I want to read it to you, I'll put them on the screen.

Sovereign ruler of the skies, ever gracious, ever wise.

All my times are in thy hand, all events at thy command.

Plagues and deaths around me fly, but till he bids, I cannot die.

Not a single shaft can hit, till the God of love thinks fit.

Would you pray with me as we close out the worship service today?

Lord, thank you for these seven unlikely conversions.

Thank you that you're a God of meticulous providence.

Please be at work in our lives.

And along the way, Holy Spirit, I pray that you'd open our eyes to just be able to marvel and be filled with wonder as we see your hand at work.

And even if we don't understand what you're doing with your hand, Lord, help us to trust your heart in all things.

That we might influence others, whether they're in our household, um, in our neighborhood from a distance.

Um, either way, Lord, that we might influence others to be able to respond in worship that becomes a witness for your glory and for the good of our neighbors.

We pray all of this in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen.