Acts 16:11-40 "The weakness needed for God to work through you"

Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful

that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either

by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray

for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really,

I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,

they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will

do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a

non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't

hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the

types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

And you must bow our heads in prayer. Father,

we give you thanks and praise that even before we were born, you loved us, and that there has never

been a point in time in our lives that you have not loved us. We thank and praise you that you,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, one God, are the God. You are the God of love,

of true, deep, eternal, universe-creating, salvation-giving love. And we ask, Father,

as we open your word this morning, you know the anxieties and the fears of our hearts. You know the

things which are troubling us. And we ask that your Holy Spirit would bring your word and your love,

the person of Christ, deep into our hearts to form us and to comfort us. And we ask these things

in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated.

Once again, oh, I guess we don't have many of them left. They've all been taken. Oh yeah,

there are a few of these left if you want a scripture journal with the Book of Acts in it. There's some

there if you'd like one for your own personal use. We're all familiar with the phrase, in fact,

probably some of us have said it to other people sometimes, and probably some of us have had it

said to us, it's not all about you. It's not all about you. Maybe if we don't say it to somebody,

we think, you know, the problem with them is they think it's all about them, but it's not all about

them. We think that. And, you know, that's, it's true. And a lot of times it's very needed. But,

and there's a big but, one of the times when people say it to us, this is what we think.

Well, I might agree that it's not all about me, but you seem to think it's all about you.

You, you're just saying it's not all about you to, to me, but inwardly I think you still think it's,

it's all about you. And that's a problem. And sometimes as well, when people say this,

or when we hear it, and I'm not saying there's never any truth in it. In fact,

the point of my sermon is, in fact, that there's a very profound truth that it's not all about you,

but it doesn't have these other features which make it very problematic,

is that often it's said in such a way that it makes it sound as if the valid needs that you have

and that I have, that my valid needs, my valid desires, and the justice that I think is required

is going to be denied to me. And so we have some problems with that phrase and how it's used.

The Bible text that we're going to look at today actually has a lot of wisdom about this whole

situation. It's not about you. And some of the problems we have with either saying it,

believing it, receiving it, the inconsistencies, all of that, there's actually great wisdom in the

Bible about this. So if you would take your Bibles with me, we're preaching through the book of Acts,

and today we're at Acts chapter 16, and we're going to be beginning at verse 11. Acts 16,

Acts 16 · chapter mention

beginning at verse 11. If you're using these, it's on page 94.

And just in terms of the context of the story, Paul and this man by the name of Silas,

and a man by the name of Timothy, and later on there's going to be two books in the Bible named

after him called 1 and 2 Timothy, and Luke. And later on Luke is going to write a gospel,

and in fact this book, the book of Acts. And the four of them at least, they're on a missionary

journey in what we now call of Turkey. And it's as if they've come from this way,

doing their second, this is the second missionary journey for Paul, and they come to this situation

where the Holy Spirit says no, they want to go this way, and the Holy Spirit says no, and then they

think of going this way, but the Holy Spirit says no. And that's sort of interesting enough,

and the Bible doesn't tell you how they know that it's no, but it's interesting enough that that happens.

But what is actually even more profound is that they walk for 400 miles, that's 640 kilometers,

walking, constantly getting a no to go that way, and a no to go that way. It's almost as if they're

the sheep and God is herding them down the road. They're not going to go back, they've already been

there. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They keep going, and finally at the end, they have a vision, Paul has a vision,

and one of the things we then discover is that all along the line, there's been, it's not just been this

one guy making these absolute decisions, but the four of them have been talking and thinking and praying

about it, and they come to the conclusion after the vision that God is calling them to listen to the vision,

to go to Macedonia, and they go. And that's now where our story continues. Verse 11.

So setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis,

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. Now, okay, I'm odd. Odd things amuse me, and I think they're cool.

This is really cool. You know why it's really cool? When these four dudes step off of the boat

onto the dock, the first Christians have entered the continent of Europe.

That is cool.

They don't come with armies.

Just four guys.

Now, Roman Empire, it's one of the things that's really neat that it's even recorded,

because you see, for Romans, they didn't know about continents. It was just all part of the Roman Empire.

From a Roman perspective at that historical time, from Luke's point of view,

they were just going from one province to another.

But now we know that this is the very first Christians to come to the continent of Europe,

and Europe is the first continent that would be massively evangelized.

And it starts with this.

I think that's cool.

Well, there's something else which happens which is just as cool.

And if you're thinking, rolling your eyes,

yeah, George, you're really lame.

Lame things amuse you. That's fine.

I own that, okay?

But look at what happens in verse 13.

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.

And just sort of pause.

What this is telling us is that there weren't ten Jewish men in the city,

or if there were ten Jewish men,

there weren't ten Jewish men who cared a hoot about being Jewish.

So there's not enough people to form a synagogue,

but there's a group of women, maybe the odd men,

but it just looks like it's only women.

And they're gathering to pray.

And it continues, verse 14.

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia,

from the city of Thyatira,

a seller of purple goods,

who was a worshiper of God.

And what that means is that she's a pagan,

but she's heard about the God of Israel,

what we would call the Old Testament,

our Jewish friends, the Tanakh.

And she now wants to start living her life

according to what we call the Old Testament.

And she wants to worship the God of Israel.

But she hasn't officially become Jewish.

So one of the people listening was a worshiper of God.

And then here's this really, really neat phrase.

The Lord opened her heart

to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

I'm going to return to that in a moment.

And after she was baptized,

so the Lord opens her heart

and she becomes a Christian.

So Paul speaks.

She's listening.

And God does something silently

in the very center of her

to open up the very center of her

to receive the message about Jesus

and to become a Christian.

Verse 15.

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.

Now, here's what's really cool.

Lydia is the first European Christian.

You know what else is cool about that?

The scholarly research

leads to the conclusion

that not only is she a pagan,

who's now become a Christian,

she's a former slave,

who has become a Christian,

and she's a single mom,

who's become a Christian,

because in Roman law,

to enter into contracts without a man,

you need to be a woman

who's had four children.

So because she is a business owner

and hence has to enter into business deals,

she's probably a single mom.

So she's a former pagan,

a former slave.

She's a single mom,

and she's an entrepreneur,

and she is the first European Christian.

I think that's really cool.

We know her name.

And here's a point.

Actually, first,

if you could put point number one,

Claire, that would be very helpful.

Here's the overarching,

sort of the big point.

There's a second big point,

which I'm just going to leave

as sort of a reveal at the end.

But it's this,

as we're looking at this text,

the true God.

See, that's what we Christians are claiming.

This is the true God revealing himself.

And we're going to look at a story

where the true God can shake the planet,

unlock shackles,

remove demons,

and open your heart

to believe in the Lord Jesus

and to be saved.

That's the big message of the text,

one of the big messages of the text.

The true God can shake the planet,

unlock shackles,

remove demons,

and open your heart

to believe in the Lord Jesus

to be saved.

And the sub-point from this,

just before we go any further,

is this.

If you could put up 1A,

that would be helpful, Claire.

1A.

The Lord who loves you

asks you to speak to others about Jesus.

And he asks you to speak

knowing that he will open hearts.

The Lord who loves you

asks you to speak to others about Jesus

knowing that he will open hearts.

You see, that's what a text,

the text doesn't say,

boy, Paul gave the most unbelievable speech.

He told 10 jokes

that they're still talking about today,

years later.

He gave this analogy

and a metaphor

that brought tears to people's eyes.

He was just on fire.

His rhetoric,

he was just fantastic.

He was awesome.

He doesn't say anything like that.

He spoke.

But actually, later on in the,

if you go and look at his letters,

you'll see that one of the complaints

that people make about him,

you know what one of the complaints

that people make about Paul was?

That he wasn't very good at speaking.

I'm not making that up.

You know, a guy,

he's not very good at rhetoric,

hasn't been trained,

he's untaught.

What a doofus.

So it's not his rhetoric,

but he just shares.

This is really encouraging to us.

Just tell people about Jesus.

It's God's job to open hearts.

Don't intentionally do a sucky job,

but just,

God knows you're weak.

He knows I'm weak.

Well, what happens?

Well, something actually very dramatic happens,

and before we go any further,

the next bit of the story

is going to talk about a demon.

And, you know,

our country is divided

into two classes of people,

fundamentally.

Well, I guess there's three types.

There's one type

that never think about anything

that they can't eat,

drink,

or, you know,

make more money,

or they're just consumed,

like, you know,

with what's going on next.

But apart from that,

most people in our country

either just find

the whole idea of demons

existing completely impossible.

It's something they would treat with scorn.

It would be something

that if you were to say

you believed in them,

they, it would,

even if they didn't say it to your face,

they'd believe that it shows

that you're an ignorant,

foolish,

uneducated person.

And on the other hand,

there's many people

in our culture

who lean in

when you hear about demons

or angels

or telling of fortunes.

They're very curious about this.

They have a fascination with it,

and they definitely believe

that it happens.

I'm not going to argue

for the text.

I'm just going to tell you

that part of the text

is that the Christian faith

does believe

that angels and demons exist.

And as we're going to see,

Christians believe

because we've been taught

ultimately by Jesus

that demons can,

in fact,

influence human beings,

can oppress them

and harass them.

And the text

that we're reading,

I'm not going to go

into it very much,

but one of the things

which is very true

of this text

in all of the book of Acts

is that Luke

gets the titles right.

So later on,

it's going to talk,

I don't know if it uses

in our version

the word like police people

or officers or whatever,

but in the original language,

he uses the right name

for who would be doing that

in that context.

They use agora.

They use the right titles

of officials.

They use the right,

he uses the right titles

for magistrates

and for cops.

Everything he does,

he does it completely accurate

for that context.

So it's an historical account

and the Luke's claim

is this is what actually happened.

And so we Christians

believe that these things are real.

And if you want,

give me a call,

I'll buy you a coffee,

I can give you some reasons

why it's reasonable to believe

and important to believe

that demons actually exist.

But let's see what this story does.

It's going to talk about demons

and here's what happens next.

It's verse 16.

As we were going

to the place of prayer,

that's so a little bit later,

doesn't say it's a week

or two weeks

or three weeks

or whatever,

but sometime later,

we were going

to the place of prayer.

We were met

by a slave girl,

a young girl

who's a slave,

who had a spirit of divination

and brought her owners

much gain by fortune telling.

Now this text actually

is quite remarkably accurate.

Some of the other versions

to try to help us

to understand it better

aren't quite as accurate

as this text

is quite accurate.

The one thing

they don't say is,

and I don't know

why they said I don't say it.

I was saying to my wife

the other day,

like it's way cooler

to you to be literal.

In the original language,

it doesn't say

she has a spirit of divination,

although that's what it means.

She has a python spirit.

That's actually

what it says in the Greek.

She has a python spirit

or the spirit of the python

within her.

That's possessing her

and that spirit

uses her for fortune telling.

So just so you know,

a bit of an aside,

Christians believe

that no demon

knows the future.

The dead don't know

the future.

If you go to a seance

or some other type

of activity,

which you shouldn't go to,

it's opening yourself up

to demons,

and they will claim

that they can tell you

the future,

but they are always lying.

No demon can know

the future.

But it's just like

if you've done any reading

about how fortune tellers work.

Fortune tellers work

on preying on your anxiety

and your pride,

your ego.

And they use cues

to read what you're like

and they'll give

ambiguous enough things

that get you excited

and allow them to point

and confuse you

into thinking

that they're telling

something about the future

as if they have powers

or they're open to powers

that allow them to do that

and it's all lies.

And Christians should have

nothing to do with it.

But that's what's going on

and she's making piles of dough

for these owners.

Okay?

And it continues.

Verse 17.

So she followed Paul and us

crying out,

these men are servants

of the Most High God.

And by the way,

actually this is not

a good translation

in the Greek.

There's no the.

And so it's added

because it doesn't make sense

in English.

These men are servants

of Most High God.

That's actually what it says

in the original language

which is terrible English.

But you see,

one of the things

that the demon is saying

partial truths

and partial truths

are a way to say,

is a way of lying.

And she's going after,

shouting out very loud,

these men are servants

of the Most High God.

Those of you,

oh sorry,

who proclaims to you

and,

sorry, no,

it does say the Most High God.

I got that wrong.

It does say that.

These men are servants

of the Most High God

who proclaim to you

way of salvation.

There's no the

before way of salvation.

And those of you

who've read

the C.S. Lewis's

science fiction trilogy,

this is like Weston

dealing with Ransom

and keeping him awake

by speaking all the time.

Those of you

who haven't read it,

everybody should read

the science fiction books

by C.S. Lewis.

Anyway,

this verse 18,

and this she kept doing

for many days.

Paul,

having become greatly annoyed,

turned,

and look what he says,

it says here,

and he says,

not to her,

but to the spirit.

He speaks to the demon.

So he'd look at you

in the eyes,

but he's not speaking to you,

he's speaking to the demon.

And he says,

I command you

in the name of Jesus Christ

to come out of her.

And it came out

that very hour.

Now,

just sort of pause here.

Remember,

the big point

is that the true God

can shake the planet,

unlock shackles,

remove demons,

and open your heart

to believe in the Lord Jesus

and to be saved.

But here we see,

if you could put up 1B,

Claire,

that would be helpful.

The Lord who loves you

shows that you should

cast out demons

in the name of Jesus.

The Lord who loves you

shows that you

should cast out demons

in the name of Jesus.

Now,

why did Paul not do it

a bit earlier?

Well,

we're going to see why

probably in a moment

when we see what happens.

Look what happens.

And by the way,

what's about to happen

is something

that we should pray

very, very, very deeply

does not happen

in Canada.

We all know

that on one level

it does happen in Canada,

but we should pray

that our country

moves away

from anything like this,

that we should move

to a,

that we should be praying

that our country

develops just laws

and those who enforce

the laws

not be corrupt.

We should pray

into that.

What we're going to see

here in the next bit

is how it is

in much of the world

and throughout

much of history.

Some of you

have come from countries

where what is being

described next

is a very normal occurrence.

Look what happens.

Verse 19.

And just,

by the way,

the implication

of the original language

is that this young girl

made lots of money

for these men.

Lots of money.

So these are rich,

powerful men

and they're citizens

of the city.

Paul and Silas

are outsiders.

They're outsiders.

So verse 19,

but when her owners

saw that their hope

of gain was gone,

and that's,

by the way,

a whole other thing.

It's really interesting

that,

so it's not as if

Jono and I,

I don't know,

Jono says he has a demon

and I say I'm going

to cast a demon

out of him,

but nobody sees

any difference

with Jono before or after.

Nobody sees anything.

But we just both have

a feeling that something's happened.

And maybe something has happened.

Not that you have

a demon brother,

but maybe something

has happened.

But one of the things

which is interesting here

is that everybody sees

that something has happened

and knows that something

has happened.

That in a sense,

the pagan slave owners

are bearing witness

that Paul has just

cast out a demon.

They don't describe

what's been seen,

but something's been seen.

Something's changed.

The one time

I've been involved

directly in an exorcism,

one of the changes

was that the person

had spoken

a radically different voice,

which went away.

But that doesn't always happen.

That's a whole other topic

of conversation.

Verse 19 again,

but when our owners

saw that their hope

of gain was gone,

they seized Paul and Silas

and dragged them

into the marketplace

before the rulers.

What?

They're not cops.

They didn't break any law

and they didn't do

a bad thing.

But the owners

take it upon themselves

to seize Paul and Silas,

drag them,

and the word for marketplace

there is agora,

so it's the center

of the city.

Verse 20,

it's where the court is,

the municipal offices,

the main temple,

it's the center

of the city

where decisions are made.

And that's where

they drag Paul and Silas.

And it's literally

dragged them.

They overpower

Paul and Silas

and are dragging them.

Paul and Silas

aren't going willingly.

In verse 20,

and when they had brought

Paul and Silas

to the magistrates,

they said,

these men are Jews

and they are disturbing

our city.

They advocate customs

that are not lawful

for us Romans

to accept

or practice.

The crowd joined

in attacking them.

And by the way,

here attacking them,

it's a crowd,

but it's not a mob.

And they're not attacking them

by punching them.

They're calling out

extra reasons

why these two Jewish men

should be punished.

The crowd joined

in attacking them

and the magistrates

tore the garments

off them.

The magistrates

tore the garments

off Paul and Silas,

leaving them,

if not naked,

next to naked,

and gave orders

to beat them

with rods.

That would have been

their equivalent

of police,

to beat them

with sticks.

And when

the officials,

in a sense,

had inflicted

many, many,

many, many blows,

the implication of many

is that you can

almost translate it

as many, many, many.

After they inflicted

many, many, many blows

upon them,

they threw them

into prison,

ordering the jailer

to keep them safely.

In other words,

don't let them go.

Not keep them safely

because, oh, no, no,

we don't want them,

we want them to be safe.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Make sure they don't get away.

And having received this order,

verse 24,

they put them

into the inner prison

and fastened their feet

in the stocks.

Now, here's what's going on

in this text.

What I say,

this is the world, folks.

This is what we should pray.

I'm sure it's happened

in Canada,

and every time

it happens in Canada,

it's things like this,

an abuse of power,

they should be punished.

We should pray

that we have a society

of laws,

of just laws,

and of freedom

for people,

and of innocent

until declared guilty.

That's what we should be praying

for all of the time,

that we don't slide

into accusing people

and saying,

well, these people

are powerful

and respectable,

and these people

look like the type

of people

who do things wrong,

and these are powerful,

and these are weak,

and these are us,

and these are others,

and so if they say

bad things about the others,

well, what the heck?

Let's beat the others

and throw them in jail.

That's what's happening.

And we see here,

like, it's,

what happened in Amsterdam

the other night

is absolutely horrifying

and despicable.

Despicable.

And the French parliamentarian

who praised it

despicable.

Despicable.

But you can understand

a mob

getting caught up

in the moment.

What's harder

is cultured,

calm arguments

to hate Jewish people.

What is not acceptable

is mainstream media

when they have

anti-Semites

speaking calmly

to millions

and nobody

corrects them.

That's vastly

more evil.

And some of you

might say,

George,

you shouldn't talk

about that

from the pulpit.

This isn't politics,

this is morals.

I don't care

if they vote

conservative,

liberal,

NDP,

green,

or the rhinoceros party.

This is,

we have to speak

against these types

of things happening

in our culture.

So one of the reasons

probably that Paul and Silas

are slow at dealing things

is they can sense

the rampant,

amped anti-Semitism.

anti-Semitism.

And they can sense,

you know what,

it's been said

many, many times

by many people,

one of the first things

that tyrants want to do

is to wrap themselves

in the flag.

That's what these guys

are doing,

wrapping themselves

in the flag

and promoting hatred.

So now here they are,

they're in jail.

And they're,

later on we're going

to find out

that they've been

so badly beaten

that there's open wounds.

And they're going

to be profoundly uncomfortable

because they can't move

because their feet

are in stocks.

And they're in a jail

which would not

be very clean.

And in those days

the only food

that would come

would be if outsiders

brought food

into the jail

because there's no obligation

for the jailer

to give any food.

And what happens next?

Well it's very interesting,

verse 25.

And about midnight

Paul and Silas

were praying

and singing hymns to God

and the prisoners

were listening to them.

Now just pause.

This verse has caused

lots of anxiety

for Christians

throughout the years

and it shouldn't.

This makes Paul and Silas

sound like they were supermen.

And these blows

just bounce off them.

Now you know

maybe that's what went on.

Maybe the Holy Spirit

really anointed them

for unbelievable courage.

But you know

what it could also be?

Jason and I

are the ones

who are beaten.

And we're in the jail.

And you know

Jason is going like this

and I'm going like this

to see if we've,

you know,

some of the tooth we lost,

we've lost them

and maybe we're seeing

if we're going to lose

that tooth.

And we have open wounds

and our feet are in stock

and we're really uncomfortable

and we're really,

really hungry

and we're feeling ashamed

because we got stripped

and beaten in public.

And it starts to get dark

and I say to Jason,

I say,

brother,

can you sleep?

And Jason says to me,

no brother,

I can't sleep.

Are you really?

Yeah,

that's pretty sore.

I can't sleep.

I said,

you know what?

Why don't we pray?

We're not going to sleep anyway.

Why don't we pray

and sing some hymns

just to show them?

Amen.

Because we can't sleep anyway.

We've got our stupid feet

in these stalks.

We're all bleeding

and all of that.

So they sing

and they probably

are also praying

for the salvation

of the prisoners

in the jail

or the people

who beat them.

I mean,

on one level,

that's a supernatural

work of grace

that's possible for all,

that we pray

for our persecutors

and our haters.

Anyway,

verse 25 again,

about midnight,

after about midnight,

Paul and Silas

were praying

and 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 then there's

a separate thing.

Immediately all the doors

were opened

and everyone's bonds

were unfastened.

And once again,

we note that it's actually

quite a good translation here.

Unfastened.

Not shaken loose

but unfashioned.

And 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.

Now just pause here.

Why was he doing this?

So first of all,

there's a double miracle

that goes on here

and if there'd just been

an earthquake,

people could say,

well,

it's just a coincidence.

But there's both an earthquake

and at the same time

their shackles,

the doors open

and their shackles

are unfastened.

And the jailer,

woken up

by the earthquake,

goes out to see

what's going on.

And by the way,

the whole city

would have been affected

by this earthquake

and he sees the jail doors open.

Now, historically,

the jailer was either

one of two types of people.

He was either

a retired soldier

or more likely,

in those days,

cities could own slaves.

So he was actually

very likely to be a slave,

a senior slave

in the municipal government.

And later on,

when I'm going to talk

about his household,

the implication of that

is that he's a slave owner

who also owns slaves.

The whole ancient world

was unbelievably messed up.

Right?

You can be a slave

and own a slave.

You can,

and anyway,

but you see,

in the ancient world,

because he's a slave,

but even if he was

just a Roman soldier,

but if he was a slave,

if he lets these prisoners

go under his watch,

the punishment is

crucifixion.

And from all of the accounts

of the ancient world,

if you have a choice

of dying by crucifixion

or a cutting of a sword

in your body,

you're going to pick the sword.

You don't want to die

over many days

naked outside the city

with birds landing on.

You know,

I don't want to go any further.

It's gruesome.

But there's a surprise.

Look at what happens

in verse 28.

But Paul cried out

with a loud voice,

Do not harm yourself,

for we are all here.

And the jailer called

for lights

and rushed in

and trembling with fear,

he fell down

before Paul and Silas.

Then he brought them out

and said,

Here's this famous question.

Many, many people

are familiar with this text,

even if they can't remember

where it was.

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 then they spoke

the word of the Lord

to the jailer

and to all who were

in his house

and he took them,

that is the jailer,

that same hour of the night

he washed their wounds

and he was baptized at once,

he and all his family.

Then he brought them

into his house

and set food before them

and he rejoiced along

with his entire household

that he had believed in God.

So here you can see

that the picture is

of the true God

is very big.

He's big enough

that he can shake the planet,

he can unlock shackles,

he can remove demons,

and he can open your heart

to believe in the Lord Jesus

and be saved.

Now here's the question.

And some of you

might be wondering,

George,

why did you begin by saying

what you said

at the beginning of the sermon?

Some of you can't remember,

that's fine.

If God is able

to shake the planet

and open hearts

and cast out demons,

why did he allow

Paul and Silas

to be beaten?

Why did he allow it?

Well, part of the answer

is this.

Paul,

it's not all about you.

It's not all about you.

If you could put up

point 1c,

that would be helpful.

the Lord who loves you

reassures you

that you are not

the center,

that he is.

It's not all about you,

it's about him.

You know one of the things

that's really cool?

This probably happened

in the year 49.

We're in the year 2024.

There's still Christians

in Philippi.

There's still Christians

in Philippi.

almost 2,000 years later.

You see,

one of the problems

with it's not all about you,

it's on one level

we all know intuitively

that that's very important advice.

Like in a family,

I need to know as a dad

that it's not all about me.

You know,

the pastor of the church,

I have to know

that it's not all about me.

Like some of the other

organizations I'm involved with,

it's not all about me.

I need to hear that.

I need to remember that.

And I need to know

how to understand.

But you see,

the problem is

is that other people

say that to me sometimes

in such a way

that they're implying

that it's really

all about them.

And if there's no,

like if all of that,

if we all do that,

then there's like,

we need something

that holds everything together.

We still need a center.

We need something,

someone,

that it is about.

And the thing

which is so wonderful

about the gospel

is that when Paul says,

when the Lord says

in a sense to Paul,

Paul,

it's not all about you.

Well,

who's saying that to him?

You know,

it's not as if God is just,

you know,

one of the problems we have

is like in many religions,

like God is so big

and a God who's so big

is just going to crush us.

And for all of the religions

of the world,

when they say

it's all about you,

that's something

which isn't actually

very hopeful

or reassuring.

The ancient gods

created human beings

to be their slaves.

Allah is so,

in a sense,

it's almost as a little bit

as if Allah is like

the Matrix

in the Matrix movies

because Allah doesn't actually

give the message

directly to Muhammad.

Did you know that?

Because he can't have

that direct contact

with a human being.

Allah gives the message

to an angel

who gives the message

to Muhammad.

And in a sense,

you know,

when you have

the religions of the East

and even when you have

in the religions of the East,

it's a different type

of the bigness of God,

but the bigness of God

is something

that's going to swallow you,

that you become part of

and you lose you.

So even in all

of those religions,

when they say

it's not all about you,

it's something

which ends up

crushing you

or denying you

or denigrating you.

But the same God

who is able

to shake the planets

comes as Emmanuel,

God with us

in the midst

of our mess,

the midst

of the muck

of your life,

the midst

of your wounds,

the midst

of your weakness,

and in love

he dies for you.

I mean,

one of the hopes

for my marriage

with Louise

is that I understand

it's not all about me,

that Louise understands

it's not all about her,

but we do know

that it's all about

the Lord.

Our hope as a church

is that it's not

all about me,

it's not all about

the council,

it's not all about

the Sunday school teachers,

but it's all about Christ.

There's a type

of both relativizing

and an arms around us.

Just a couple of truths

that follow from this,

just very briefly,

that the last one

is the big point,

right?

If the big point

is this is revealing God,

the true God

shakes the planet

and locks shackles,

removes demons,

and opens your heart

to believe in the Lord

Jesus Christ,

but if you could put up

one D,

that would be helpful.

Since God is big

and you are small,

your weakness

is not a bug,

but a feature.

You're all familiar

with the idea

of the bug,

right?

It's,

you know,

we have a couple

of computer-type

people here,

they'll fix the bugs,

things that aren't

supposed to be there.

But me being weak,

and a lot of my anxiety

comes about either,

because I'm wrestling

with wanting to be

the center,

but I'm not,

and I'm wrestling

with others who think

they're the center,

and I know they're not,

and I'm wrestling

with that,

and I also wrestle

with weakness.

But it's really helpful

to know that God is big

and I am small,

and that's not a bug

that I have to fix.

There's a brilliant text.

Paul says that it's something

that Jesus spoke to him,

so he says it's something

that came right from Jesus.

It's 2 Corinthians,

I don't have it on the screen,

2 Corinthians 12, 9.

Jesus says to Paul,

this is a little bit later,

My grace is sufficient for you,

for my power is made perfect

in weakness.

So here's the final point.

Paul, you know, by the way,

Paul's not going to be articulate

with the Philippian jailer

after having teeth missing potentially.

He's not already a good speaker

to begin with.

He's hungry.

He hasn't slept.

He's been beaten.

He has open wounds,

but he still shares the gospel

about Jesus to this other guy.

It's all in his weakness.

Here's the final point.

If you could put it up,

one E.

And by the way,

those of you who are familiar

with the book,

I think by Larry Ellison,

I've tweaked his title.

I've made it Christian.

In Christ,

you have all the weakness you need

for God to work through you.

I can't forgive,

I'm too weak.

In Christ,

you have all the weakness

you need for God

to work through you.

I can't tell other people

about Jesus.

My life is a mess.

In Christ,

you have all the weakness

you need

for God to work through you.

I'm terrible at praying,

and I'm not a very good Christian.

In Christ,

you have all the weakness

you need

for God to work through you.

I'm weak and poor,

I don't have any money

to give to the work of the Lord.

I can't be generous,

I have to wait

until I have money.

No,

in Christ,

you have all the weakness

you need

for God to work through you.

Because he is big.

Let's stand

and bow our heads

in prayer.

Father,

you know how

a lot of our life,

even as Christians,

is all about trying

to get stronger

and stronger

and better

and better

and shiny

and shinier

and more cleaned up

and more cleaned up

so that eventually

you'll pay some notice

to us

or that we can do

good things.

And you know,

Father,

how both the world,

the flesh,

and the devil

beats us up

about our weaknesses

and our smallness.

And so,

Father,

it's very freeing

to hear

in the context

of salvation,

the context

of Jesus being Emmanuel,

Emmanuel who dies

for us,

Emmanuel who on one hand

can shake the planet,

but on the other hand

will walk amongst us

and die on the cross

for us,

that our weakness

is not something

that is a bug,

but a feature

of who we are

as human beings.

I am small

and I am weak,

and that is not

a bug to fix,

but a feature

of who I am.

And it is,

Father,

very humbling

to know

that you are the one

who opens hearts,

you are the one

who shakes the planets,

you are the one

who did everything

that had to be done

to save.

You are the one

whose son became poor

that we might become rich,

that Father,

that every single

one of us here,

and not as an excuse

not to repent

of our sins,

and not as an excuse

not to learn

and to grow,

but that we already

have,

every one of us here,

all the weakness

that you need

for us to work

through you,

through us,

for your glory.

So we ask,

Father,

that you make the gospel

more and more real

to us,

and help us,

Father,

to see our smallness

and our weakness,

and that we are not

the center

in light of this

profound act

that Jesus has done

to save us,

and to make us

your children forever.

And we ask these things

in the name of Jesus,

your Son and our Savior,

and all God's people said,

Amen.

Amen.