40 "What to Expect When Following the Lord’s Call" Acts 16:16-40 | Sunday, February 22, 2026

You can remain standing and we'll

dismiss the kids to children's church.

You can turn your Bibles to the book of

Acts chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 16. If you do not have a

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Bible this morning, you're welcome to

use one of those in the chairs in front

of you. If you don't own a Bible, would

you please take that as a gift from us

to you? Want everybody to have a copy of

God's word. We're in a series in the

book of Acts and we've come to chapter

16. This is Paul's second missionary

journey. Silas has joined him this time

and Timothy has now joined him. And we

saw in our last message that Luke has

now joined in the missionary journey.

And so you have these four men traveling

together and they are called to go into

Macedonia through a night vision. They

first come to the Roman colony called

Philippi and uh they lead a woman to

Christ by the name of Lydia who opens

her home to establish the first church

in Macedonian territory in the city of

Philippi. And now as we come to our text

in verse 16 of chapter 16, uh Paul is

continuing his ministry in Philippi. So,

let's pick up our reading in Acts

Acts 16 · chapter mention

chapter 16, beginning of verse 16, and

we'll cover through verse number 40 at

the end of the chapter. So, a little bit

of a lengthier reading. I'm going to

encourage you to stay tuned in and take

in everything that God's word says here.

So, let's look together at Actsapter 16.

And it came to pass as we went to

prayer, a certain damsel possessed with

a spirit of divination met us, which

brought her masters much gained by

soothsay.

The same followed Paul and us and cried

saying, "These men are ser the servants

of the most high God which show unto us

the way of salvation."

And this did she many days. But Paul

being grieved turned and said to the

spirit, I command thee in the name of

Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he

came out that same hour. And when her

masters saw that the hope of their gains

was gone, they caught Philip and Silas,

drew them into the marketplace unto the

rulers, and brought them to the

magistrates, 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." And the multitude rose up

together against them. And the

magistrates rent off their clothes and

commanded to beat them. And when they

had laid many stripes upon them, they

cast them into prison, charging the

jailer to keep them safely, who having

received such a charge, thrust them into

the inner prison, and made their feet

fast in stocks. And at midnight, Paul

and Silas prayed and sang praises unto

God, and the prisoners heard 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 bands

were loosed. and the keeper of the

prison awaking out of his sleep and

seeing the prison doors open, he drew

out his sword and would have killed

himself, supposing that the prisoners

had been fled. But Paul cried out with a

loud voice, saying, "Do thyself no harm,

for we are all here." Then he called for

a light and sprang in and came trembling

and fell down before Paul and Silas and

brought them out and said, "Sers, what

must I do to be saved?" And they said,

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and

thou shalt be saved, and thy house." And

they spake unto him the word of the

Lord, and unto all that were in his

house. And he took them the same hour of

the night, and washed their stripes, and

was baptized, he and all his straight

way. And when he had brought them into

his house, he set meat before them, and

rejoiced, believing in God with all his

house. And when it was day, the

magistrates sent the sergeants, saying,

"Let those men go." And the keeper of

the prison told this, saying to Paul,

"The magistrates have sent to let you

go. Now, therefore, depart and go in

peace." But Paul said unto them, "They

have beaten us openly unconddemned,

being Romans, and have cast us into

prison, and now do they thrust us out

privy? Nay, verily, but let them come

themselves and fetch us out." And the

sergeants told these words unto the

magistrates, and they feared when they

heard that they were Romans. And they

came and besought them, and brought them

out, and desired them to depart out of

the city. And they went out of the

prison and entered into the house of

Lydia. And when they had seen the

brethren, they comforted them and

departed.

I want to speak to you this morning on

this particular subject. What to expect

when following the Lord's call. what to

expect when following the Lord's call.

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we

ask you to open our eyes to see the

truth of your word. Pray your spirit

work in our hearts and make application

where it needs to be made in our lives

individually. I pray that your word

would encourage us, strengthen us, and

prepare us to follow Christ come what

may. In Jesus name I ask. Amen. Thank

you for standing and honor God's word.

You can be seated.

We all come to a new venture in life

with some kind of expectation in mind.

When you get married, you expect to be

together forever. You expect that there

will be some bumps along the way, but

you're going to work through those and

come out stronger for it. Whenever you

start a new job, you expect to be

trained and prepared. You hope that they

don't just throw you to the wolves and

hope you figure it out. You know, you

want to be trained. You want to be

prepared. You want to be supported by

your boss. You expect to work maybe a

certain amount of hours. And you

certainly expect to be paid for those

hours that you work. Or what about when

you bite the bullet and purchase a brand

new car? You expect that car to run

smoothly for a good long while, right?

You want those tires to give you 50,000

miles at least. and you expect if

something goes wrong and breaks down

that you're going to take that car into

the dealer and they're going to repair

it under warranty with no cost to you.

That's an expectation you have when you

spend $50 to $75,000 on a brand new car.

You'd hope that that would happen. And

so we all step into something new with

certain sets of expectations.

I want to ask you this morning, what

should you expect

when you follow the Lord's call on your

life?

What should you expect when you first

trust Christ as your savior and begin a

life of following him? Or what should

you expect when you share the gospel

with people around you in your city or

your friends or your family? What should

your expectations be? Or what about when

the Lord calls you to preach, to be a

pastor, to be a missionary? What should

you expect from all of these things?

Should you accept everyone to celebrate

your decision to follow Christ? Should

you expect uh that everyone is going to

be receptive to the gospel message that

you share with them? Is that an

expectation you should have? Should you

expect the road to the mission field to

be easy? that learning a foreign

language and a new culture and that that

it's going to come nice and easy or that

you're going to win thousands of souls

to Christ and establish dozens of

churches and face no opposition. Is that

what a preacher missionary should

expect?

We know what we want it to look like. We

know how we would want it to go and what

we would want to expect. But the

question really is, what should we

realistically expect when we choose to

follow Christ wherever he might leads? I

think that we can see what we should

expect as we look at these missionary

journeys that Paul is going on in the

book of Acts. Specifically when it comes

to this journey into Macedonia, we

covered before in verse 10 that after

seeing a night vision, Luke describes

that we immediately went to Macedonia,

assuredly gathering or putting the

pieces of the puzzle together that the

Lord had called us to preach the gospel

to them in Macedonia. And so they are

following God's call on their life. And

God's call leads them to this Roman

colony that was like a little Rome.

There was very little Jewish presence

there. They had freedom. They had

liberty. They had their own system. They

had the Greek uh mythology and the the

Greek gods and all of that. And so they

they were free people. And this was the

little Rome that God first called them

to go to in Macedonia.

We saw that a woman was converted there.

And so what this means is that they're

following the Lord's call. And when it

leads them to Philippi, we find that

there's a mixed bag of results. Some

accept it, others reject it. Some uh

some oppose them while others receive

them. And in this particular section of

their ministry that we're looking at

this morning, I think it gives us three

things that we can expect to happen when

it comes to following the Lord's call.

We're going to see the first expectation

in Paul and Silas's imprisonment. And

then we're going to see a second

expectation in the jailer's conversion.

And then there's a final expectation

that we see in Paul and Silas's release.

And so let's first consider Paul and

Silas's imprisonment. And I think that

following the Lord's call, we can expect

following the Lord's call will bring

suffering to some. It'll bring suffering

to some. What we find in verses 16- 24

is that Paul and Silas end up beaten,

shackled, and imprisoned in Philippi as

they have followed the Lord's call

there. Luke says in verse number 16 that

they were going to prayer. This would

have been to the area outside the city

by the river where they first met Lydia.

They would go to this place of prayer.

And it says, "A certain damsel possessed

with a spirit of divination met us which

brought our masters much gain by

soothsay." And so the idea here is that

you've got a a young girl really is what

a damsel is. A young slave girl who has

been possessed by what is called a

pythonian spirit. And this the idea of

this pythonian spirit. The word

divination is literally the word python.

And this goes back to a Greek myth in

this region that there was this snake

god called python who could foretell the

future that he spoke on behalf of the

gods. Well, Apollo killed Python and

seized control of his power. And then a

shrine was constructed in honor of

Apollo and Python. And there was a

priestess there who could also tell the

future under the spirit and power of of

Python. So, you've got this Greek uh

mythological background here. And this

Pythonian spirit became synonymous with

foretelling the future on behalf of the

gods. That's who this girl is. She is

possessed with this Pythonian spirit.

And it tells us in verse 17 that she

followed Paul and us, Luke and Timothy

and Silas, and cried saying, "These men

are the servants of the most high God,

which show unto us the way of

salvation." Now, that is in fact a true

statement. The demons believe. The Bible

says the demons believe and tremble.

They know who Jesus is. They know who

God is. And they tremble before him is

what the Bible teaches. And so the these

this demonic spirit that has possessed

this girl is is crying out through her

that Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke are

the servants of the most high God, the

highest among all the gods, and that

they are showing the way of salvation.

That's a true statement. It really is.

But what we notice in verse 18 is it

says, "And this did she many days, but

Paul was grieved." Paul was grieved. Why

is he grieved here? Because what this

what this demonic spirit is doing, it is

connecting Python

to Jesus Christ. It is connecting the

Greek gods to the God of Israel. And

what it is doing is instead of it while

it says the most high god and that is

who he is referred to as in the book of

Daniel the the highest above the gods.

What this is doing is it is ranking God

at the top of all the Greek gods. It's

conflating this. And really what what

Paul's message is is not that God and

Jesus is a part of all this Greek

mythology but rather God and Jesus

Christ delivers you from all of that.

That's his message. And so this is going

to be bring tremendous confusion to the

gospel message. And so it says in verse

number 18 that Paul being grieved turned

and said to the spirit, I command thee

in the name of Jesus Christ to come out

of her. And he came out the same hour.

The name of Jesus Christ is still

greater today than any of the demonic

forces of evil, than any of Satan's

forces. And that which is commanded in

the name of Christ overpowers whatever a

spirit, a demonic spirit is commanding.

But what I want to point out to you here

is nothing more is said about this girl.

There's nothing about her conversion.

There's nothing about her getting

baptized. There's nothing about her

joining up with the church. We don't see

any of that. And that simply indicates

to us that that is not Luke's point in

this part of the account. that it's not

focused on this girl's uh deliverance,

but what her deliverance

results in, the results that come from

it. So, let's look at that. In verse 19,

it says, "And when her masters saw that

the hope of their gains was gone, they

caught Paul and Silas and drew them into

the marketplace unto the rulers and

brought them to the magistrates, saying,

"These men being Jews do exceedingly

trouble our city." Now, let's set the

the cultural stage here for a second.

Philippi is a Roman colony. There's very

little Jewish presence. There's not a

Jewish synagogue. This entire city is

dedicated to the Greek gods. It is

completely loyal to Caesar, unlike

Jewish communities. And so this city has

something going good for them. They can

live their way. They can think how they

want to think, worship how they want to

worship, and live in this democratic

freedom that they had there from Rome.

And what they see is that what Paul and

Silas are doing is it they see it as a

Jewish movement that's going to come in

and create havoc like it has in other

Roman cities. But what we notice is

their their real problem is the fact

that their hope of their gains is gone.

They profited off of their slave girl

and now that she's free from this

fortuneelling spirit, they're not going

to be making any money. And so, first of

all, their problem with Paul and Silas

is not as much rooted in Jesus Christ as

it is in threatening their lifestyle.

That they're not going to be able to

live as extravagantly as they did

before. They're not going to be able to

profit and and maybe they won't be able

to afford things that they had taken out

loans on because they've lost the real

source of their gain. But then notice

also what they say in verse 21. It says,

"And they teach customs which are not

lawful for us to receive, neither to

observe being Romans." And so what you

can see here is they are they are

lifting this up as a Jewish problem that

is going to threaten the way of life for

us as Romans. The message they preach

threatens our way of life. That is their

problem. And it says in verse 22, "The

multitudes rose up together against

them. And the magistrates rent off their

clothes of of the the missionaries here

and commanded to beat them. And it says,

"And when they laid many stripes upon

them, they cast them into prison,

charging the jailer to keep them safely,

who having received such a charge,

thrust them into the inner prison and

made their feet fast in stalks."

See what's happening here is really what

we have come to expect for those who

follow Jesus

and that is suffering the suffering as

they follow the Lord's call into

Philippi and they are doing ministry and

they are preaching the gospel and and

they have been commissioned as well by

the power of the Holy Spirit to cast out

demons and to bring healing and these

signed miracles that would affirm the

message as it goes into new territories

They cast the demon out of this little

girl. A and and yet everything they're

doing under the Lord's call lands them

in a prison in shackles and stalks. It

brought suffering in their lives. But I

want to point out to you that it did not

bring suffering to all, only to some.

The missionary team right now is Paul,

Silas, Luke, and Timothy. And there were

probably other Philippian believers

there by this time as well going out to

pray. But what you see is the only ones

who are dragged before the magistrates.

The only ones who are arrested, the only

ones who are beaten, the only ones who

are in prison, the only ones in the

dungeon in stocks and shackles right now

is Paul and Silas. Why is that? Why is

that some suffer and others do not?

Honestly, we don't know. We don't know.

Other than this, sometimes when you

follow the Lord, it's just going to

bring suffering to some. In fact,

throughout church history, some have

suffered while others have not. In the

year 177, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius

launched a a a strong persecution

against believers in Lion in Vienna. And

in this persecution, there were some who

were beaten and imprisoned and forced to

appear before Roman authorities. And

some of them were even killed. But what

you find is that there were some who

were released and judged harmless. There

were others who were beaten and then

released. But then there was a young

slave girl named Blandina who had

remained strong in her faith and had

been brutally tortured and beaten and

and at one point was even executed for

her faith. And we look at that and we

say, why is it that some suffer and and

others do not? Listen, we don't know who

will suffer and who will not. But it's

important for us to realize that

suffering is an expectation of following

Jesus Christ. It will bring suffering to

some. That suffering may not always look

the same, especially depending on where

you live. When you trust Christ as your

savior, not everybody's going to

celebrate that decision like you wish

they would. You might have family that

you once got along with really well that

that they eventually just tell you, "I

don't want to do any have anything to do

with you anymore. I want you out of my

life. Don't talk to me about Jesus.

Don't come around for the holidays. Just

leave me alone. Sometimes that's going

to happen. It might be that you have

friends who mock you or ridicule you

because you won't uh go drink with them

like you used to or because you stopped

smoking weed or because you changed your

music and you changed your dress and you

stopped going out clubbing with them.

and they they see your new way of life

as a threat to their way of life and

they just don't want that testimony

coming across against them. They might

call you judgmental when you've said

nothing judgmental toward them at all.

And yet that hurts when family and

friends abandon you simply because you

followed Christ. And yet that is how the

history of the church has been written.

might be that when you share the gospel,

if you don't know this already, not

everybody's going to be as excited about

it as you are. There are some who might

scream in your face. There may be some

who take that invitation and they tear

it up and throw it back in your face. Or

if you're ever knocking doors, they

might slam the door in your face or or

call you names or start screaming at you

as you're walking down the street. You

know, all of those things uh can happen.

It might be that you get turned into HR

at work for trying to proitize people at

work and you get reprimanded or written

up or perhaps even fired because of

that. And listen folks, a day may come

here even in the United States like it

has in other places where sharing the

gospel is illegal even to where it could

land you in jail or paying fines or even

uh the hostility as it ramps up toward

Christianity. You could be downtown in

Pearl Street passing out tracks,

inviting people to come and then all of

a sudden somebody may come and and throw

a rock at you or something or a Molotov

cocktail as we saw happen here just a

year and a half ago. That can happen

especially as our country gets more and

more hostile toward the Christian faith.

It could be that when you follow the

Lord's call to missions work, you need

to expect some suffering. It could be a

disease like malaria or Ebola because

you go to a country where health care is

not very good and and where uh a disease

is rampant. Or it could be that you get

caught up in the crossfire of a civil

war because the Lord called you to a war

torn country like has happened to so

many over the years. You could even be

beaten, tortured, beheaded in a Middle

Eastern country because it happens there

every day. Every day I say these things,

church, not to scare you, but to prepare

you, lest if that time should come, it

swallow you up in fear and despair.

Because the reality is this, some of us

will go our entire lives without really

sharing in the sufferings of Christ.

Some of us will. But whatever suffering

that we might face, I want to encourage

you, church. whatever suffering we might

face will pale in comparison to what

Jesus suffered on the cross for us. He

He is the one who who suffered on our

behalf and gave his life on the cross.

And he came just think about the timing

of God. He came at a time when to this

day Rome was executing the worst forms

of torture, the worst forms of beating

and the worst form of execution by

crucifixion. The world all around the

world still recognizes that is the worst

way in human history that you could

possibly die. That's what they say. That

is when the son of God chose to come and

to take on the worst of humanity. And he

did that for you and me so that we could

be saved. So that we could have life.

And by doing so, he delivered us from a

suffering that is far greater and a

suffering that is far eternal in hell,

paying for our sins for all of eternity.

Thank God Jesus delivered us from that.

And so I want to encourage you that

whatever suffering you may face in this

life, it will never compare to the

suffering that Christ took for you and

the suffering that Christ delivered you

from. Be faithful to him. As Revelation

says, even unto death should that come.

When we follow Christ, we can expect it

to bring some suffering. That's what we

see in Paul and Silas's imprisonment.

They are there in the dungeon for

following Jesus and fulfilling their

call on their lives. But that's not all

that we can expect because in the next

scene, we read of a conversion story

that shows us the second thing that we

can expect. And that is this that that

while the Lord's while following the

Lord's call will bring some to suffer,

it'll bring others to salvation. It'll

bring others to salvation.

Paul and Silas's suffering

ends up leading to a household

salvation.

At at midnight, it says in verse 25, "At

midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang

praises unto God, and the prisoners

heard them." Can I pause for a moment

and ask you believer? What do others

hear from you when you suffer?

What do they hear from you when your

life is in the darkest of dungeons? When

it's in the most trying of circumstances

or the worst of pain, do do they hear

you sing praises and pray through the

suffering?

Can you say that you pray through

hardship and that you keep praising the

Lord even when following him brings

suffering into your life? How do you

respond when suffering comes? Paul and

Silas prayed. Their dependence remained

on the Lord and they continued to praise

the Lord because here's what they

recognized. The lashes across our backs

and the stalks on our feet and the

shackles in our hands in this cold dark

dungeon is nothing like what Jesus went

through for us. And so like the other

apostles at times in the book of Acts,

they were rejoicing in the fact that

they were counted worthy to suffer shame

for his name. Is that how we respond and

look at our suffering?

Suddenly, while they're singing praises,

it says in verse 26, there was a great

earthquake. So, the foundations of the

prison were shaken. And immediately, all

the doors were open, and everyone's

bands were loosed. And the keeper of the

prison awaking out of his sleep, and

seeing the prison doors opened, he drew

out his sword and would have killed

himself, supposing the prisoners had

been fled. He knew what was coming his

way. In that Roman system, if you as a

jailer allowed your prisoners to escape,

you would be beaten, tortured, publicly

humiliated, and put to death because of

that. That's how they deterred

conspiracy

in that day. And so, this man knows

what's coming. And he says, "It's better

for me to end it all on my terms right

now." But just as he is about to put the

sword to himself, it says in verse 28,

"But Paul cried with a loud voice,

saying,"Do thyself no harm, for we are

all here." Says, "Then he called for a

light and sprang in and came trembling

and fell down before Paul and Silas and

brought them out and said, "Sers, what

must I do to be saved?"

We don't know exactly how but through

this entire ordeal

this jailer had come to recognize

perhaps through the trial process or

perhaps through their prayers and their

singings through this that they he came

to realize that what they were offering

was a means of salvation

and he said I don't know everything what

I know is is that I am in trouble and I

know that I need to be saved and so he

asked perhaps the most important

question in life that anybody could ask,

"What must I do to be saved?" And the

answer from Paul and Silas was quite

simple. In verse number 31, and they

said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,

and thou shalt be saved and thy house."

There is another Lord besides Caesar and

beside all of these Greek gods that you

must believe on. You must put your trust

and you must cast all of your faith for

this salvation that you are requesting.

It must all be cast upon the Lord Jesus

Christ.

He says that offer is not just to you,

it's to your entire house. And notice

what happens in verse 32.

And they spake unto him the word of the

Lord. They preached the gospel to him.

is telling that Jesus Christ is the son

of God. That he came to earth and lived

a sinless life and he died on a cross to

pay the penalty for your sin and for

mine. And he made atonement that

appeased God's wrath against you. He

rose again the third day, proving that

he can give life to all if they will

simply believe on him. They preached the

gospel to him. And that gospel that they

preached is still the same gospel that

we preach today. And so I want to say to

you today that if you've never trusted

Jesus Christ as your savior, he is the

only hope of salvation that you have.

You will not find it in Islam. You will

not find it in Hinduism. You will not

find it in Buddhism. You will not find

it in yourself. The only hope you have

to be saved is the sacrificial death and

resurrection of Jesus Christ who paid

the price for your sin. Would you trust

him today? That's what they call this

jailer to do.

And notice what happens in verse 33.

And he took them the same hour of the

night and washed their stripes and was

baptized he and all his straightway. And

when he had brought them into his house,

he set meat before them and rejoiced,

believing in God with all his house.

Notice here the reversal

of this situation

that at the outset

Paul and Silas are dragged, beaten,

bloodied, and bruised to this jailer and

he takes them into the innermost part of

the prison. And it says he thrust them

in. I don't think that means that he

said, "Here you go, guys."

Thrust to me sounds like

across their bloody backs. And he chains

them up and he fastens their feet in

stalks. And then he goes and takes a nap

while these men are suffering with no

healing ointments for their wounds or

anything. And by the end of it, he is

washing their stripes. He is sitting for

with him with them at meal and eating

and fellowshipping with him and

rejoicing with his entire house. Why?

Because they had believed.

It does not just show us that this or

tell us that this man believed. It shows

us that this man believed because there

was a great reversal in this

relationship here now that these are no

longer just prisoners. These are

brothers in Christ. They're brothers in

Christ.

this whole entire household was saved.

Paul is able to recognize now that what

the Lord has done is he has led them

into suffering so they could lead others

out of suffering through Christ.

And that is what you come to expect when

it comes to following the Lord. That

while it brings suffering to some, it

brings salvation to others. In the

1950s,

missionary Jim Elliot and Nate Saint

went with three other men to Ecuador to

engage in an unengaged tribe called the

Aka natives. And so they they go there

and these men try to make contact with

the AAS. And immediately upon making

contact, all five of the men were

speared to death before they could even

say a word. I would say that's

suffering. But could you imagine the

suffering that it would bring to their

wives, that it would bring to their

children?

Certainly. Yet, two years later,

Elizabeth Elliott and Rachel Saint

returned to Ecuador. And they they found

an inroad to this tribe and they began

living among them in mud huts. They

began to to learn their language. And

then they this was an illiterate tribe.

They did not have a written language.

and she started writing a written

language for them. And then she

translated the scriptures into that

language for them. And and after after a

good time of laboring here with these

people who had killed their husbands,

the gospel broke through. And their

forgiveness of this tribe drew them to

the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. And

many people in this tribe began to

accept Jesus as their savior, including

a warrior named Minkeay, who speared

Rachel Saint's husband, Nate, to death.

In a remarkable act of reconciliation,

that man trusted Christ as his savior,

and he became a leading voice for

Christianity among their tribe. And he

even adopted her son Steve as a tribal

son. Eventually, McKay began to travel

with Steve all around the globe sharing

their story about the forgiveness of God

that he enables Christians to give and

how Manay accepted Christ as his savior

and his life was totally reversed,

totally uh transformed because of that.

They became a global emblem of

forgiveness and transformation. And K

did until he died in 2020,

six years ago.

We're not just talking about the first

century, folks. We're talking about

throughout all of church history, even

to this day. That when you follow the

Lord's call on your life, it will bring

suffering to some, but it will bring

salvation to others. Perhaps even a

household salvation or a tribal

salvation. And so I want to say to you

believers today that that if when you

trust Christ as your savior and you

start sharing that decision with other

people in your life, there are going to

be some who turn away from you. There's

going to be some suffering that comes

into your life. But I also want to

assure you that you keep sharing your

faith and the transforming work that

Christ has done in your life. Others

will be saved and it could be an entire

household and your family or with your

friend group. So just keep sharing

Christ. Don't let the suffering deter

you from doing what the Lord's called

you to do. Keep following him.

Not everyone that you share the gospel

with is going to be excited about it.

Not everyone's going to open the door

and be receptive to you and and love you

because you have loved them. No, they're

going to reject you. There's going to be

some suffering that comes from that. But

you never know when you'll reach the one

individual for whom the gospel

completely reshapes not only their lives

but the life of their entire family.

So just keep sharing the gospel.

When you go into missions work, it could

be like what uh what Elizabeth Elliott

and Rachel Saint experienced that their

husbands were killed. And yes, it

brought suffering. But as they continued

to preach the gospel, it brought

salvation to a whole entire tribe that

had never heard of the name of Jesus

Christ and had never heard of the Bible

and never even uh seen a book before,

couldn't even read or write a language.

And yet those people came to trust

Christ as their savior. And now many of

them are in heaven worshiping and

praising God right now. Why? Because in

spite of the suffering, they just

continued to work among those people.

They continued to share the gospel. They

continued to preach the message of

Christ until it finally broke through

and many people got saved. You never

know when sharing the gospel and

following the Lord's call will bring an

individual or a family or a tribe or an

entire nation to Jesus Christ.

Rome,

the place where Marcus Aurelius

was killing Christians, the place where

Christians were hung on crosses and

torched on fire to light the city

streets. The same place where Christians

were thrown into the coliseum to

gladiators and bears and lions and gave

their lives for their faith in Christ.

That very same place because they

continue to preach Christ through the

suffering and churches continued to be

planted in spite of the suffering. It

eventually became to the place where the

entire Roman Empire became a Christian

empire where then the gospel spread

throughout all of Europe and into other

parts of the world and the gospel went

all around the world in the first four

centuries. Why? Because that is the

power of the gospel. It turns

individuals. It turns families. It turns

entire tribes and nations to Jesus

Christ.

See, Christ was led into suffering

to bring us all out of suffering.

And if we are going to follow Christ, we

can expect to walk the same road that he

walked.

Sometimes it will bring us into

suffering,

but when the gospel breaks through, it

brings others out of suffering when they

come to Christ.

We've got to expect that.

There's a final

expectation as we put it all together

here in these last few verses.

That is this.

The Lord is going to work.

He's going to work through our suffering

to bring salvation

in a way that further establishes his

church. That's what we see in Philippi.

This these final verses seems a little

strange to us. It says in verse 35, "And

when it was day, the magistrates sent to

the sergeants, saying, let the those men

go. And the keeper of the prison told

this, saying to Paul, the magistrates

have sent to let you go. Now, therefore,

depart and go in peace." There's a great

opportunity here for them to escape. But

Paul said unto them, "They have beaten

us openly, unconddemned,

being Romans, and have cast us into

prison, and now do they thrust us out

privy or secretly?" Nay, fairly. No. Not

on my watch. They're not going to

publicly beat us and condemn us without

a fair trial, without our rights of

Roman citizenship, and then just let us

go like nothing happened. No, there's

something Paul wants to be done publicly

about this. And so it says in verse 38,

and the sergeants told these words unto

the magistrates, and they feared when

they heard that they were Romans, and

they came and besought them. That that

means basically more or less they they

begged them, please just just leave our

city, you know, but they come and they

fetch them out. So now you've got the

magistrates in front of everybody else

now having to come to Paul and Silas and

bring them out of prison and let them go

just as publicly as they had beaten them

before.

Why is Paul doing that? Well, I want you

to look at verse 40. Says, "They went

out of the prison and entered into the

house of Lydia. And when they had seen

the brethren, they comforted them and

departed."

See, a church is already being

established here in Philippi.

And here's something that Paul

recognizes in this very Roman city where

there's very little Jewish presence in a

situation where they have tried to the

the the owners of that girl have tried

to prop this up as if the Jews are

coming in and trying to take over and

they're going to create problems. Here's

what Paul does. He distances the belie

the believers from Judaism.

He shows them this is not a Jewish

takeover. We are Roman citizens and

those who are following us are also

Roman citizens. What's that going to do?

Well, it says it caused them to fear.

And what what this will do is it'll

communicate to that Roman government

that these Christians are not a threat

to the Roman people like the Jews were a

threat to the Roman people. There's not

an uproar being caused here. And what we

notice in the book of Acts is that the

primary source of persecution has not

actually come from the Romans. It's come

from the Jews. The Jews are persecuting

the Christians. The Jews are turning the

Gentiles against the Christians. That's

what we have seen. And there is a great

opportunity at Philippi for this church

to evangelize their city without the

opposition and the persecution that

others have experienced. And Paul knows

if we confront them about this, it's

going to strike a fear into them that

will allow this church to become a base

of operations for the mission in the

rest of Macedonia.

And when you read the book of

Philippians, you read next to nothing

about them being a suffering church like

you do in churches that neighbor this

city, Thessalonica,

Berea, and on down in other cities of

Macedonia. And Paul writes in

Philippians about how this church gave

to him time and time again. And he told

them, "But my God shall supply all your

need according to his riches and glory

in Christ Jesus." He says, "No church

communicated with me concerning giving

and receiving as much as your church

has. God has worked in this situation a

very unique way." He led them to

Philippi first. He led them to this

prayer meeting to this woman Lydia where

she gets saved and her household and

baptized and a church gets started in

her home. They're going out to prayer

and they come across this damsel and he

commands the demon to come out in the

name of Jesus Christ. And this following

the Lord's call here led them to the

prison which brought them to the jailer

whose household was converted and it

enabled them to show that we are Roman

citizens and you should not be uh

persecuting us in this way. And it gave

that church an immense amount of liberty

to send the gospel further into

Macedonia. And here's the final

expectation in this text that we have.

We can trust that the Lord is going to

work through our suffering to bring

salvation to further expand his kingdom

on this earth.

God has you know what that does for you?

It brings purpose and meaning to

everything you suffer as you follow him.

Because what you understand is this

suffering is not pointless in my life.

This suffering has been permitted or

brought about by the Lord as we read

from from Psalm uh 66 today about how

how God had caused this and God had

brought them this and yet he he brought

them out of it to a wealthy place is

what Psalm 66 said. That's the same

thing that he does for us today. That at

times he's going to bring us into

suffering and it's going to purge us and

it's going to purify us, but it's going

to bring others to experience the saving

grace of God in Jesus Christ and it's

going to further expand his kingdom.

This is what we can expect when

following the Lord's call. Some will

suffer, some will get saved, churches

will get planted. So, I want to

encourage you believers, do not be

disheartened by the suffering you might

face as you follow Christ. Continue to

share the gospel. Continue to let him

transform you into his image. Continue

to surrender to his call and go wherever

he sends you and say whatever he says.

Let's continue to reach this city for

Christ even though they despise

Christianity and everything that we

stand for. And even though we may have

doors slammed in our face, and even

though we may have people scream at us

as we're trying to share the gospel, and

even if we come under physical threat

for sharing the gospel, let's just

continue to be faithful. Because even if

it brings us to suffer, it will bring

some to salvation. And it will further

anchor this church in this city to

expand Christ's kingdom. Continue to

follow Christ.

Let me say to you this morning that you

might be here, you might be in the shoes

of that Philippian jailer

because of failure, because of sin in

your life. You feel helpless, hopeless.

There may even some be some who have

contemplated before of taking their own

lives because of the hopelessness of

their situation. But I want to tell you

today that there is hope in Jesus

Christ. And that the same the same

simple gospel message that they preach

is the same gospel message that we

preach today. That Jesus died on the

cross to pay for every one of your sins

before you were ever born. He already

knew the sins you would have committed

in your past. He knew the sins you'll

commit today. He knew every sin that you

would commit in the future. And yet he

still gave his life to pay for all of

them. And if you will trust in him and

believe that he died for your sin and

believe that he rose again, the Bible

says that if you will call upon him for

salvation, you will be saved. Would you

trust him today?

It can bring a reversal in your life, in

your family, your clan, your friend

group, whatever it might be. Christ can

save you today. Christ can transform you

if you'll believe on him. Church, if

Christ went into suffering to bring us

out of suffering, we can expect that

following him will bring some of us to

suffer. But we can also expect that it

will bring others to salvation and it

will further Christ's kingdom. So let me

encourage you. Faithfully follow Christ.

Come what may. Let's pray. Heavenly

Father, we're thankful for those

martyrs of the past

who have blazed the trail of the church.

They gave their lives and were faithful

unto death. And many times in America,

we become so comfortable with our

freedom that we think suffering will

never touch us.

But I pray that you would help us to

realize that if we're going to follow

you, it will always bring a measure of

suffering,

but that we can trust that it will also

bring people to salvation

and it will serve the purpose of

expanding your kingdom.

So I pray that by the power of your

spirit, we would faithfully endure

hardships and endure suffering, be

faithful to follow your call in our

lives. I pray for those who may not have

trusted Jesus as their savior before. I

pray they would place all their faith on

him today and call on him for salvation.

I pray you would embolden us as a church

to faithfully reach our city for Christ.

To not consider the sufferings that we

may face in this life to be greater than

the glory that is to come,

but pray that we keep our eyes fixed on

you and to continue to share the hope of

the gospel. It's in Jesus name we ask

these things. Haven.