What Is God Up To? Part 2 | Acts 16:16-40 | September 6, 2026

We do study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.

We're gonna have some folks who are gonna pass some paper copies if you want one.

Just lift up your hand.

Uh take one.

It'll be good to have the text in front of you today.

We're gonna be in Acts chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Uh before we do that, there is something really important.

Uh Hughsmans, Margaret and Louis Husman celebrate their 73rd, these are TVCers' 73rd wedding anniversary this week.

Can you celebrate with them?

It is right and good to celebrate that kind of faithfulness.

Well, this morning we are continuing, as I said, our study through the book, The Acts of the Apostles.

Turn with me to Acts chapter 16 if you haven't already, if you have a Bible in front of you.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

We're going to be in the second half of our study.

We began it last week, looking closely at the work of God through the gospel of Jesus that has just arrived on the shores of Europe and Macedonia, a particular town called Philippi.

So the gospel tells us that God in Christ moves towards rebels like me and you.

That's why we sing songs like that.

Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.

That's because he came on a rescue mission for me.

He ran after us, all of us who were rebels.

Now, when we come to a book like this of Acts or even the Gospel of Luke, it's good to remind ourselves on occasion who Luke was writing to.

We've talked about it a few times, but he, inspired by the Holy Spirit, was writing to a man named Theophilus.

His name means lover of God.

Theophilus, for whatever reason, in my imagination, it's a guy with a monocle and a cane.

One of those kind of guys.

He was probably a wealthy benefactor of some kind.

And Luke is writing in his Gospel of Luke about what Jesus has done.

And in the Acts of the Apostles, he's writing about what Jesus continued to do through his spirit.

And he's writing to Theophilus for a purpose.

He's writing to Theophilus to persuade him that not only is the gospel true, he really did, Jesus died and rose again, ascended to heaven, and he's going to return.

That's true.

The gospel is also good.

It's true, it's good, and it's beautiful.

Luke is persuading Theophilus and through him, all of us.

Again, the gospel tells us that God is on the move towards rebels who have turned away from him.

An encounter with Jesus, an encounter with the gospel of our Lord Jesus changes something about us.

Lives are transformed.

Lives going this direction all of a sudden are going that direction, towards God, orienting around him his truth, his goodness, and his beauty.

Lives are changed, families are restored, friendships are restored.

As the kingdom of God comes, values, cultural values, change in a family or a city.

So the title of our sermon is What is God Up to?

And it was last week.

May the Lord help us pay attention.

We sing songs like this Redeeming Love.

That's run after me.

What's the Lord up to?

He's running after you.

He's running after me.

That's what the Lord's up to.

And I pray he shows that to us in the text here today, and also here with us in Nashville.

Acts chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Let me pray for us and we'll get started.

Heavenly Father, we come to you with our Bibles open.

Open us to your word as you open your word to us by your Spirit.

And may that same Spirit convict us where we need to be convicted, comfort us where we need to be comforted, and point us to our only hope today and tomorrow, our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we all said really robustly.

Amen.

And just as a reminder, they've gone now into Macedonia, they've arrived.

This is Paul and Silas and Timothy now.

They're in Macedonia, they're in Europe, and they've now arrived in Philippi.

And here's what happens next.

On the Sabbath day, we went outside to the gate, outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer.

And we sat down and we spoke to the women who had come together.

One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God.

The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was being said by Paul.

And after she was baptized by Paul, 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.

She insisted.

What I love about this, I mentioned it last week.

You know, Paul's a pretty headstrong guy.

We know that from his letters and from other stories in Acts.

But Lydia seems like a strong businesswoman, and she insisted she prevailed upon Paul.

I think that's lovely.

There's something interesting here about Lydia.

If you weren't here last week, she's a businesswoman.

She deals in purple goods.

That would have been wealthy.

Wealthy people wore purple back in those days.

Thyatira in Turkey.

So she has a home or a place in what we would call modern-day Turkey and here at Philippi, two different continents.

So she had significant wealth, significant means, and she invites them to her home, and likely this church in Philippi was started at Lydia's home.

So Lydia had significant means, but she also, and be good to write in your Bible, this is the first recorded convert, the first recorded turning of faith towards Jesus on the European continent.

This woman named Lydia.

So what happens next?

Verse 16.

About a week later, we think, as we were going to the place of prayer, so the same place at the riverside, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune telling.

She followed Paul and us, crying out, These men are servants of the Most High God who proclaimed to you the way of salvation.

And this she kept doing for many days, over and over and over again.

And Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her, and it came out at that very hour.

The word there is abandoned.

At the name of Jesus Christ, that spirit abandoned this poor, vulnerable slave girl.

So here we we meet two people, Lydia, a businesswoman, a strong businesswoman who has significant means.

Now we meet this slave girl who has nothing to her name.

And she is enslaved by this evil spirit.

She's enslaved by these businessmen.

They came to this place of prayer there at verse 16.

So what that means is there likely was not a synagogue in Philippi.

It took ten men to create a synagogue.

So they come again to the place of prayer where they met Lydia and the other women, and they encounter this slave girl.

Now, the word there, if you look at verse 16, this girl who had a spirit of divination.

The word there in the original language is a python spirit, like the snake.

And what does that mean?

Actually, it's important.

I think Luke and the original readers would have understood this.

It's all wrapped up in a little bit of Greek mythology and pagan religious practice.

See, the idea back then was that there was a python spirit who spoke for the god, the Greek god Apollo.

And people would come from all over to Delphi, a mountain near Corinth, to consult a python spirit speaking through other women.

So that they might get a little bit of a fortune telling, telling them the future.

So people would pay for this.

So we have a mix of religious, uh, pagan religious activity and cultic practice and commerce all mixed up together.

And this girl here is caught in the middle.

And Paul, I think this shouldn't be lost on this.

Paul calls on the name of Jesus to send the Spirit out.

We have a battle here between Jesus and a serpent.

And the serpent loses.

What happens next, verse 19?

When her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, literally the same word, that their hope of gain was abandoned.

Luke is doing some really good work here as he's writing.

When her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and they dragged them into the marketplace, the agora, before the rulers.

And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city.

Now remember, Paul is from Turkey, what we would call modern-day Turkey, Tarsus.

He looks a little different than the people here in Europe.

There's likely some racial undertone.

They're throwing all kinds of stuff here to stop these men, to stop the spread of the gospel, what they're preaching.

These men are Jews.

They're doing things that aren't good for us.

Verse 21.

They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.

Verse 22, the crowd now joined in and attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off of them and gave orders to beat them with rods.

And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.

And having received this order, he put them into the inner prison, that was max security, and they fastened their feet in the stocks.

This was a public beating in the marketplace.

And it wasn't just a place, it wasn't just the marketplace, it was a place where everything was seen publicly.

All commerce was done here, and they beat them with these rods.

In Jewish law, there was a limit to how many times you could be beaten.

In Roman law, there was no such thing.

We're not told how many times they were beaten, but they were beaten raw.

And if you look there at verse 24, they received this order, and he, the jailer, put them into the inner prison.

That would have been at the bottom of the prison, most likely, where all the refuse went.

This was max security, a horrible place to be.

Paul and Silas are sent down there and they put their feet in stocks.

They weren't just simply chained to the wall.

Stocks would have been another form of mild torture, spreading their legs apart in pain.

So what do we expect happens next?

Verse 25.

Remember where we are, where all the refuses, all the rats are.

25.

About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying.

And they were singing hymns to God, and prisoners were listening to them.

And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.

And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bonds were unfastened.

And when the jailer woke and he saw the prison doors were opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

Roman jailers, if they let prisoners escape, if they lost prisoners, would face the death penalty, and he was trying to preserve some honor by killing himself.

But look 28.

But Paul cried out with a loud voice, Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.

If you think about that for a minute, all their chains had been loosed.

If I was Paul, I'd be out of there.

Paul stays.

Paul and his team stay.

I think because there's some compassion here.

They know what the jailer's gonna do, likely gonna do.

And what happens next?

29, the jailer called for lights.

He rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas.

He brought them out and he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

Greatest question in the book of Acts.

And they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.

And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.

And he took them the same hour of the night and he washed their wounds.

The jailer is washing the wounds of the prisoners.

It's extraordinary.

And he was baptized at once, he and all his family.

Then he brought them up into the house and he set food before them, and he rejoiced along with his entire household.

Why?

That he had believed in God.

A few hours earlier, he was about to end his own life, and his story ends with a party.

Because he believed in God and his whole house.

35.

But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, Let those men go.

And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, The magistrates have sent to let you go.

Therefore, come out now and go in peace.

Go out on the sly.

That's essentially what's going on here.

But Paul said to them, and I'm going to translate a little bit here, paraphrase.

So what you're telling me is, they've beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens and have thrown us into prison.

And do they now throw us out secretly?

No.

This is the Tommy translation.

Uh-uh.

No, they're going to have to come here.

So they came and apologized to them.

There were 38.

The police reported these words to the magistrates.

They were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens.

They came and apologized to them.

They took them out and asked them to leave the city.

So they went out of the prison and they visited Lydia full circle.

And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and they departed.

Well, this is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Now, what is Paul doing here?

This isn't about Paul's pride and telling him to come take them out.

This was Paul protecting the gospel of Jesus.

Remember, the gospel had now come to Macedonia, to Europe, had come to this town of Philippi, and they had beaten them publicly in the marketplace in front of everybody.

And so what Paul's doing here is he's saying, no, no, no, you need to, you need to help heal this reputation, not just of us, but of the gospel of Jesus.

This is also protection for the people who are going to be left behind, the believers who are going to be left behind.

This is Paul taking care of these folks.

This is Paul protecting the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So with bodies, you know, riddled with cuts and bruises, Paul and Silas are escorted out of this prison area.

And where do they go next?

If you look there at 40, they go to Lydia's house.

Again, full circle.

You know, I just imagine Lydia probably lived in the Belmide of Philippi.

She probably had a little pool.

I hope she had a pool, something to help them recover.

But even more than that, look at the last thing that they do in Philippi, Paul and Silas, verse 40.

They were encouraging the brothers, the brothers and sisters.

After all of that, they were encouraging.

They went back.

Paul couldn't help but going back to strengthening the faith of these believers, loving them, tending to them, caring for them.

Paul was not perfect, he wasn't Jesus, but he was living a life formed around the way that Jesus lived, a cruciform life.

Now, if you're familiar with Paul's letters or um much of the book of Acts, Paul seems to have an especially deep affection for this particular church in Philippi.

He loves them.

This church would be a church that marked his soul, these people, Lydia and this unnamed slave girl and this jailer and many others that we probably don't know their names.

We don't have their record here.

It marked his soul for the rest of his life.

Turn with me, if you would, to Philippians chapter 1, just a few pages over.

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

We'll put it on the screen as well, but it'd be good for a Bible study, just for uh at home.

Just Philippians chapter 1, verse 3.

Philippians 1:3

So, about a decade later, after the story that we just read today, about a decade later, Paul, along with Timothy, writes a letter from another jail, probably from Rome.

And look how he greets this church at Philippi.

Remember, it's a decade later.

I thank my God and all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy.

Why?

Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

We know about the first day.

When he goes to that riverside and he meets Lydia, he has some particular people in mind, and then he ends, I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

He was there when Christ ran towards these people at Philippi, started this church at Philippi, began the work that he will complete at the day of Jesus Christ.

Paul loves this community.

He loves this church, and even a decade later, and even further than that, he still remembers it.

Now, another person on this team, Luke, who actually writes the Acts of the Apostles, had just recently joined the team.

That's why it says, we and us.

Luke has now joined the team, at least for a little bit.

Some have suggested that Luke's hometown was Philippi.

So he's seen the gospel come to his hometown.

We don't know for sure, but this also could be the first time that Luke had seen the gospel, the Holy Spirit, fall upon a community like this.

The first time he'd seen the power of the gospel of Jesus with his very eyes.

And maybe that's why he wrote with such detail.

It's also worth noting that after this story, Luke doesn't use the term we anymore.

And I'm wondering if Paul actually said, Luke, would you stay here in this community and help serve this church?

Again, we don't know, but what we do know is that God moved towards these people in Philippi, and he's still doing that kind of work today.

In our first half of the study last week, we looked at the ways that God was working in this town.

Number one, to the multifaceted guidance of God.

We actually looked before this when Paul actually wanted to go to Bithynia first.

So this is Turkey, what we would call modern-day Turkey.

Paul wanted to go to Bithynia and the Holy Spirit said no.

Okay, so Paul said, Okay, let's go down over here to Asia Minor, and the Holy Spirit said no.

God's guidance often is corrective, don't go here.

Sometimes it's directive, go to Macedonia.

Sometimes it's perplexing.

Because later they go to Troaz and they wait until the Lord sends them to Europe.

We also saw the surprising provision of God, in particular with people.

When I think of provision, I often think of material provision, and we should give thanks for that.

But the provision of people, Timothy, who Paul would say is a true son in the faith, and who would be with him throughout his ministry.

So the surprising provision of God, and then three, the saving power of God, and it's all over the place.

Like us to camp there on that third point a little longer this morning.

So number three, the saving power of God.

Now, borrowing from Jonathan Edwards, what we see here in this story is a series of at least three very unlikely conversions.

And every conversion, every heart turned towards God is an unlikely conversion, but for the grace of God, including my own.

But Luke has drawn our attention to these three for a reason.

I mentioned it last week, but in the first century, highlighting these three would have been surprising.

There's a traditional morning prayer for devout Jewish men that would have been prayed then.

Paul probably prayed this before he came to faith.

Lord, I give thee thanks for not making me a woman, a slave, or a gentile.

And the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of God reshapes our cultural values, doesn't it?

Reshapes, reorients our values.

The Holy Spirit establishes this church first with Lydia, a businesswoman and her home.

This slave girl and a Gentile Roman jailer, a woman, a slave, and a gentile form the core group of this church at Philibi.

The kingdom of God has indeed come.

Now, all three of them encounter Christ moving towards them in ways that met them at their point of need, where they were.

Let's first start with Lydia.

So Lydia had her heart opened at this prayer service at a riverside.

Lydia might be what we would call today a spiritual person or a religious person, someone who was an honest seeker.

Back in that day, they had a term God fearer.

So there may be, she may have actually understood a little bit of the Old Testament with a little bit of the Jewish influence in the area.

And so with piety, she comes down to the riverside to pray.

There was no synagogue, so she and her friends came and they prayed.

And she was also, though, a skilled businesswoman.

So from a worldly perspective, I think it would appear on the outside that she had everything that she needed.

And along comes Paul and Silas and Timothy and Luke, and they join this prayer service, and I imagine they sing and they open up the scriptures, and the message that Lydia heard was a message she hadn't heard before.

And it's worth looking at it again if you look at verse 14 with me at the end of verse 14.

The Lord opened her heart.

So there's the divine initiative of God, Christ turning towards her, running towards her, and she paid attention to what was being said, to the gospel that Paul was preaching.

And Tim Keller offers some good insight on this text.

The word in the original language for pay attention was to carefully consider, looking at it really carefully, attending to it.

And Christ moved toward her so that she might see what I'd say is the logic and the beauty of the gospel of Jesus forgiveness and life in the name of Jesus.

And it reoriented her life.

It changed her life.

Immediately, she opened her home to complete strangers.

Hey, come stay here.

She insisted that they would come and stay.

And again, likely that church started in her home.

I'm imagining that Paul opened up the Bible and showed her the good news of God moving toward her, the good news of what Jesus had done for her in the person of Jesus and his life and his death and his resurrection, in order to put rebels like me and like Paul and like her into right relationship with God.

Did she say something like what we sang before?

Amazing love?

How can it be?

How can it be that God would die for me?

Just imagine she's saying something like that.

The claims of the Christian faith, they connected the dots for her.

Jesus was both true and Jesus was also beautiful to this woman who probably had everything that she wanted material.

But her own piety, her spirituality, her possessions, none of that satisfied her deepest longings.

None of that.

She came to the realization could save her, except for Christ.

And Paul brings this good news and she sees the treasure of Jesus.

He's revealed to her and his cross and his resurrection.

So that's Lydia.

So about a week later, if you look there at verse 16, as they were going to a place of prayer, they encounter this slave girl, this unnamed slave girl.

Her life and her experience were completely different from Lydia.

Lydia had everything that she needed, material.

This girl owned nothing.

Both of their stories really have commerce at their heart, don't they?

Lydia was a businesswoman, but this young girl, she was the product being sold.

She was enslaved twice over, earthly owners and an evil spirit.

She was economically impoverished, spiritually and physically bound.

This image bearer had been diminished to a commodity.

Now, when we read a story like this, it should turn our stomachs.

And I think that's part of what Luke wants us to experience.

Our stomach should be turned.

That's part of his intention.

As the kingdom of God spreads into new territory, remember we're way far away from Jerusalem where the Holy Spirit was poured out.

Now we're all the way over into Europe and Macedonia.

So we should not be surprised as the kingdom of God begins to spread, that it runs into resistance.

It runs into the deepest, the depths of human depravity and the principalities and powers of the evil one.

And we see both of that in our text.

Now, today, I looked this up this week.

Today, the global slavery index estimates there are over 49 million enslaved people globally, meaning men and women, boys and girls trapped in commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, forced marriage.

That's today.

49 million.

So this category of wickedness that we see here in the first century is not confined to the first century.

We're privileged as a church to help support the good work of several organizations like Ancora, Tennessee, International Justice Mission, Agape, International Freedom's Promise.

You can go to our website and see more.

But this unnamed slave girl was bound.

She was bound, and the evil spirit was saying true things.

Did you notice that?

If you look there, 17, these men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim to you the way of salvation.

This evil spirit is saying true things.

We see that also in Luke, Luke chapter 4, Luke chapter 8.

Luke 4 · chapter mention Luke 8 · chapter mention

As demons would actually talk to Jesus and say, You, the Son of the Most High, what have you to do with us?

Now, saying true things, but probably saying it in a mocking kind of way.

And also, the evil one is the father of lies.

I heard a pastor this week say that the devil will tell you ten true things in order to set you up for the one lie.

So this was probably a mocking kind of a spirit.

And the Apostle Paul in verse 18, the translations say, most English translations say he was greatly annoyed.

Anyone been annoyed?

Just one?

Okay, that's great.

Me and you.

What about this morning?

Anybody annoyed this morning?

Okay.

I'm not sure that that word fully gets at what Luke is trying to tell us.

The word there, if you really unpack it, means disturbed.

And it probably includes annoyance.

I think it would if the spirit just kept saying it over and over and over again as they're trying to preach the gospel.

But it's a mix of exasperation and I think some compassion for this young girl who's enslaved to the spirit.

And it was the name of Jesus that set this girl free.

Don't move past that.

It wasn't Paul.

It was the name of Jesus that he called on, and it set this girl free, free from the spirit, perhaps free from the shackles of her supposed owners, because she no longer could tell fortunes.

They should have been celebrating her freedom and said they were angry because their revenue stream had been dried up.

We're not told much about what happens to her after this.

I wish we had more of this story.

I look forward to heaven when we can talk to her.

Reading with a grain of text, though, I think we're to infer between Lydia and the jailer that she, this unnamed slave girl, joins this church at Philippi.

I can imagine her saying, okay, I'm with you guys.

Set free for the first time.

So with Lydia, think about this for a moment.

With Lydia, we had a quiet turning of a heart.

The Holy Spirit met her where she was, opened her eyes to see the truth and the beauty of Christ Jesus.

But it was a quiet turning.

With this slave girl, a more dramatic scene where Christ moved toward her in the middle of her oppression and set her free.

God, Christ, moves towards us.

Wherever you might be, I hope you hear that.

The jailer wasn't seeking anything spiritual that day.

He was just doing his job.

He was likely a retired military.

Remember, Philippi was a town set apart for retired Roman military men.

No taxes.

It was a great place.

Probably a plum job.

There's usually a house attached to a jailhouse.

So he was just doing his job, just minding his business.

But Christ moved towards him.

And how did Christ move towards him?

But through an earthquake and through the compassion of Paul and Silas, who stayed, who didn't owe him anything but stayed and said, No, no, no.

We're still here.

It was an unusual earthquake, unusual compassion, and he wasn't anticipating that.

Earthquakes would have been common in that day, but this was an unusual kind of an earthquake.

Earthquakes typically don't take your shackles off.

You'll be still attached to a rock.

This is a different kind of earthquake you'd never experience.

Earthquakes throughout the Bible often indicate the presence of God.

Think about Sinai, the earthquake at Sinai.

Think about the earthquake at the empty tomb of Jesus.

And here the earthquake actually communicated something.

There is a higher authority than Rome as the kingdom of God advances.

So Paul and Silas are bruised and bleeding.

Where does the jailer go?

This hardened jailer falls on his face in reverence, melted to the core, and asked the only question that makes sense when you come face to face with a holy God: what must I do to be saved?

And Paul and Silas, I'm just imagining them bruised and beaten, imagine looking at him with a smile of compassion and saying, There's nothing for you to do.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved.

And let's go tell your household too.

And so the jailer opens his home to prisoners.

Don't go past that.

Highlight that in your Bible.

A jailer, a Roman jailer, opens his home to prisoners.

That's the transforming power of the gospel.

Right there on the page.

This would have been shocking to the original readers.

Think about Theophilus, who Luke is writing to, who would have seen, wow, this gospel is doing something.

I understand that it's true, but it's also good.

It's beautiful.

It's changing people's lives.

The gospel of Jesus does something to this hardened Roman military officer.

He feeds them, he binds up their wounds.

They listen to him as he preaches.

I don't know if he was preaching while they were putting stitches in his back.

I don't know how that worked.

But that earthquake, I don't think that earthquake came to rescue Paul and Silas from prison.

I think that earthquake came to set this jailer free in Christ.

So Lydia, a quiet turning of faith.

Christ met her with the truth and the beauty of his gospel.

The slave girl was doubly enslaved, and Christ met her with a spiritual power that set her free.

And it released this angry mob because their commerce, their revenue had been dried up.

And so they tried to stop the gospel through violence and imprisonment.

And instead, God worked through that imprisonment to meet this jailer.

That's a remarkable story.

The jailer was just minding his own business.

He wasn't seeking anything, but the saving power of God interrupted his life.

The saving power of God changed him, changed his family, changed his family tree, changed the city of Philippi.

Look at verse 34 with me, if you would.

It's remarkable to me how the story of this jailer's conversion ends.

He brought them up into his house, he set food before them, and he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

And that word for rejoiced is like an explosion of joy.

It was a party-like atmosphere.

In the span of a few hours, this man had gone from nearly ending his life to joy and to worship.

Why?

Because he had tasted for the first time the sweetness of salvation in Christ.

For the first time he had tasted it.

And I love that it added the part about the household.

His whole household rejoiced.

Do you see how the gospel changes, not just you, but the people around you, your community?

In just a moment, we're going to come together to the table of the Lord to give thanks as a community for what Christ has done for us on the cross.

If this jailer would have been here, I bet he would have been singing with us.

Redeeming love has been my theme.

And now it's going to be until I die.

Jesus bared upon himself, willingly bear it upon himself, the just wrath, all the sin and the shame which has wrecked our world since Adam and Eve listened to the voice of another serpent.

All my sin and shame, and not only that, at his cross he conquered death, and so now we have hope of eternity.

He triumphed decisively over the powers of darkness.

Rebecca McLaughlin says, at the cross, the most powerful man who ever lived submitted to the most brutal death ever died.

Why?

To save the powerless.

Christianity does not glorify violence, it humiliates it.

And Fleming Rutledge puts it so well.

God is on the move toward us, not the other way around.

In the very midst of our confusion and incapacity, we are met by the oncoming Lord.

And I think that would be the testimony of Lydia.

That would be the testimony of the slave girl and of this jailer.

And I hope it's your story as well.

And if it's not, I pray there's no confusion in this place, in this room online, about who this gospel is for.

It is for all who would believe on the Lord Jesus.

All who believe in faith and repentance who turn to Him.

So perhaps you're a believer.

I was thinking about this this week for me personally.

Are there people that I have written off in my life because they're too far gone, or I think they're too far gone, too broken, too self-satisfied?

Have I stopped praying for them?

Christ meets us in our incapacity.

He runs toward us in our incapacity.

Or perhaps you've written yourself off, the honest seeker looking for God, carefully considering the claims of Christianity and haven't yet committed.

Or maybe you're one that's caught in the grip of bondage of some kind, perhaps not human trafficking, but something else has a grip on you you can't control sexual addiction or chemical addiction, anxiety.

The God of the Bible longs to set people free.

He's still doing that kind of work.

He's still at it.

What's God up to?

He's moving towards us.

The one who wasn't really interested in hearing about Jesus at all, maybe that's you.

The Spirit of God is still moving in the same way, bringing the hope of forgiveness, bringing the promise of life, walking in newness of life and eternal hope.

What's he up to?

He's on the move towards us.

This is for believers who have forgotten this truth, who need to be refreshed in the faith.

It's for anyone who's wondering if the saving power of God is for you.

And Lydia, this slave girl, and this jailer would all say to you, he's running after you.

Turn to him.

And if you're curious about this, Scottie Smith, who's a local pastor, has this prayer.

I think it's so beautiful.

I'll put it up on the screen.

Father, make the truth of the gospel intellectually intriguing and compelling to us.

Make the goodness of the gospel experientially more satisfying than anything else in the cosmos.

Make the beauty of the gospel Jesus Himself riveting, overwhelming, and wholeheart consuming.

I pray that's your prayer this morning.

Would you pray with me, friends?

Heavenly Father, we I confess my need of you.

We confess our need of you this morning.

We ask that your grace would open our hearts to pay attention to you, to respond to the amazing love you've shown us in Christ Jesus.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Do the work that you did at Philippi here.

And for all those who are not from here, when they go home, continue to do that work.

May the kingdom of God continue to spread.

Father, we rely on you.

We thank you for what you've done through your Son and his death and his resurrection.

May we know that truth.

That truth is good, but we also may we know it that it's good and beautiful.

We turn to you, Lord Jesus, in whose name we all said.

Amen.