START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Acts 16:16-34
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This week’s lectionary readings do not focus on the Day of Ascension.
Ascension Day always falls on the Thursday forty days following Easter Sunday.
If you prefer to use the Day of Ascension Scripture for this Sunday, click here for “The Reading from Acts for May 28, 2017”.
OBSERVE:
Even Apostles are human, with very personal idiosyncrasies.
Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke are in Philippi. They have already begun to make converts in this Roman city — Lydia and her whole household have been baptized.
And evidently, Paul’s preaching and presence are a threat to the demonic powers. The slave-girl, whose spirit of divination is exploited by her owners for financial gain, begins to harass Paul.
What is curious about this passage is that she isn’t necessarily saying anything that is untrue. Her message is fairly accurate:
“These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
We read that Paul is annoyed when she keeps on trailing them and “outing” them. But why is he so annoyed? Is it because her motives are not good? Or is it because she is being exploited by her masters? Is it because her message is only a half-truth — after all, Paul is offering the way of salvation? In any event, he does something about it:
Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
So, it is one thing to confront someone’s religion; it is another to take away their gravy train! Paul’s exorcism removes the slave owners’ lucrative and easy source of income!
They drag Paul and Silas into the marketplace and charge them with a kind of religious sedition. Their complaint is that:
“…they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.”
This is interesting, because these missionaries are not persecuted for their Christian faith but for their Jewish customs! We are reminded that although Judaism was somewhat protected by Roman laws, and Jews were exempted from military service, there was nevertheless a good deal of antipathy toward Jews by the Roman authorities.
As so often happened in those times, it didn’t take much to gather a mob and incite a riot:
The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods.
Needless to say, legal due process was not followed at all. They were arrested and imprisoned without trial:
After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Paul and Silas respond to their adversity with faith and worship:
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
What happens next is significant. An earthquake rips open the bars of this maximum security prison. We are not told if this is a supernatural response to the prayers of these missionaries, but it would seem logical to draw that conclusion.
The jailer, who is personally responsible for his prisoners, fears that they have done the obvious thing when this opportunity arises and had fled the scene. Fearing the consequences from his Roman superiors, he draws his sword to commit suicide — until Paul intervenes:
Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
We can only imagine the dread of Roman torture that the jailer may have felt for himself and his family. He is so relieved that Paul and Silas have not escaped that he is deeply moved:
The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Surely the calm faith of these missionaries in the face of their arrest, their joyful worship even in the dreadful conditions of a prison, and their sensitivity to the jailer’s plight, have all been a powerful witness to the jailer. Paul displays an acute awareness of the concerns that this jailer must have had.
But he also knows what he really needs:
“Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
What a change in demeanor the jailer experiences! He washes and dresses the wounds that Paul and Silas had sustained when they were flogged, and he and his whole household are baptized.
We see again that conversion in the early church was often corporate. Whole families followed the example of a family member and became Christians. Just as Lydia’s whole household had been baptized, so the jailer’s household is baptized:
He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.
APPLY:
Saints are people too. Paul could be annoyed, and yet he could also be very sensitive to the needs of others.
The girl who was possessed by a spirit of divination was obviously possessed by a demon. Paul’s motive for casting the demon out of her seems to be personal pique rather than compassion.
But before we judge his motives, we must consider the chain of events that the exorcism initiates. The girl’s owners predictably blame Paul. They incite a riot against these “Jews” who are threatening their own livelihood.
This is a reminder to us that our acts of compassion must be weighed carefully. There will be consequences that we may not be able to control.
Missionaries who have gone into other cultures have learned that attacking the cultural mores of their host country may be very controversial. The wise missionary must pick their time and place before challenging established belief systems and practices.
But when Paul and Silas are arrested, Paul puts into practice what he declares in Philippians 4:11-13.
I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
When the opportunity to escape presents itself, Paul doesn’t see this as a providential excuse to run away. Paul is aware that the jailer will face serious consequences if his prisoners are missing. So, he and Silas praise God despite the earthquake, and inspire a response of faith by their witness.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that Paul was actually a Roman citizen. The next day, when the Roman authorities discover they have flogged a Roman citizen and incarcerated him without due process of law, they are terribly worried. They come cringing to Paul with apologies for having violated his civil rights.
Paul adapts to his circumstances, and uses his unique background for the advancement of the Gospel. We must do the same with our circumstances and our own background.
RESPOND:
Every encounter can be an opportunity for ministry if we allow God to use those moments.
When workmen come to the house for one reason or another, I figure God has given me a captive audience. I will engage them in conversation about their craft, and let it slip that I’m a preacher. And I try to be very personable, ask them about their work and family.
But quite often the conversation will turn to the “big issues” of life — good and evil, morality, marriage and divorce, the meaning of life. And that gives me a golden opportunity in a non-threatening way to make a witness by talking about my faith, and what Christ means to me.
I don’t usually have the opportunity to “close the deal” and lead them to Christ. To be honest, I’m not really great at that. But I have had the opportunity to plant seeds.
Paul himself said of the work of evangelism that it is a process. He says of his own ministry and that of another missionary named Apollos:
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).
Like Paul, I need to look for opportunities to evangelize — even if I may be annoyed, or find myself in adverse circumstances!
Lord, I pray for opportunities to share your story with others. If I only watch for them, and then engage people in conversation about their lives, those opportunities often arise. Give me the wisdom and the “want-to” so that I may bear witness to you wherever I go. Amen.
PHOTOS: "“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein" by Erin (Quotes) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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