Review:
Romans 8:28
Good Things Come from Bad Problems:
- When you're Bothered enough to do something about your problems. (Acts 16:16-18)
- When you trust God enough to Worship during your problems. (Acts 16:19-25)
- When you Love the people are contributing to your problems. (Acts 16:26-34)
- When you Stand for others because of your problems. (Acts 16:35-40)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:12-01:15
Open up your Bibles with me to Acts chapter 16.
01:15-01:18
We're going to be picking up in verse 16.
01:19-01:22
And this is going to be our last message in the book of Acts for a while.
01:22-01:23
We're going to be taking a little bit of a break.
01:24-01:27
As you know, Christmas Q&A day, Parenting on Purpose.
01:27-01:30
We will actually be getting back to the book of Acts in February.
01:31-01:34
So, where have we been this year?
01:34-01:37
Our theme is the Unstoppable Church.
01:37-01:41
And if you've been with us for any of these messages, You see, this is the message of the book of Acts.
01:42-01:45
That Christ created this church, He built this church.
01:46-01:53
And persecution from people, the forces of hell, demons, any adversity that has come before the church.
01:56-01:57
The church has proven to be unstoppable.
01:58-02:03
And 2016, here we are, still today, the church is unstoppable.
02:03-02:04
What have we seen this fall?
02:05-02:13
Quick review, we saw in chapters 13 and 14, Paul and Barnabas took this incredible mission trip and got back for the Jerusalem Council.
02:13-02:25
Remember that in Acts 15, there were people saying, "Well, if you want to get saved, you've got to get circumcised." They're like, "Well, what do we do with this?" What about Gentiles that want to get saved, but they're not circumcised?
02:25-02:26
They have to become Jewish first.
02:28-02:35
We saw what the Scripture teaches in Acts 15, salvation is by God's grace through belief in Jesus Christ.
02:36-02:44
And after the Jerusalem Council, it was back to mission work, but Paul and Barnabas, remember, they had a big falling out over taking Mark on the next mission trip.
02:44-02:53
He bailed on the first one, and the second one, Paul's like, "No, he's not going." Barnabas says, "Yeah, I think we should take him." And they had this huge falling out.
02:54-02:59
So Barnabas took Mark with him to Cyprus, and Paul took Silas to Syria and Cilicia.
03:01-03:07
We saw that's where they picked up Timothy and Luke, and then got the vision to go to Macedonia.
03:09-03:21
On Philippi, the crew witnesses to a group of women, and one of the women, Lydia, receives Christ and invites the missionaries to stay with her.
03:24-03:25
Then things get weird.
03:27-03:29
What we're going to see today, here's the short version.
03:31-03:34
If you're in a hurry and you need to go, Here's the short version of the sermon.
03:37-03:44
This is a story of two people who were trapped by evil, but released by God.
03:45-03:52
That's why the message is called "Unstoppable and Unbound." But if you want the longer version, here it is.
03:52-04:01
You know, if you read the Bible, you notice that there are two things that God especially loves to do.
04:03-04:04
Those two things are these.
04:04-04:06
One is God loves to save people.
04:07-04:08
God loves to save people.
04:09-04:12
God loves to give eternal life to the spiritually dead.
04:12-04:13
God loves that.
04:14-04:16
God spares no expense to make that happen.
04:16-04:19
That's what the Christmas message is all about.
04:21-04:24
We're going to see God saving people in this passage.
04:25-04:27
Something else we're going to see in this passage.
04:27-04:59
else that God loves doing. God loves turning bad situations into good situations. God loves doing that. God loves to take the worst mess that you're in right now. And in His sovereignty and in His power, God loves to orchestrate things in such a way that down the road you're going to be looking in the rear view mirror and you're going to say, "That ordeal was was horrible, but God used it to bring so much good from it.
05:00-05:01
God loves doing that.
05:03-05:08
Romans 8.28, many of you probably have this verse memorized.
05:10-05:27
Paul writes, "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose." Right now I know there are some people sitting here that are like, "You know what, Jeff?" Yeah, I do know that verse.
05:28-05:31
If I can be completely honest with you, I don't see that happening in my life right now.
05:33-05:38
And being a pastor, I know, just in our conversations, I know the things that you struggle with.
05:39-05:43
I know the trials that many of you are going through right now.
05:45-05:50
And if we're honest, sometimes, I'm self-included.
05:52-05:57
I can look at the trials that I go through and think, what good is possibly going to come out of this?
05:58-05:59
Why would God allow this?
06:02-06:05
I don't really see the good happening in my life.
06:07-06:08
Well, here's the bad news.
06:08-06:10
You can't make it happen.
06:11-06:16
You can't say, okay, well, life's given me lemons, so I'm going to make lemonade.
06:16-06:20
You really can't make that happen, But here's the good news.
06:20-06:23
You can put yourself in a position to see God make it happen.
06:24-06:25
That's the good news today.
06:27-06:32
For many of us, for most of us, maybe, dare I say, for all of us, we're in circumstances that we cannot change.
06:33-06:35
We can't change our circumstances.
06:37-06:41
We can't make good come from bad.
06:41-06:50
But you can - I'm going to say this again so we're clear - you can put yourself in a position God make it happen.
06:51-06:57
If you're still not sure what I mean, I think you're going to see it very clearly here in just a few moments.
06:58-07:06
On your outline, the heading is "Good things come from bad problems." Good things come from bad problems.
07:08-07:10
When does that happen?
07:11-07:15
What can I do to put myself in a position to see God at work?
07:15-07:17
Good things come from bad problems.
07:17-07:21
Number one - jot this down - You're bothered enough to do something about your problems.
07:22-07:23
I'm going to show you what I mean here.
07:24-07:26
Look at verse 16.
07:27-07:48
It says, "And as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling." Actually, in the Greco-Roman world, fortune-telling was big business.
07:48-07:57
You know that in the Greco-Roman world, all of the emperors and military leaders had their favorite fortune tellers.
07:57-08:00
And they wouldn't do anything without consulting a fortune teller.
08:01-08:06
For an emperor to make a decision that would affect his citizens, you've got to talk to the fortune teller.
08:08-08:16
For a military leader to go into battle or to plan a strategy, you've got to consult the fortune teller.
08:16-08:18
The leaders all used them.
08:18-08:22
So this girl, as we'll see, she would have been a gold mine to her owners.
08:23-08:24
This wasn't some charlatan thing.
08:25-08:30
This wasn't some speak-in-general terms that covers everybody.
08:31-08:33
She was actually possessed by an evil spirit.
08:35-08:37
And do I believe that stuff still happens today?
08:38-08:41
You better believe that stuff still happens today.
08:43-08:44
Look at verse 17.
08:44-08:58
says, "She followed Paul and us, crying out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, "who proclaim to you the way of salvation." Wow, cool, right?
08:59-08:59
No.
09:00-09:01
Like, well, wait a second.
09:01-09:07
Looking at just her message, just looking at her message, these men are servants of the Most High God, is that true?
09:08-09:08
Yeah, that's true.
09:09-09:12
And who proclaimed to you the way of salvation, is that true?
09:12-09:13
Yeah, that's true.
09:13-09:15
So what's the problem here?
09:16-09:17
What's the harm?
09:19-09:25
You see, Satan wanted everyone to think that she was with the missionaries.
09:26-09:27
She was on their team.
09:29-09:33
What that does is that discredits the gospel of Jesus Christ.
09:35-09:36
Let me give you an illustration.
09:36-09:39
Years ago, I had a guy contact me.
09:39-09:41
He said he wanted to get involved in prison ministry.
09:41-10:13
back when we were very heavily involved in prison ministry every week on multiple pods and he said, "I want to go with you to the prison." I'm like, "All right." So we went to lunch with the guy. We got to talk, got to know. He says, "Yeah, one of the things I want to tell... I want to get in there and I want to tell the inmates what a wonderful religion Islam is." I'm like, "What? Like, what are you talking about?" He goes, "Yeah, I want to tell people, you know, Islam's such a a wonderful religion of peace and it's a lot like Christianity that way.
10:13-10:27
And I'm like, "What are you talking about?" He's like, "Well, you have a problem with that?" I said, "I have a big problem with that." He's like, "Why?" And I said, "Because there's a huge difference between Christianity and Islam.
10:28-10:37
Islam says you have to sacrifice your son to make the God happy, but Christianity says God sacrificed His son for you.
10:38-11:06
difference. Work salvation versus grace salvation. Huge difference. Okay? So, no, I'm not cool with you going in and saying Islam is a wonderful religion of peace. He says, "Okay, you tell me what to say and I'll say it." And I said, "It's not going to work that way." I said, "It was a pleasure to meet you. With all due respect, we are not on the same page here at all.
11:07-11:15
"Well, why can't I go in with you?" I said, "Because what happens if I get the flu, and you have to go in by yourself, and I have no idea what you're telling the people?" I said, "No.
11:16-11:18
I'll just tell them what you want me to say." I said, "No.
11:19-11:24
If you're going in, and here's the thing, if you're going in, I want you to be with us, okay?
11:25-11:29
I want you to preach the same message because you're on the team with us.
11:30-11:38
But in this situation, you have little, you know, demon girl that's proclaiming a message, but she wasn't with them.
11:39-11:44
And do you see how that could be confusing for people that God wanted to reach in this area?
11:45-11:52
Like he's wanting to reach them with the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, but now all of a sudden we have like weird fortune telling demon girl also is on the team.
11:52-11:53
Like what's going on here?
11:54-11:56
So yeah, this was a huge problem.
11:58-12:01
Paul did not need the endorsement from hell.
12:02-12:04
And you know, Jesus had the same attitude.
12:04-12:06
Remember that way back when we were in the Gospel of Mark?
12:06-12:16
Remember the demons were like, "You're the son of the most high God!" And Jesus is like, "Ed, shut up." He didn't want the demons giving the endorsement.
12:17-12:18
He doesn't need that.
12:19-12:21
Okay, same thing is happening here.
12:22-12:25
The verse 18, I love this passage.
12:26-12:32
It says, "And this she kept doing for many days." You can probably guess what's coming next.
12:32-12:37
Okay, little demon girls following him around like, you know, "He deserves the most high God "and to claim me the way of salvation.
12:37-12:40
"He deserves the most high God "and to claim me the way of salvation." For days.
12:41-12:43
So how do you think Paul felt after a few days of this?
12:45-12:47
Probably exactly what the Bible said, right?
12:47-12:53
Look at the next, it says, "Paul, having become greatly annoyed." Scale of one to 10, how annoyed do you think he was?
12:55-12:55
Right, exactly.
12:56-12:57
(sobbing)
12:57-12:58
Just shut up!
12:59-12:59
Shut up!
13:01-13:14
Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirits, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ "to come out of her!" And it came out that very hour.
13:17-13:21
Look, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed here.
13:23-13:28
It looks like Paul's motivation for driving this demon out of the girl was what?
13:30-13:31
Did you catch that too?
13:32-13:38
It wasn't like, "For the sake of righteousness, I'm going to exercise the demon.
13:39-13:55
For the sake of a witness, I'm going to drive out the demon." It just looks like to me, Paul drove the demon out just because he was annoyed with her.
13:56-13:57
She was getting on his nerves.
13:58-14:00
Actually, the demon was getting on his nerves.
14:00-14:04
And before we start criticizing, I don't want you to miss the forest for the trees here.
14:06-14:07
That's simply this.
14:09-14:11
The missionaries actually did something about their problem.
14:13-14:15
You see, they could have just complained, right?
14:15-14:48
Because that's the route that we often take problems, isn't it? Instead of seeking the Lord, instead of asking for prayer, instead of using our spiritual resources - they had spiritual resources certainly as apostles to drive out demons - instead of using our spiritual resources, or even being bothered enough to try to do something to help alleviate the Complaining for many of us, for most of us, often becomes the default mode.
14:50-14:56
It becomes the easiest thing to do, and for a lot of us it's the preferred thing to do.
14:57-15:00
We have a problem, we just like to complain about it.
15:01-15:02
And Paul certainly could have complained.
15:03-15:04
Could you imagine that?
15:04-15:38
Every day, talking to Silas, "When will she shut up?" And going down to the place of prayer where Lydia and the ladies were meeting, and how are you doing today Paul? Oh it's miserable. We got like this evil spirit involved girl she just never shuts up. So whatever you think about Paul's motives you have to notice in the passage at least he used his resources to do something about the problem. So my question for you is do you want to see good come from your problems? You want to see good come from your problems?
15:39-15:42
Well, here's a general reminder for you.
15:43-15:46
No good ever comes from complaining.
15:49-15:54
You can either complain about your financial problems or you can get some financial counseling.
15:55-15:59
You can either complain about your spouse or you can commit yourself afresh to invest in your marriage.
16:01-16:06
You can either complain about your job or you can do what you can to make it a better work environment.
16:06-16:12
The good always comes to the person who's bothered enough to take action.
16:14-16:18
Not just sitting on my couch complaining, but moving forward by faith.
16:19-16:23
Good things come from bad problems, first of all, when you're bothered enough to do something about them.
16:26-16:35
Number two, good things come from bad problems when you trust God enough to worship during your problems.
16:36-16:39
When you trust God enough to worship during your problems.
16:39-16:40
Look at verse 19.
16:41-16:58
It says, "But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers." Let's not gloss over this too quickly, okay?
17:00-17:08
This little girl - Not these guys, they're referred to as her what?
17:09-17:10
Her owners.
17:12-17:13
This was somebody's daughter.
17:14-17:16
And they were using her.
17:18-17:19
This is cruel.
17:21-17:22
They were using her to make money.
17:25-17:27
They had no care for her.
17:29-17:31
She was their paycheck.
17:31-17:35
And she would have been a big paycheck because again, these weren't charlatans.
17:36-17:44
These were people using the forces of demonic wickedness to get the job done.
17:46-17:50
So this poor, this child is delivered.
17:50-17:55
This child who's been suffering from this evil spirit is delivered for the first time in her life.
17:55-17:59
And instead of much rejoicing, these people are thoroughly ticked off.
18:01-18:02
There goes our money.
18:03-18:04
You know what it's like?
18:05-18:13
Remember also, going back to the gospel, Mark, remember the guy, the demoniac that was in the tombs and they called him Legion, because he had all those demons?
18:14-18:14
You remember that story?
18:15-18:17
And Jesus, when he drove the demons out, where did Jesus send the demons?
18:18-18:18
Do you remember?
18:19-18:20
A bunch of pigs, right?
18:20-18:23
And the pigs go running down the cliff, rum-rum-rum, can you see that in your mind?
18:23-18:26
Like, into the water, and they all die.
18:27-18:29
And what was the reaction of the people?
18:30-18:33
"Yay, Jesus, we've been scared of the boogeyman of the tombs!
18:33-18:35
Thank you!" What was their reaction?
18:37-18:37
"Can you leave?
18:39-18:45
That was our source of income, and you just wiped them out." That's kind of what's going on here.
18:45-18:51
Instead of celebrating God at work, it's lamenting, "There goes my money.
18:54-19:00
It's horrible." And it says they, see verse 19, It says they dragged him into the marketplace before the rulers.
19:00-19:03
The marketplace was like the public square.
19:03-19:06
It would have been the social center of the city.
19:06-19:13
It would have been shopping and food, but it also would have been things like courts and legal proceedings.
19:15-19:21
Verse 20 says, "When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, 'These men are Jews.
19:22-19:28
They are disturbing our city.' The magistrates of every Roman colony had two of them.
19:29-19:31
But I want you to see the accusation again.
19:31-19:32
Don't gloss over it too quickly.
19:33-19:34
Look at the accusation.
19:35-19:36
Look at the first thing they said.
19:37-19:38
These men are what?
19:39-19:40
These men are Jews.
19:40-19:41
What's going on here?
19:42-19:44
I would suggest to you this is anti-Semitism.
19:46-19:52
You notice only Paul and Silas were grabbed and not - like what happened to Luke and Timothy?
19:53-19:57
I believe that they weren't grabbed because they weren't Jewish.
19:58-19:59
Timothy was half.
20:01-20:02
Luke was a Gentile.
20:03-20:05
But you see, they drag them.
20:07-20:09
And what's the problem here?
20:09-20:10
The magistrates, what's the problem?
20:10-20:14
First thing they say, this is like blatant racism.
20:14-20:17
Like, what's the problem?
20:18-20:20
Obviously, we have a problem because they're Jews.
20:21-20:22
You know how Jews are.
20:25-20:25
Horrible.
20:26-20:27
Horrible.
20:28-20:29
And then they just lie.
20:30-20:30
OK.
20:31-20:33
What was the next thing they say?
20:33-20:36
Oh, these men are Jews and they are disturbing our city.
20:39-20:40
Bit of an overstatement, do you think?
20:42-20:44
They weren't disturbing the city, OK?
20:46-20:48
But whatever we can do to get the magistrate's attention, right?
20:49-20:57
Verse 21, they continue, "They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.
20:59-21:14
The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods." No legal proceedings here, just brutality.
21:15-21:48
you know how much the past year we seen in the news videos of police brutality there is nothing new under the sun that's exactly what's happening here their proceedings no court trial no nothing it's just we have a problem with these guys and the police beat them with rods when they had inflicted many blows upon them They threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.
21:49-21:55
Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stalks.
21:57-21:59
In other words, maximum security.
21:59-22:02
That's what he called for, maximum security.
22:05-22:07
So at this point, they're in prison.
22:08-22:09
They would have been beaten.
22:10-22:20
I was reading this week, the stalks were actually designed to spread your legs out as far as they could go, and then maybe a little bit further, it was torture.
22:21-22:23
And the goal was to keep you from sleeping.
22:25-22:27
That's what they did to Paul and Silas.
22:27-22:31
So no sleep, beaten, legs spread out in stalks.
22:33-22:35
Here comes the complaining and the pity party, right?
22:36-22:38
Here comes the "why don't you just curse God and die," right?
22:38-22:39
Look at verse 25.
22:39-22:47
About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
22:50-22:51
What do you think they were singing?
22:53-22:54
The Bible doesn't say, but I have a guess.
22:55-22:58
My guess is they were singing "Jailbreak." How many people think that's the song they were singing?
23:01-23:04
"Glory, glory, hallelujah." I bet you they were singing that.
23:05-23:07
And Silas is like, "What are you going to sing now?" Don't break again, man!
23:09-23:10
I don't know.
23:10-23:11
I don't know.
23:13-23:14
Here's something I do know from this passage.
23:16-23:19
Praise must not depend on your circumstances.
23:20-23:23
Praise must not depend on your circumstances.
23:23-23:27
Philippians 4.4 says, "Rejoice in the Lord always." Again I will say, rejoice.
23:28-23:35
And if you're looking for some problem-free chapter in your life to praise God, you're You're never going to praise God.
23:37-23:42
You're looking for some, you know, problem-free portion of your life.
23:42-23:45
Like, now I can worship God because my life is good.
23:46-23:47
You're never going to get there.
23:49-23:56
Because here's the thing, we don't rejoice in circumstances.
23:57-23:59
We rejoice in God.
24:01-24:02
We rejoice in His sovereignty.
24:03-24:05
We rejoice in His promises.
24:06-24:07
We rejoice in His goodness.
24:09-24:11
Somebody now is saying, really?
24:11-24:13
That's the good that came from the problem?
24:14-24:20
Pastor Jeff, you told me good stuff was going to come from my problems, and you're saying this is the good that came from the problem?
24:22-24:23
It absolutely is.
24:23-24:44
And if you're thinking that, I just want to challenge you to first of all, number one, get a deeper understanding of worship If you don't understand why they were worshiping, and the impact that that had on them, and on the other prisoners, we're going to talk about those guys in a second, you need to get a deeper understanding of worship.
24:46-24:57
The greatest commandment in the law, Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with your heart, soul, mind, and strength." Part of our worship has to include loving God with our emotions.
24:58-25:01
and understand worship is the way that that happens.
25:02-25:06
That's why we start our services with a half hour of worship.
25:07-25:09
It is loving God with our emotions.
25:09-25:10
That's why God gave us music.
25:11-25:16
It lets us love Him from our hearts in an emotional sense.
25:18-25:20
I experienced this on Friday.
25:20-25:24
I had the worst week.
25:26-26:10
the worst week of 2016. And in the landscape of my life it was definitely in the top five. Horrible week this past week. Friday I had a meeting and I got there a little early and I was sitting in my car and just I was just feeling so like at the boiling point with some of these issues that I was dealing with with mostly kid-related issues, and specifically autism-related issues, and no sleep and a week of just-- I don't want to be a downer.
26:10-26:11
I'm not going to tell you what happened.
26:13-26:22
But I just sat there in my car with this crushing just-- I don't know how much more of this I can take.
26:22-26:23
Have you ever been there?
26:23-26:24
Have you ever been there?
26:24-26:24
Let's be honest.
26:25-26:26
Put your hand up if you've been there.
26:26-26:31
If you've been to the place of, "I don't know how much more of this I can take." I was so there on Friday.
26:33-26:39
And I pulled in, like I said, I was early for my meeting and I just, I pulled out my phone and put it on YouTube.
26:39-26:54
And there's a song that's based on Revelation 21 five, where Jesus said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And I just played that on my phone.
26:54-26:57
And I sat in my car and I sang that song.
26:58-27:01
And I'm sure it wasn't very good, but I wasn't singing it for people.
27:02-27:03
It was to God.
27:04-27:13
But all the effect that that had on me to sing this glorious truth that things aren't always going to be this way.
27:16-27:20
The promise is He is going to make all things new.
27:20-27:41
in that moment, worshiping, singing, engaging where I was hurting the most in my emotions, engaging my emotions in worship to God, singing the promise that He has made, changed everything.
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Well, it didn't change my circumstances, okay? It's not like the autism fairy came and took it or something. It didn't change that. You can laugh. It's okay. It didn't change that.
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But what did it change? It changed me. You need to have a deeper understanding of worship. That's why God gave us this gift of worship. Also look at verse 25 again. Look at verse 25.
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It says, "They were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." The point is this, people are watching how you handle trials.
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People are watching.
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They want to know what good your faith is.
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What good is it to trust the Lord in hard times?
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That's what people want to see.
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They don't want to see you like detached from reality and yeah, I worship God, but you really You really don't know what it's like to experience hardship.
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They're not interested in that.
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What they want to see is, does your faith encourage you and comfort you and sustain you in the hardest times?
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And in this case, it resulted in the testimony that God used for the unsaved.
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We're going to look at that here in a couple of minutes.
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The point is this, so much good comes to you and comes to others when you choose to worship during your problems.
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During.
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During your problems.
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Paul and Silas knew that.
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Good things come from bad problems when you're bothered enough to do something about your problems.
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Number two, when you trust God enough to worship during your problems.
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Number three, good things come from bad problems when you love the people who are contributing to your problems.
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When you love the people who are contributing to your problems.
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You verse 26, this horrible day's about to turn around right here.
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And suddenly there was a great earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bonds were unfastened.
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God's done prison breaks before, right?
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In Acts 5, Acts 12.
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Here we go again.
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Last time, Acts 12, God used an angel.
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Now God used an earthquake.
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So it's kind of like supernatural, natural.
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It's all God. It's all God.
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Kind of like healing.
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If God touches you and heals you, God gets credit and glory for that, right?
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If you go to the doctor, and the doctors and nurses use their medical expertise in the medicine, who gets credit for the healing?
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That's still God, right?
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So whether it's natural or supernatural, it's all God.
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Same thing here.
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The same God that did the jailbreak for Peter did it for them.
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He just likes to change it up a bit.
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That's okay, right?
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He's God.
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He does what He wants.
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Look at v. 27.
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"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.
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But Paul cried with a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." Losing a prisoner meant you die.
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Right, that was the downside of the job.
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Pay was decent, retirement was decent.
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Here's one thing that wasn't decent about being a jailer.
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If an inmate escapes, that means you have to die.
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So why did the other inmates stay?
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I would think that, you know, and I've been in jail a lot, but I would think that if the walls came down and the doors were open and the bonds fell off, that they would just bolt.
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Why did they stay?
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Again, verse 25, they stayed because they were listening to Paul and Silas.
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And somehow in the same way, this jailer knew that Paul and Silas were somehow tied to whatever just happened, and they were greatly impacted by their testimony.
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Can you get the scene?
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Business as usual at the jail, except we have these two nut jobs in this one cell, and they're They're just like singing and singing and singing and singing and singing.
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And next thing you know, the prison crumbles and everybody's handcuffs are off.
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They're like, "I think there's a connection here." Right?
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He totally got that.
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Totally got the connection.
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Look at verse 29, it says, "And the jailer called for the lights and rushed in.
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He's trembling with fear.
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He fell down before Paul and Silas.
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Then he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" He got the connection.
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You're singing to your God.
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Okay, I get it now.
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What must I do to be saved?
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Verse 31, "And they said, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household." There it is again.
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Are you saved?
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Not some list of rules, not keep the Ten Commandments, not obey the sacraments of the church or whatever.
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What did he say?
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It's about belief in Jesus Christ.
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He says, "You will be saved, you and your household," meaning this promise is for everybody.
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This promise is for everybody.
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Everybody who believes in Jesus Christ will be saved.
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"They spoke the word of the Lord to him and all who were in the house.
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And he took them that same hour of the night and washed their wounds.
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And he was baptized at once." He and all his family.
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"Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them, and he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God." Well, that's the exact same message from last week, right?
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Baptized, hospitality, serving, all signs of transformation.
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But if we can, for just a second, can you put yourself in Paul and Silas' place?
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Put yourself in their place.
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You're in this dungeon, and your legs are in these stalks designed to make it maximum discomfort so that you're unable to sleep, you're hurting - oh, by the way, cops just beat you with rods that's still stinging and now all of the sudden the shackles are off the doors are open let's be honest how eager would you have been to minister to that jailer let's be honest I'm just gonna be honest with you I would have been tempted to make a rude gesture and say so long sucker and I I would have been like Fred Flintstone.
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I would have jumped up in the air about 2 1/2 feet.
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My legs would have turned into wheels and I would have hit the ground running.
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If that was me, I would like to think that God would convict me otherwise if I was ever in that position.
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But you see my point.
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A lot of times we deal with problems and people are connected to the problems.
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Here's the danger, church.
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Sometimes we think that the people problem. Sometimes we think, well, the people are the problem. We were talking about this at small group on Thursday, and Ben Murphy was just like, yeah, totally get that. Like the cop that pulls you over, right? I've talked to a lot of people that have been pulled over by the cops. I, too, have been pulled over by the cops on maybe more than one occasion. I've never heard people say, "That cop was so nice. I got his cell phone number. We're getting together and playing shoes and ladders next week. He was cool. Never heard that. You know what I've heard many times? That stupid jerk cop was such a jerk. He was mean. He didn't speak to me in a friendly manner.
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I hear that. Like it's the cop's fault. But we have a tendency to do that, don't we? We People might be the victim of the enemy, but people themselves are not the enemy.
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How many of us would have been vindictive, or at least indifferent, and Paul and Silas stopped and ministered to the very jailer, keeping them locked up?
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I don't imagine he was very kind and gentle with them at this point.
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Church, loving your enemy sounds great on paper, but it is much harder in action.
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This was an obvious and incredible evangelism opportunity.
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In what other scenario would this jailer have come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?
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Is there another scenario?
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Obviously, these were the first missionaries in town.
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There are a few baby Christians now.
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In what other scenario would this jailer have come to know Christ?
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In the same way, when you take the time to love the people who look like they're part of the problem, you're going to see good things come from an otherwise bad situation.
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Meaning that co-worker who's been a real pain, maybe instead of seeing that co-worker as enemy may be seeing a co-worker as an opportunity to love them, a minister to them. Maybe that family member that you dread seeing this Christmas. Right now somebody's face came to your mind. Shame on you. That family member you're like, "Oh, we got to go to so-and-so's house and Aunt so-and-so's gonna be there. I want to Maybe if you love the people who are contributing to your problems, you're going to see God do some good things.
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Maybe that neighbor who seems to have the personal mission to annoy you.
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Like, I'm sure that my neighbor has a mission statement drafted and notarized on his wall.
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It is my life's goal to annoy him at every turn Not my neighbors.
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I sure hope that they don't think that I'm that neighbor.
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But instead of seeing them as the enemy, when you love the people who are contributing to your problems, you're going to see God do good things.
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Finally, number four, you're going to see things go from bad to good.
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when you stand for others because of your problems.
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Look at verse 35.
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"But when it was day, the magistrate sent the police, saying, 'Let those men go.'" Why? I don't know. The Bible doesn't say.
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Were they like freaked out by the earthquake or change of heart? It just doesn't say.
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They've suffered enough? I don't know.
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So the jailer, verse 36, "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.' So the jailer's like, 'Hey, good news, brand new BFF.
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You guys are free to go.'" You know how the rest of the story goes, right?
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Paul's like, "Great, thanks.
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See ya." This is where the story takes a little bit of an unexpected twist.
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I'm thinking of verse 37.
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"But Paul said to them, 'They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens and have thrown us into prison.
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And do they now throw us out secretly?'" Now, Bible doesn't give us tone of voice, but I am sure that was how Paul said no right there.
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How do you think he said it?
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Go ahead, shout it out.
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"No!" That's how I hear it in my mind when I read this.
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Let them come themselves and take us out.
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"Dude, you were just granted a pardon.
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What's going on here?" I was like, "No, no, no, no, no.
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It's not going down that way.
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Tell them to come down here, and they are personally going to hold our hands and walk us out." What?
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Verse 38, "The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid," here it is, "they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens." Uh-oh.
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"So they came and apologized to them, and took them out, and asked them to leave the city." What's going on here?
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Well, when they found out they were Roman citizens, they realized that they just made That was a huge mistake.
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Because for these magistrates to have the police beat Roman citizens without a reason and without a trial, that was really bad news.
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Because if word would have got back, they would have lost their jobs.
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You beat citizens without a trial?
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You locked them in prison for no reason?
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God have gone well for them.
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So you see the change in their tone.
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They come down and they're like, "We are so sorry.
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We are so sorry.
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Would you please leave now?
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Would you pretty please leave now?" So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia.
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When they'd seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
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Why didn't Paul just leave?
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You know, we had a sermon a few weeks ago talking about surrendering your rights.
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So why did Paul make such an issue here?
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The answer is, it wasn't for Paul.
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It wasn't even about Paul.
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The reason he was making such an issue - this was for Lydia.
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This was for the jailer.
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This was for those in the jailer's household This was for others who would eventually come to Christ.
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This was about protecting other future believers.
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As in, think twice before you abuse them.
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You kind of got caught up in the moment, you kind of got all hasty, and now you're sweating bullets like, "Oh my gosh, what have we done? What have we done?" Paul was making them sweat it out.
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Because he knew there were a group of baby Christians that if these magistrates and these rulers and these police thought that you could just kick the Christians anytime you felt like it, it was going to be very hard for the gospel to spread and grow in this brand new territory.
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But Paul's like, "No, let's nip this in the bud.
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You're not going to treat Christians like that." There's a very important principle here, and that is this.
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Paul and Silas went through some very serious stuff, and now they want to stand for others so that they might not have to. It's like the former alcoholic who comes to Christ and is sober and now has a heart to minister to who?
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Other people who are struggling with addiction. It's like the person that was abused as a child that is now in a position where they want to stand for other children who are facing abuse.
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It's like the person that grew up in a horrible neighborhood, and now they want to go back to that very neighborhood and make life better for the kids that are still living there. This is some of the greatest and I would say most common good that comes out of trials.
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These are warriors that have survived the fight and they now become advocates with the experience and the memory of the pain, but the motivation to act and the knowledge of how to help because they overcame the same trial.
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These are the people that make the devil regret ever messing with them.
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The devil thinks they went through these trials broken down while they overcome by the power of Christ and now they're ministering to others and the devil is just like man that backfired much good can come from much bad looking at this story Paul and Silas were arrested they were accused they were beaten half to death they were in prison how many people would say that was a bad day. Well maybe that part, but look at what came from it. A little girl was delivered from the demonic influence. An entire household was saved and future Christians were protected. It was a pretty good day at the office. As I close, and I know we went over time here a but I gave you your opportunity to leave a long time ago.
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But if you still have doubts that God brings much good for much bad, I just want you to turn back a few pages in your Bible to Acts chapter 2.
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See, this is my constant reminder.
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This is the passage that I constantly go back to when I say, "Can God possibly bring good for my trials?" This answers it forever.
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Acts 2.22 says, "Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.
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As you yourselves know, this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
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God raised him up, losing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
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Here's the thing, if you're ever wondering, can God take your trial and bring something good from it?
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The answer is always going to be yes, because here's the proof.
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God took the absolute worst thing that's ever happened in the history of the world, and he turned it into the absolute best thing that ever happened in the history of the world.
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The worst thing that ever happened in the history of the world, what was it?
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God Himself came to His people, and we beat Him, and we spit on Him, and we pulled out His beard, and we stripped Him, and we nailed Him to a cross.
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We rejected the God who created us.
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That's the worst thing that's ever happened.
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It was through that that God made payment for my sin.
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God made payment for your sin by putting our sin on Jesus Christ.
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God took the worst thing that ever happened, and He made it the best thing that ever happened.
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If God can do that, do you still have doubts that God can take whatever it is that you're going through and ultimately use it to bring much good?
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As I was looking at this passage, I was thinking about Jesus, you know, all of these points apply to Jesus Christ.
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Look at them in reverse order, look at your outline.
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Number four, for example, when you stand for others because of your problems, did Jesus do that?
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The Bible says He's a high priest who sympathizes with our weakness.
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He was tempted in every way, yet was without sin.
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So Jesus did that. He stood for us because we couldn't stand for ourselves.
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Number three, you love people who are contributing to your problems.
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Does that apply to Jesus?
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The Bible says He loved us while we were yet enemies.
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Number two, when you trust God enough to worship during your problems.
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The Bible says Jesus, while He was suffering, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.
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Even in the worst of times, Jesus was praying for us and crying out to His Father while on the cross.
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Then number one, when you're bothered enough to do something about the problem.
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Did God do something about the problem? He did. It's called Christmas.
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We're going to talk about that on Saturday.
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Father in heaven, every single one of us are going through something right now.
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It might seem like apples and oranges when we compare.
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But Father, we don't compare.
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Because to each one of us, our problems, our trials, they are ours.
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And they are constantly glaring us in the face and staring us down.
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And they're a huge deal to us.
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that your word makes a crystal clear and rock solid promise that you work all things for good.
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All things for good.
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For those who love you and are called according to your purpose.
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Yeah, we might not see that today.
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I'm sure Paul and Silas might have been wondering what that was going to look like while they were still chained to the wall.
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But like them, if we are willing to hold on, if we're willing to worship, if we're willing to seek You, if we're willing to invest ourselves in others and for others, we're going to see You do amazing things.
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Father, I pray for a spirit of steadfastness, a spirit of perseverance.
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Give us eyes to see, Father, what you are doing.
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Give us memories to recall what you have done.
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And while we're going through this trial, Father, let us commit now to worship.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 16:16-40
Why did the slave girl's message annoy Paul, since her message was Biblically true (Acts 16:17-18)?
Why did God use an angel for a previous prison break, but used an earthquake here (Acts 16:26)? What does this tell you about how God works?
*Do hard circumstances cause YOU to worship or avoid God (Acts 16:25)? Why?
Why didn’t the other prisoners run when the earthquake freed them (Acts 16:28)? What does this say about the power of your testimony regarding the people who surround YOU? How are you doing in the area of letting people see your faith lived out?
Why did Paul demand the magistrate come down personally (Acts 16:37-39)? What trial have you faced that that drives you to look out for others in similar trials?
Breakout Questions:
Have you been patient, gentle, and forbearing in your relationships this week (spouse, children, friends, co-workers)? Where could you have done better? How will you improve?