Acts 16:16-24; 25-40
“FREED TO SET FREE!”
I don't know about you but I'm banking on the hope that God has a good sense of humor, or else I'm in a lot of trouble. Based on the acts that some of you have signed up to do at Saturday's Variety Show, I'd say I'm not alonee. Every time I see an otter at play it feels like confirmation that God loves to laugh. I'm reminded of the same when I look in the mirror. Clearly God likes to laugh! And you know what the best way to get God to laugh is? Tell him your plans! You want to do what, now?
Paul and Silas certainly experienced the truth of that. Not once but twice since starting their current mission trip, God has redirected them. They had intended on going to Asia, and when that didn't work out, to Bithynia, but as Luke noted, “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there.” (Acts 16:7)
Paul recruited his future protege, Timothy, in Lystra, and then our author, Luke, in Troas before the Fantastic Four arrived in Philippi. So why did the Holy Spirit send them to Philippi?
Why Philippi? Philippi was located near the Roman port of Neapolis, right smack in the middle of the Egnatian Way, a network of roads connecting Rome with Greece & Turkey, making it a center of trade. The city was named after Alexander the Great's father, Phillip II of Macedonia, who fortified an ancient settlement in 356 BC to control the local gold mines. It became part of the Roman Empire in 168 BC. It was here that Mark Anthony and Octavian, (Caesar Augustus), defeated and killed Julius Caesar's assassins, Cassius and Brutus. So it was a city rich with history and commerce.
In short, Philippi was a happening place, a cosmopolitan city of great influence in the growing Roman empire. It was a strategic place to plant a church as a base of operations.
But why does this matter to us? Well, because we gain some key insights here. One, we learn that if we're to be guided by the Holy Spirit we may need to chart a new course, go a different way.
Two, it's all about partnership. On his first mission it was Barnabas and John Mark. Now Paul connects with Silas, then with Timothy as well as with Luke. Together they prayed and listened for direction from the Spirit, looking for opportunities to engage those they met with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When they arrived in Philippi they head to a place where people met for prayer.
Once there, Luke writes, “we sat down to speak with some women who had gathered there.” (Acts 16:13) Wesat down, Luke writes. They did it together. We work better...together!
Three, is for the three converts who reveal a remarkable mix of race, social status, gender and age of the infant church. The first was a wealthy merchant, a single mother from Thyatira by the name of Lydia who we read about a couple of weeks ago. The second was a local Greek slave girl, Lydia's polar opposite in terms of social status, and the third was a middle-class Roman officer. These three and their families comprise an extraordinary cross section of the ancient, cosmopolitan world. With these first three converts we have three different nationalities, three different levels of status, three age groups and three very different circumstances by which they came to faith.
Here again God surprises Paul and his gospel partners. Paul's vision was of a Macedonian man seeking help, so when they show up in Philippi they head to a Jewish prayer meeting, which were always held by men for men but instead God connects Paul with a woman, and a foreigner at that!
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Christian author, Martin Bell, gave this cross-section of the church an interesting name: God's rag-tag army. “Look! Here they come – marching to the beat of a different drum, a drum beat that is off-beat. And everyone is out of step. And there! You see. The commander keeps stopping along the way to pick up one of his tiny soldiers who decided to wander off and play with a frog, or eat a lotus or whose foot got tangled in the underbrush. Some are dressed in uniform; others are dressed in rags. Some are red, others yellow, some black and others off-white. How silly they look to the on-lookers as they pass by. Yet the commander loves them..., and so the march goes on!”
(from Martin Bell's The Way of the Wolf)
That's the church in Philippi – a rag-tag army, and precisely how Christ envisioned the church – not a place where people work hard at looking good, but who are good merely by association with the one calling them to march to the off-beat of a different drum. That's who we're meant to be - a gather-ing not of religious people but relational people, who see the church as a hospital for hurting people.
That's why the church at Philippi is so key to us today. This is a vision of diversity, not of people united by race, gender, status or political opinion, but called and gathered by the Spirit of Jesus who loved on sinners of every persuasion. Born in 52 AD thru an extraordinary display of God's power and love, the church in Philippi points to something that this world, not only in the first century, but in the 21st, desperately needs! The power of the Holy Spirit was unleashed when Paul told an evil spirit tormenting a slave girl to come out of her. “Paul said to the demon within her, 'I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!' Instantly it left her.” (Acts 16:18)
They are inprisoned as a result and it's there while they're praying and singing hymns of praise that “there was a massive earthquake..., and all the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off! The jailor fell down trembling before Paul and Silas and asked, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?'” (Acts 16:26, 30) Paul and Silas aren't the only ones being set free here...!
The church in Philippi was born out of an outpouring of God's power! Many here attribute the birth or growth of their faith to some display of God's power as well... (Shawn/Ken) For others, the de-velopment of their faith was more gradual and perhaps less dramatic, like Lydia's children and those of the prison guard, who came to a point where they didn't know a time when they didn't believe in Jesus. Others, like the slave girl, were in a very dark place. Pete's path took him to a dark place, including jail time – and now look at him! The fact that these three conversion stories reflect such diversity shows it doesn't matter how you came to faith so much as you walk in the confidence that “God, who began a good work within you, will continue his work until it is finished!” (Philippians 1:6)
Lydia, a prayerful woman who, upon hearing these guys talk, realizes that there is something missing in her life. She’s a career woman long before there was such a thing. Driven by success, but burdened with an emptiness, a crack in her wall widens as “the Lord opened her heart”. (Acts 16:14)
Then there’s the slave girl in bondage to an evil spirit. She tells people their future, making a fortune for her master, tho' her real master enslaves her from the inside out! So Paul steps up to the plate and in the authority Jesus gives to those who follow his lead, slams the enemy out of the park, silencing the demonic voices that seek to confuse God's power with that of the great deceiver.'Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said, 'I command you in the name of Jesus to come out of her!' (Acts 16:18)
And just like that, she's set free. One moment the enemy has her in his clutches, and those who had exploited her to seemingly benefit their neighbors, show their true colors by resorting to violence.
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And how about the irony of the jailor’s story? Under orders to lock Paul & Silas up in stocks for the night, the guard has it easy. The prisoners look half dead already but then the walls began to shake, the lanterns go dark and the locked doors swung open off their hinges. When the dust had settled the prisoners are no longer in chains. The guard panics. He knows his life is forfeit so he draws his sword to take his own life when someone yells out, “Hey! Stop! You don't want to do it that!” (Acts 16:28)
One by one they're set free - Lydia from emotional bondage, the slave girl from spiritual captivity, and the jailor from his captivity to a false religion. As a Roman, he'd been raised with a pagan world view, that there are many gods and these gods are angry, and need to be appeased. As the chains fell from Paul & Silas' hands and feet so did the Roman guard's cultural chains!
Paul and Silas initially forego physical freedom so that this man might be eternally free, who in turn goes out on a limb by bringing them home! As Luke notes, “He brought them into his house and set a meal before them and he and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God.”
(Acts 16:34)
They no longer had to appease angry gods. Their sins had already been forgiven by the Son of the Living God. Their natural reaction of being set free from captivity, is that of joy and generosity.
These multi-faceted forms of captivity are prevalent today as well. People are entrapped in the confusion of false religions, or confined behind walls of fear, grief or anger, or held captive by demonic interference or dark thoughts. As was said over Paul and Silas upon being released so we're called to declare in prayer and praise over others so inprisoned: “Let these people go free!” (Acts 16:35)
Such is the witness of Louie Zamperini. Louie was a angry young man whose plane wound up being shot down over the Pacific Ocean during World War II. Captured by the Japanese he spent the rest of the war being tormented and brutalized in a Japanese POW camp. After the war he swore to return to exact revenge on one particularly ruthless guard nicknamed the Bird. But his anger got the best of him, leading to drinking and the collapse of his marriage. At the end of his rope he wound up at a Billy Grahm crusade where he find himself being set free from his inner captivity that, as it turns out, was even worse and far more pervasive then his POW captivity. But now he was free!
The walls of anger and resentment were gone. The nightmares faded from memory and Louie became a force to be reckoned with. He went on to launch a ministry for troubled young teenage boys in which he used his freedom to help others be set free. It's the same kind of thing we see Lydia and the Roman guard doing. Once freed they partner to help others be set free.
So how does such a thing get started? In the eve of their own liberty Paul & Silas model the perfect preparation: “Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.” (Acts 16:25)
It all began with prayer and praise. That's one reason why this is so vital - it restores our focus! Guided by Jesus' Spirit, Paul and Silas boldly engaged those in chains with a message and power of spiritual liberation. And God is still on the move today, setting people free by his Spirit, so that as in Philippi, “the chains of every prisoner (may) fall off!” (Acts 16:26) It's time to shed your shackles!
Why Philippi? Because God's on the move, then and now – setting us free from forces within and without that threaten to inprison us; because God is full of surprises, His Spirit redirecting us, because we work better together, as his rag-tag army, because freed people free people!