Powers and Praises.

He's going to bless us with his word today. We've been going through the book of Acts. My name is Sean and I'm here with Christy. I do encourage you if you ever have prayer requests during that announcement time, just put those in. We're praying for those week by week, day by day. There's a whole team of people that will pray with you on those.

I want you to open up your Bibles to Acts 16 if you have them or your phone. The plan of our Acts series is going to land because once you get into Acts 17, 18, 19, you start to get into a whole other part of a missionary journey of Paul and Silas. This is what we're going to make our final part of this section of Acts that we're going through because we're ready to go into Colossians. I really encourage you to go through that guide. It's a wonderful resource.

Father, holy is your name. Thank you for your blessing on us as your children, just like you blessed Jackson. You're blessing us now. You're giving us strength. We sang about that, Lord. Weak made strong in your love today, Lord we receive your strength. Lord, we look forward to what you by your Spirit now will unfold to us. Thank you, Lord. Our hearts are open. We receive you.

I titled this "Powers and Praises." Usually we ask, what is God saying in the midst of this text that we're about to look at. So, what is the power of salvation and obedience? What power came to your life or to my life to draw us into even a desire to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength? How can that translate into the same obedience that we're about to see with Paul and Silas, that we see with Lydia, that we see with Jesus himself to the Father, where he submitted to the Father to the point where he said, I can only say what I hear my Father, what I see my Father doing. This is a mission to the Father and obedience to the Father as we go through our walk with the Lord.

There's a saying that's foundational to this concept of receiving him and his power. Let's say this together, just the left part: "Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit." It's not our might. It's not our power, but his Spirit. Luke is going to make this very clear from the very beginning of the book of Acts.

In Acts 1:8, it says you shall receive power, dunamis or dynamite, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You will be my witnesses. Martyr is the word that's used there. Witnesses, even some of them to the point of death. In Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. This week as I'm walking around town and I'm looking at all the different people and the beauty of our city, the faces and the lives that I saw, walking through the city, biking through the city, praying through the city, sitting with people and talking with people here in this town, I'm thinking about Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.

What is God's heart for this person that I'm walking by? What is God's heart for this person that I'm sitting next to on this dock? What does he want to do through his dunamis, through his power in my life to touch this person? Is there anything, Lord? Is there anything you want me to live out like they lived out? It's not by my might, not by what I know, not by my power. In their case, military or social power. They were saying it's not that. It's the kingdom of God coming in seed form and growing into the largest tree. But by my Spirit, says the Lord.

The Spirit leads us to and through

Let's get right into Acts 16 now. I'm going to have it up here so you can see it and hear it together.

Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved." She kept this up for many days.

Acts 16:16-18

They're being led, Paul and Silas, around this city by the Spirit of God, but they have a trailer, they have somebody along with them, who is saying at various intervals, telling you how to be saved. It would be like if you were to talk to somebody or to just pray for somebody or bless somebody, there would be somebody behind me going, "This man is here and he wants to tell you a blessing from God on how to be saved." I would actually, for a while, be very thankful for that because then I wouldn't have to say a thing to anybody. I don't have to break the ice. I just say, yep, what she said. Would you like any of this?

But God leads us to these places where these encounters are going to happen. This girl had what's called a python spirit in the Greek. It's a snake spirit. That's what the oracle at Delphi had, and it would predict the future or tell what's going on. This slave girl had that same spirit and she was able to do that continuously. Paul is going to have in his personality a place of pressure on this. There's going to be a pressing upon Paul as this girl continuously says this.

So far we've seen, leading up to this, different places where the Lord has led Paul and Silas to get to Philippi, to even start the trip to that part of Europe. There was a vision that Paul had and it was a man crying out from a place called Macedonia, saying, "Come and help us." The Spirit of God had said no three times before that. No, you can't go here. No, you can't go here. No, you can't go there. Finally, Paul just goes to sleep and he gets this vision. It's a man of Macedonia saying, "Come and help us." They said, that's it. We're going to Macedonia.

Then they went to a river when they came to the town of Philippi to pray because there was no synagogue. There wasn't a lot of Jews in that city, so they hadn't built a place of worship. There was a faithful worshiper named Lydia who met them there. They gave the gospel to her and she believed and she became the house church, the host for them. Now they're in the marketplace. They're coming out from the house church and going into the marketplace. They're seeking to share, and they meet the slave girl with the spirit.

I just want to show you: this is how the Lord will sometimes lead you in his gospel.

Through the power of the Spirit now comes freedom

Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit of Jesus Christ, "I command you to come out of her." At that moment, the Spirit left her. Freedom. One of the faces God had for Paul to see and to meet was this girl because the Lord wanted her free. There was compassion that rises up in the Lord's heart. And then he put it into Paul's heart as kind of an annoyance. Isn't that interesting? Here this annoyance in Paul, and God is using that.

God will annoy you, you know, to move you. The church at Philippi had begun in prayer, the place of prayer at the river, then a saving grace to Lydia and her household. Now, even using the anointing of Paul, the Spirit of Christ casts out the snake. And then faith is rooted in dunamis, in the power. That same power gives strength for Matthew 5:11.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Matthew 5:11-12

From this one event is going to come a great persecution personally to Paul and to Silas. They're going to walk out something that Jesus is prophesying and leading them into an obedience by his Spirit in this context. He's doing this in order that Lydia's faith and the new church's faith might not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. This miracle has happened so that they might have a root put deep down in their hearts. Lydia sees it. Her household sees it. The whole church community that's growing sees it and they say, this is the power.

Jesus says, "Jews demand signs. I preach Christ crucified." It's the power of God to save you. His power. The cross and the resurrection are coming to bear in the words of Paul saying, "In the name of Jesus, I command you to come out of her." And then the power of the gospel sets her free.

I put this together to show the progression. First they're coming into a city. They find a place of prayer. They're building culture. The enemy is like a black line in the middle, a black arrow. That's like the kingdoms are colliding now in Philippi. The kingdom of light is coming, and there has been a kingdom of darkness there where there's been idol worship and bondage for the slave girl and others we're going to meet. But in the middle of that is this arrow of the resistance of the kingdom of darkness.

A worshiper gets the full gospel and is baptized. Something could be going on here. Fellowship begins at the home. Teaching starts. The gospel of God and his ways and his wisdom are growing. The enemy is coming up, bucking up. He says, oh, well, something's happening here. There's a stirring. And then here comes the light and darkness. The Spirit is cast out and the economy of idolatry is now threatened. Now it's gone from a question mark into an exclamation point. There is going to be a tangible resistance now, a real-life consequence for the gospel going forward.

And then finally, a new kingdom is rising, new worship, new glory that is above all these other names in Philippi. I'm not saying that prayer isn't important. I'm not saying that fellowship is not important. But as you go further and you're led into the Spirit of God's outreach plan for your life, which he has for us, there's going to be times where light and darkness are against each other. But God's going to give you his dunamis and his grace. And he's going to give you his joy in the midst of the persecution or the suffering. You'll be his witnesses to the ends of the earth, to Judea and Samaria, all through the whole countryside. You're going to be his witness. It'll look different for as different as everybody looks.

The place of obedience and consequence

When our owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas. They dragged him into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews and are throwing or sitting into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice."

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas. The magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Once again, Jesus is being persecuted. When Paul did this same thing, when he had families and individuals chained, Jesus met him on the road. He said, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Saul knows this. Paul knows this. He knows that Matthew 5:11 is happening. He's going to respond exactly how Jesus told him how to respond in the midst of this. Jesus is the one who's being persecuted. He says, "Don't be afraid in those days because it's not you, it's me. They're rejecting. They don't reject you. They're rejecting me."

There's a song about the praise that Paul and Silas were lifting up in the midst of their suffering. I went to the Dane County Jail and we were singing this song. I got to raise up a praise in the middle of this jail. It was overcrowded, so there was this one mat. If you're the newcomer you get the mat on the floor. I got the mat on the floor for three nights and I was cleaning the showers and praising the Lord because I couldn't take a shower in the dirty showers up there. You know what's so cool? They were watching MTV the whole time. I couldn't handle that. My meditation was just going off the way. After I cleaned the shower, they gave me the remote and I turned on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. These are true.

Through prison, they lift their song

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and all the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prisons were shaken. All at once the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose. The jailer woke up. When he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought all the prisoners had escaped.

But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself. We are all here."

Acts 16:28-29

This is real. Don't harm yourself. We are all here. While I was praying for you this week, that phrase just came right out of my Bible and was highlighted. Somebody needs to hear this today. Don't harm yourself. We're all here. This is a community of faith. Don't let the enemy trick you into harming yourself or others. Everyone's here for your support. Even if you lose everything, the good news is that Jesus becomes everything for you when you lose it. Don't harm yourself. We're all here.

To salvation, restitution, and fellowship

God loves people. He wants to save them. Not just the slave girl. The jailer.

The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household."

Acts 16:29-31

They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night, the jailer took them and washed their wounds. Then immediately he and all his household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them. There's the table of fellowship in the salvation of God. He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God, he and his whole household.

If you read the book of Philippians, which is what came out of the root of what we're reading right now, it's all about joy and rejoicing. He says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice." This is the seed of that joy that Paul's going to refer to later, even in the midst of their persecutions in Philippi.

Daylight brings a vivid reckoning

When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order, "Release those men." The jailer told Paul, "The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace." Paul is seeking a gospel opportunity. He's in the jail, thinking, is there another opportunity here, Lord? Is there yet another thing we can see with the kingdom of God coming through? But Paul said to the officers, "They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens and threw us into prison. And now, do they want to get rid of us quietly?"

There's a time to say no. God gives you the favor to say that no. He stands behind you to say that no. "Let them come themselves and escort us out." Paul and Silas are going to get an escort. Through a word of wisdom that Paul and Silas are receiving from the Lord in this moment, after they've rejoiced in the midst of their chains, after they've seen this miracle of the earthquake, the jailer's life is saved. Paul and Silas sow more. The church is more secure. Legal threats right now are quelled and they live and they leave in a true peace, not just "go in peace," but go in shalom, in the true peace of Christ and the true peace of what God is doing here.

The officers reported this to the magistrates. When they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. The tables have completely turned. Now they could dig in and make them pay for everything that they had just done to them. But they just said, you know what? We're going to leave that up to the righteous judge. In his day, he will set everything right. But right now, we're going to say his kingdom is going to have an open door in this city.

After they came out of prison, they didn't leave the city. Where did they go? Lydia's house. They sowed even more. More teaching, more fellowship, more strength, more gifts of God into the body where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them, and then they left.

There's a little side note here. Luke is going from "we" to "they," and there's a possibility that he might have stayed there a little bit longer. This is not the first time Paul has had that persecution. He said, you know what, I'm filling up the measure of Christ's suffering by what I'm doing. There's this mysterious measure of Christ's suffering that only he knows and that he just allows his people to go through in the gospel. Paul says, I'm doing this on your behalf, Philippian church, Corinthian church. God is building his church and I will gladly take on these persecutions so that the glory of God might be seen not just in my life, but through the gospel in your life, your salvation, your strength.

What is your place of prayer?

Maybe you're at that place today in the story. Maybe you feel like, you know what, I'm still back at the river praying. I'm with Lydia there. I need to just find a place to pray. Let God show you that place. Don't be afraid of it. Don't think, oh boy, if I go to a place of prayer then I'm going to get in the inner cell in stocks. I'm going to be beat up. Who knows? But the same way he sustained Paul through this whole process, he will sustain us.

Who is your person of peace? It was Lydia. Who is the person of peace in this city? Then the jailer, right? He became a person of peace. How are you being stirred today? Or what's annoying you? Maybe the teaching going on is annoying you. What's annoying you today? What's angering you today? How are you being moved by the Spirit of God? What is God putting on your heart?

And there's a call and an invitation that's been with me my whole life. The Lord has often reminded me of this. When will you lift your song? You've been complaining long enough. You've been trying to zoom out and figure out the whole world long enough. When are you going to lift your song?

I will sing to the Lord all my life. For as long as I live, I will praise my God. In the midst of it, at midnight. Maybe you feel like the clock is ticking and the day is done and the new day is already happening and you missed it. But you can still lift your song, even at the midnight turn of the hour. When will you lift your song?

There's no Simon going like this or like this to your voice, because the Lord created your voice, loves your voice, and all he needs is a sound wave to make an earthquake. He'll open the prison doors and he'll set you free. Those he gives you a love for, he'll set them free.

Why does God lead us this way? So we can be like Jesus. So we can become obedient sons and daughters. All of this is so that your faith may not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. We're preaching Christ and him crucified. This is the power of God, and this is the obedience of Christ.

Rejoice in the Lord always

When Paul thought back on these days with the church in Philippi and when he was writing to them to encourage them, this is what he said.

In your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11

Later on, he says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice." I think there are some people that are experiencing a prison. God has different prisons. If you have an opportunity to lift your voice in the midst of that prison, God can use that sound wave today.

In Psalm 149, I don't know if this is what Paul and Silas were singing, but I know they were singing hymns to God which were taken from the Scripture and from the new life of God, the new songs of the church of their day.

Praise the Lord, sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of his faithful people. Let Israel rejoice in their maker. Let the people of Zion be glad in their King. Let them praise his name with dancing. Let them praise his name with the timbrel and harp.

Psalm 149:1-4

For the Lord takes delight in his people. He's taking delight in you today. The Father takes delight the same way I take delight as I'm about to go to New York to see my two-year-old granddaughter and we're going to play guitar together and she's going to jump around and go "For joy, for joy, for joy, for joy, for joy." That's her song. She just started singing it and I just got on the guitar.

He crowns you with victory. Let the faithful people rejoice in honor and sing on their beds. Even if you're on your sick bed, even if you're in the stocks in the inner cell, it says let them sing. The Spirit of God gives you strength to do that.

May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters and to bind them with shackles of iron.

Psalm 149:6-8

As you praise, if you're in shackles, your voice goes out and the demons are shackled. For real. In Psalm 8, it says the praise of children silences the enemy. A little one, a two-year-old, can carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of his faithful people.

Praise the Lord in his sanctuary. Praise him in his heavens. Praise him for his acts of power. Praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet. Praise him with the harp and the lyre. Praise him with timbrel. Praise him with dancing. Praise him with the strings. Praise him with the pipe. Praise him with the clash of cymbals. Praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Psalm 150:1-6

He is so beautiful. Now, when we believe and we praise, we're not going to hype up. We're just going to lift our voice and we're going to trust him to use our praise however he wants to. He'll lead us by his Spirit to the next step, whatever that looks like.

I just put this at the end because as I was studying, I love this about the Lord Jesus. Christian faith is most accessible. You can be developmentally disabled and still believe and have a gift of faith be dropped in your heart and you can say yes to the Lord. You can be on your deathbed and someone can say the gospel to you and you can just blink an eye and say yes to the Lord. You don't have to go five times a day and bow. It's accessible. Praise is accessible anytime. His presence is to all. His grace is adaptable to every culture.

It doesn't mean you take on the gods of the other cultures and worship them. It means you bring the God who created them and inspire cultural things. You say yes and amen. You say let the Lord be the Lord. Without being alterable, because it's the absolute authority in the heavens and on earth. Every knee is going to bow. Every tongue confess to Jesus Christ. Because he created everything. He gave the gospel to everything. He's coming in judgment of everything. And he's going to receive the glory from everyone and everything.

As a little seed of that today, we're going to give about a four to five minute praise to the Lord. I understand if you have to leave, but let's just lift up our voice, because it says here: let everything that has breath praise the Lord.