92 Acts 16:16-22 PAUL AND SILAS ARRESTED AT PHILIPPI Introduction: In our previous text Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke arrive at the city of Philippi in Macedonia. On the Sabbath day they attended a prayer meeting service held by a group of Jewish women. At this meeting a woman by the name of Lydia got saved. Lydia then carried them to her home to witness to the members of her household and they all got saved. In our text today Paul and Silas get arrested and thrown in jail at Philippi. I. Their encounter with a woman possessed by a demon V. 16, “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer...” That is, Paul and all of those who were on the mission team with him, started out to the riverside where the Jewish women usually held their prayer meeting services. As they were walking along they encountered a woman who would have quite an impact upon their lives. (V. 16), “...a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us...” That is, she was what we would call “a fortune teller.” She was possessed by a spirit which gave her power to know things supernaturally. The spirit which dwelt within her gave her power to know things without learning them in a natural way. She did not have to see something or hear something or to experience something to know it. The spirit within her made her to know things by revealing that information to her mind. The spirit which gave her this power to know things supernaturally was a demon spirit. Demons are spirits which follow Satan and are very loyal to him. They are evil spirits just as Satan is an evil spirit. In Deuteronomy 18:10-12 God forbid that the Children of Israel have anything to do with such evil spirits. They were forbidden to go to fortunetellers, soothsayers, sorcerers or any such people who work with black magic. I think that we can conclude from this that Christians ought not to have anything to do with such evil spirits. It is dangerous to mess with them. (V. 16), “...which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying.” That is, by fortune telling. From this statement we learn that the young woman was a slave. She had masters. Strangely enough, she did not belong to just one master, but was owned jointly by two or more people. They jointly owned her and they all made much money from her fortune telling business. V. 17, “The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.” I think that you know that the Bible was not originally written in the English language. The New Testament was originally written in the Greek language. In that original language the meaning is that she kept on following them all along the way as they walked to the place where the prayer meeting was to be held. As she walked behind them she shouted out in a loud voice, “These men are servants of the Most High God, which show us the way of salvation.” She just kept on shouting again and again, “These men are servants of the most high God, which show us the way of salvation.” Now what she was saying about them was true. They were indeed the servants of the most high God, the God of Creation, the Supreme Ruler of the Universe. And they were, indeed, there in Philippi to show unto the people of that city the way of salvation. They were there to tell sinners that they can be saved. They were there to tell the people that the way by which lost sinners cam get saved is for them to trust the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now what she was saying was saying was true, but the manner in which she was saying it was not good. It was as though she was accusing them of something sinister. It was as though she was warning the people not to listen to them. The manner in which she was speaking would not cause anyone to listen to her and get saved. Rather it would cause people to not believe them. Walking behind them shouting to the top of her voice about them was not going to cause any lost sinner to be give heed to whatever they would say. It would have the opposite effect. It would cause men to shun them, to seek to stay away from them, to shut their ears to whatever these men had to say. It would cause people to want to have nothing to do with them. She was most certainly not a help to them. She was a definite hindrance to them. II. The demon cast out V. 18, “And this did she many days...” This became her ritual every sabbath day. Every sabbath day as they would go to and from the prayer meeting services, she would follow right behind them. And I gather that anytime in between the sabbath days, if she saw them on the streets she followed after them shouting. It became a nuisance. It was more than a nuisance. It was hindrance --- a great hindrance. (V. 18), “...But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her...” One day as they walked along with this woman right behind them shouting to the top of her voice, Paul’s patience ran out. Yet apparently he was not so much impatient with the woman herself. He was impatient with the demon spirit which possessed her and controlled her actions. So when Paul’s patience ran out and he spoke, he did not really speak to the woman. Rather he spoke to the demon which was within her causing her to do what she was doing. In the name of Jesus Christ he commanded the demon to come out of this woman. (V. 18), “...And he came out the same hour.” The term “the same hour” does not mean that it took the demon sixty minutes to get out of her. Rather it means that at the very time that Paul commanded the spirit to come out of her, the demon came out --- immediately. Paul had a special gift from God which enabled him to cast out demons. The Spirit which enabled him to cast the evil spirit out of the woman was the Holy Spirit of God. W see by this that the Spirit which was in Paul was greater than the spirit that was in the woman. The spirit of divination within the woman was of the Devil, but the Spirit that was within Paul was the Holy Spirit of God. III. The owners of the slave woman V. 19, “And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew [them] into the marketplace unto the rulers.” When the Apostle Paul cast the demon spirit out of the woman, she lost all of her power to know things supernaturally. She could not tell fortunes any more. When she lost her power to tell fortunes customers stopped coming to her and paying their money to her. When the money stopped coming in her masters got unhappy. They must have inquired of her what the problem was and she told them. She told them that Paul, the servant of the most high God, had cast the spirit out of her which had given her the power to know things supernaturally. Now those masters, which at first had been unhappy with the woman, was now unhappy with the Apostle Paul, the servant of the most high God. They seized both Paul and Silas and drug them away to the marketplace where the governmental officials for the city and for the colony were located. I am not sure why they arrested only Paul and Silas. Perhaps it was because Timothy and Luke just happened not to be with Paul when he and Silas were arrested. IV. Paul and Silas on trial V. 20-21, “And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.” Before making any charges against Paul and Silas, the owners of the slave woman sought to prejudice the Roman officials against them. They pointed out that these men, whom they brought before the Roman officials, were Jews. Now there was then as there is now a universal hatred of the Jews. So the owners appealed to the racial prejudice which they knew the Roman officials had against Jews. So there was already a mark against Paul and Silas in the mind of the Roman officials just because they were Jews. This, alone would prevent them form getting a fair trial. Then the owners presented charges against them. They presented false charges against them. The first charge was that Paul and Silas “do exceedingly trouble our city.” Now what trouble had they caused in the city? They had walked peacefully through the streets of the city. They had not caused any trouble whatsoever. They had caused no disturbance of any kind. It was the slave woman which their accusers owned who had caused the only disturbance. It was the woman who had followed them through the streets shouting. It was not Paul and Silas who were shouting. The second charge was also false. The second charge was that Paul and Silas were teaching customs which were not lawful for Romans to observe. That charge simply was not true. It is true that they were preaching that men ought to worship a God which the Romans were not worshipping, but there was no Roman law which forbid Romans from worshipping other gods. In fact, Roman law permitted Romans to worship any number of gods. Almost all Romans worshipped more than one god. It most certainly would not have been illegal to worship another God. V. 22, “And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat [them].” By this time a large crowd was attracted by the trial. It was the responsibility of the Roman officials to protect the accused from the crowd. But apparently those Roman officials were not interested in seeing that justice was done. Instead, they were only interested in pleasing the crowd. Luke says that the magistrates ripped the clothes off Paul and Silas and beat them. The magistrates themselves gave orders for them to be beaten. Those two Jews were given the beating of their lives upon their orders. I think that it would be impossible for us here today to envision just how horrible that beating really was. We are simply not accustomed to seeing that kind of violence and cruelty. V. Some things which I want to call to your attention There are several things which I want you to notice. I want you to take notice that God is supreme. The woman repeatedly called Paul and Silas servants of the most high God. This was information that the woman did not know of her own accord. The demon spirit within her informed her of this fact. This means that even the demon spirit which is of Satan acknowledges that God is The Most High God. God is the Supreme Ruler of all that is. God is the Creator. He created the heavens and the earth. He created all living things. He created man. All men are answerable to God. All men will give account to God. The time will come when every knee shall bow to God. The time will come when men will give account to Him for every deed that they have done. They will give account to Him for every word. They will give account even for every idle word that they have spoken. They will give account to Him for every thought and imagination of their hearts. Oh, that every man, every woman, every boy and every girl would recognize the truth which the demon possessed woman declared -- - that God is, indeed, Most High. I want you to notice also that there is a way of salvation. Every man, woman, boy and girl in the world has sinned against Almighty God. The Bible declares that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That is, all have come short of the absolute perfection that God is. All have come short of the absolute perfection that God requires man to have in order to be acceptable in His sight. No one can be acceptable in the sight of God without absolute perfection. No man can be acceptable in the sight of God by his own works of righteousness. But there is a way whereby man can be saved. There is a way whereby a guilty sinner can be cleansed of all his sin. There is a way whereby an individual can be made acceptable in the sight of God. There is a way whereby a lost sinner can be saved so that he will go to heaven when he dies. Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Down in verse 31 which we did not get to in our text, the Apostle Paul and Silas told their jailer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” This means that the lost sinner can call upon Jesus and ask Jesus to save his soul. It means that he must trust Jesus in order to be saved. . He must depend on Jesus to save him and take him to heaven. What a wonder it is that the Almighty God who was offended by our sin, has loved us enough to send His own beloved Son to be crucified for us that we might be saved! I also want you to take notice of the evil forces there are in this world which seek to interfere with lost sinners being saved. The demon spirit within that slave woman was trying to interfere with Paul and his mission team preaching the gospel message at Philippi so that lost men could be saved. That demon spirit was the one who caused that woman to shout to the top of her voice causing her to interfere with the work that Paul and Silas were trying to do. The owners of the slave woman were interfering with the work which Paul and Silas were trying to do when they arrested them and made charges against them before the court. The Roman magistrates were interfering with the preaching of the gospel message when they ordered Paul and Silas to be beaten and imprisoned. The Devil, himself, was at work behind the scenes trying to keep lost sinners from being saved. The Devil was the chief one who was trying to keep the lost from being saved and becoming servants of the most high God. I want you to take notice of the choices that men make. God offers every individual the opportunity to trust Jesus Christ and be saved. Paul and the preachers with him were in the city of Philippi to try to get the message to everybody in that city that they could be saved. They were there to try to tell the owners of that slave girl that they, too, could be saved. Their own slave was crying out the truth when she said that these men “show unto us the way of salvation.” But those slave owners were more interested in the money that they could make from her fortune telling than they were in hearing about how they could be saved and go to heaven. These servants of the most high God were there to preach the gospel to the Roman officers before whom they stood in judgment, but those Roman officers were more interested in pleasing the crowd than they were in the message of salvation which these men could bring. Listen, there are a lot of people in this world today who are more interested in who is going to win in the Super Bowl than they are in how they can be saved and go to heaven. Every individual has a choice to make. He (or she) can repent of sin and call on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation or he can go right on down the spiritual road which leads to everlasting torment. Even those of us who are saved have a decision to make. God does not enslave people and make them worship Him and serve Him. But He does want all who are saved to willingly give themselves in worship and in service to Him. God calls upon every lost sinner to be saved and God calls upon every saved sinner to worship Him and to serve Him. Conclusion: Listen, I am here today as a servant of the most high God whom God has given the task of trying to show you how you can be saved that you are to worship God sincerely and that you are to serve Him faithfully. Now the choice is up to you. It is between you and God. You do not have to give account to me for the choice that you make. But you will give account to God for the choice that you make. What will your choice be?