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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Hey, friends. Welcome to the Eagle Community Church of Christ podcast. My name is John Gunter. This week in our church, we're going through the story still. We're in chapter 29.
John:There we're talking about Paul's missionary journey and we're talking about Paul and Silas in prison. How would you react if you got put in prison for your faith? I think we can learn a lot from them. I hope it's helpful for you and hope you continue to finish this out. We only have a couple more weeks.
John:I do want to mention we've had some audio issues. We're still trying to work that out so sorry if the quality is down. So, again apostle Paul. He is not Paul, but Saul. We meet the apostle Paul.
John:He is not Paul, but Saul. He is not the revered apostle spreading the words of Christ. He's doing quite frankly the opposite. He is persecuting the church. Saul, we see standing, approving of, and holding the garments of people stoning Stephen.
John:It is only the road to Damascus on Saul's journey, with letters of authority to persecute the church even more, that Saul meets someone on the road. That someone happened to be our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Saul confronted there and Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? His response is, who are you, Lord? And he tells him, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
John:And it said that immediately Saul's eyes were closed with something like scales. He was led to a house where later on someone would come to to meet him, Ananias. But they were afraid of it. God told me to go to this Saul who is persecuting the church. Not only is he persecuting the church, he has the authority from our religious leaders to do that.
John:And God says, yes, he is my chosen vessel and I'm gonna show him how much he has to suffer for my name. You ever thought about that? Yeah. An apostle, I get to suffer. Well, that's what I said at all.
John:And we know the story. He he is called Paul now. He is baptized. The the the things that are like scales fall off of his eyes and he is up. He takes food, and he is ready to go.
John:God, I think, chooses people who are capable. Often I believe we know that that God wants to use us in some way but we don't feel capable. The same drive and the same passion that Saul of Tarsus had for going against the church, god used, he turned it around, and used it for the church. You pass, you use that drive, you use that zealousness. And today, we're gonna focus on Acts 16, a part of Paul's mission and the things that he would suffer.
John:Starting in verse 6 of acts 16, Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. Now what do you think that looked like? But they're so in tune with the Holy Spirit that they understand they are not supposed to go there. See the kind of life they're living. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bythinia but the spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.
John:Well, I thought God wanted us to go everywhere at all times. Well, sometimes the answer is not right now. And we need okay. Don't we? So they passed by Mitzvah and went down to Troaz.
John:During the night, Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, come over to Macedonia and help us. After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave from Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. You ever had a dream? Now how do you most of your dreams don't make a bit of sense. We were supposed to go, Friday night to, to eat with Heath and Rebecca, and when I woke up Friday morning I had just had a dream that Katie and I were with her parents and they said, we can't wait to eat chili with you tonight, we've planned this for so long.' And I woke up so upset because I wanted to go eat at the crawfish place with Heath and Rebecca.
John:A lot of dreams don't make sense. But I think one of the ways that God communicates to us, though we might not be comfortable with it, is exactly what happens here. A vision or a will see visions, dreams, dreams, and all these things. And they're so in tune with what god is is wanting to do and I can only imagine praying daily, constantly, God, what is it you want us to to do? Who is it we need to go talk to?
John:What do we need to do on this mission? And they understand because of this vision that there is a drive for them to go to Macedonia and it says that's what we did. Skipping down a few, verses here, notice what happens. Once when they 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.
John: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. Well, that's a pretty good thing. Right? Gotta get a proclaimer in front of you. She kept she kept this up for many days.
John:Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. At that moment, the spirit left her. That's why I like scripture. That is funny, y'all. I don't care.
John:The apostle Paul, though, doesn't say she was saying anything negative. She's just going around proclaiming, these men are, like, from God, and they're trying to tell you about salvation. You ever had somebody that just talk nonstop, and finally, it's enough? I don't care what you're saying. It's that you're saying something.
John:How rare do you think Paul's face was right now? You ever get away with your kids? Like, they're not even doing anything that bad. But it has been so constant for so long, it needs to stop. And that's what Paul does right here.
John:In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. Now, it's interesting because she has this this spirit or this, something that allows her to, again, tell the future. That's interesting. But Paul said, get out of her. She made a lot of money doing that.
John:Right? That's not a good thing for her owners. When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. Do you think money has a grip on us today still? Everything's fine until the money train had left, right?
John:All of a sudden it's not fine. They brought them before the magistrates and said, these men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice. A little bit of self righteousness in there. This it's unlawful for us. We can't be doing that stuff.
John:The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and 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. Now, let me ask you a question here because scripture doesn't talk about it, but I want you to assume for a minute you are Paul, you are Silas. You believe that God has given you this vision to go to Macedonia, to go to these people and to present the word of God.
John:And upon your arriving and trying to do this, you find yourself in jail. How many of you are are rethinking? Maybe that vision wasn't talking about this. Right? How many have happened in our lives that we stopped, like, we believe God is taking us on that path, but something comes along, we go, well, maybe not.
John:Like, we second guess immediately. Anybody else do that? Yeah. Much less jail. Right?
John:Probably probably less of us have experienced this. Well, that's Paul and Silas find themselves doing. All of a sudden, just because this woman was driving them nuts, they're but they're omniscient for God. Would you just for God? Would you put yourself in a position like this for God?
John:I can only imagine that that Paul probably put up with it a little longer than he needed to, her incessant yelling, thinking, okay, it's not gonna get good get better if I do this. But all of a sudden it got really, really bad. To the point where they say, guard them carefully, we don't want them out of your sight. If we find ourselves in prison. Is it always me or is it some glad morning when the sun right?
John:Paul and I had this mission so ingrained in them that instead of allowing the the situation to turn them into second guess and to think, man, maybe I just that that vision we had, you know, maybe that I ate too much sugar, you know, before I went to bed, I had that Mountain Dew, I should have done that. But they sit in jail singing hymns and everyone else listening to them. Praise God. It says, suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once, all the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose.
John:Now, I can imagine that when the doors flew open, you could say, well, that earthquake was bad enough, you know, it shifted the foundation a little bit, and the doors popped open. But when all the chains come loose, that's something else, isn't it? Also, you have to say, okay, something else is involved here, not just an earthquake. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. That's how much was leaning on him.
John:Careful watching his prisoner. That if they escaped, he knew I might as well kill myself because that or worse is about to happen. Right? But Paul shouted, don't harm yourself. We're all here.
John:The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. Now I don't even understand this. How many of you, if you're sitting in jail, the doors swing open, the chains pop off, do you remain seated? I said, thank you lord. I'm full speed in just a second.
John:Now, you know, about 40 yards and I'm out of breath, but that's okay. Right? But they stayed for some reason. Maybe they knew this was the situation for this guy. But Paul yells, do not harm yourself.
John:We're all still here. And all of a sudden, the response is, he goes to them trembling. And look what he says. He he he said, he then brought them out and asked, sir, what must I do to be saved? Now that's a fantastic question, isn't it?
John:Something about the way they talked, the way they sang, the attitude they had when all of this happened, the light switch flipped for him. He said, what do I need to do to have this? Because I can't explain it other way, any other way. Right? I can't do it.
John:They replied, believe in the lord Jesus, and you will be saved and your household. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in the house or in his house. All 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.
John:He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God, he and his whole household. When it was daylight, the magistrate sent the 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.
John:But Paul said to the officers, they beat us publicly without a trial. Even though we were Roman citizens threw us into prison, and now do they wanna get a get rid of us quietly? Paul is not a real quiet guy anyway, is he? He is making as much noise as he can. He said, no.
John:Let them calm themselves and escort us out. He knew he had a little trump card there. He had no reverse in his pocket. Those of you who know what that's all about. Sometimes you, everybody play UNO, everybody know what that's about?
John:Well, the funny thing nowadays is for the kids to have one on them, and so if you get pulled over and the the cop tries to give you a ticket, you hand him an Uno reverse card, he has to take the ticket back. All kinds of things like that. That's what we're talking about. I don't want to rush out there either, so don't try it. Please.
John:They said, they can come themselves and escort us out. The officers reported this to the magistrates, And when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed because they couldn't do what they had just done to them. They're supposed to do all these things. But, all they did, they heard they're Jews. And so, they thought we can treat them however we want to.
John:And they they came to appease them and escorted them from the prison requesting them to leave the city. After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia's house where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them, then they left. What an awesome situation. Now I this situation that we're all probably in at some point. That something in life happens to us, and we don't know whether we've been on the wrong path, we don't know what has gone wrong because that thing that happens turns so topsy-turvy, we don't know which way is up.
John:But we still have a decision. Any of you teach your kids about making good decisions? Language we use now. Make good decisions because in that moment, whatever that moment is for you, you still have a decision. Someone does something to you, you decide how you respond.
John:You decide who you are in the moment. And for Paul and Silas, this moment in jail could have been, again, downcast, don't know where my life is headed, I'm depressed, I can't believe I'm in jail, But what was, what they decided to do was praise God in the storm. To praise God in the moment, and what does that lead to? Not only their salvation, but the salvation of others. Now we think about the jailer being saved, being baptized, not only him, but all of his house.
John:What we hear, what we can only imagine is, from there it spread. Because we think about all the people that have touched our lives because grandma believed, now I believe, now there's a family tree of believers, right? And because of their decision to live life in this way, salvation came to this household in a way that would, I'm sure, impact it forever. And that's how it should live. Now, the thing probably in the back of your mind is Saul's past.
John:How can a man live such a life, condoning murder even, live life for God? How can you go about preaching and teaching this Jesus, who even gets on to his disciples when bringing out a sword, how can this man go about preaching and teaching Jesus and feel good about it? Because we've the past, don't we? Now you have a worse past, maybe you don't. Maybe you just don't know my past.
John:That's why you think yours is worse. Maybe your past called me yesterday and you're thinking my goodness. I thought we were past this. But there's no decision to be made. Am I going to let what has happened before or the way I have failed before hold me back or pull me back into it or am I gonna decide to follow Jesus and praise God?
John:I, shared a class today that I, I was attending a church under the bridge, thing for homeless people in Texarkana. And the, the pastor's wife, about my age or so, and, somebody came up to her and had known her from high school and introduced themselves, like, hey, you know, we went to school together. She immediately said, okay, you don't know me then. And I I I laughed and I don't but then I started thinking about it. I was like, you know what?
John:That is a there's a proclamation. I am not who I once was. That Jesus has moved me from where I was to where I am today. Praise God. How many of you can say that today?
John:Praise God. And he's done that for a reason. God has always wanted that relationship with you, and He has put us all on mission following Him, broken people that have sinned before, made perfect through the blood of Christ. Made perfect through the blood of Christ. So I need some more amens on that because I need that.
John:Paul, writing to, the Thessalonians says this in, chapter 5, verse 16, He says, rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. But we need this close, don't we? Rejoice always. Pray continually, always. Give thanks always.
John:For this god's will for you in Christ Jesus. It doesn't say because you're following me, I will give you all things that are easily that you're easily thankful for, doesn't he? He doesn't say I'm going to give you the mansion. I'm going to give you the nice fleet of cars. That's what I want.
John:Yeah. Then I told all those things. He said, no. Pray continually. Rejoice always.
John:Give thanks in all circumstances. This is god's will for you. Do not quench the spirit of god, and that's what I see I think we see in all of this. Paul and Silas did not quench the spirit of god. They allowed the spirit to do what the spirit wanted to do.
John:And what the spirit wants to do is bring people to Jesus. And what's going to disrupt a lot of times is get out of the way. Get out of the way and let Him work. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all. You're going to have people teach.
John:You're going to have these prophecies. It doesn't say reject them all. He says, test them all. Hold on to what? What is good?
John:Yeah. If it's right, if it's good, hold on to that. But reject every kind of evil. Because once you let evil in, it gets a foothold, doesn't it? Whether through anger, divisiveness, greed, all the sins that we can have, once we let it in, it grabs a foothold, and then things are changed.
John:The Paul says to have this kind of attitude in everything that we do. And do it, you change your story. Because if we do, we just kind of hang up on that thing that sticks in our mind that we keep doing or have done in the past, and we're not happy about it. That's good. I guess that.
John:We're not the church we're supposed to be. But if you the right to, if you move on forward, you will be church. Praising god all the way. We wanna do this morning. Tyler's got a song of invitation.
John:If we can do anything for you, love to pray with you, love to help walk by you, walk side by side with you as you, if you need to correct that path this morning. If you'd like to put on Jesus in baptism, we can do that as well.