She kept this up for many days. 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.. Acts 16:18 

Acts 16:11–24 – The Story of the Church: Living Into This Drama in the 21st Century
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 12, 2021 (am)
  

The European, Roman colony city of Philippi was only about 125 miles from Asiatic Troas, less as the crow flies and around 150 miles by the sea route followed by the Apostle Paul.  But though close in proximity the two cities were worlds apart.  For me I am reminded of crossing the great Ohio river that separates Jeff City Indiana from “Luval” Ky.   The bridge spans maybe a half mile, but even though the wall marts and the gas stations are the same, it feels like a different world somehow, a world in which I am afraid will always feel foreign to me.    I am reminded of the great Kentucky Senator Henry Clay who in the early 1800’s was challenged to a duel with pistols and both men being honorable Kentuckians determined that it would be best to row across to the Indiana side of the river.  Why?  In order that the beloved ground of Kentucky would not be tainted, blasphemed, desecrated by the shedding of the precious blood of her native sons on their native soil! Folks, place is important! Maybe that is our first lesson today!  Both men survived by the way, a testament perhaps to their particular talents in other areas.  Again, place matters!  It mattered to Paul and his associates stymied in Troas after wandering for maybe 400 miles searching and praying for a place in which to plant the seed of the gospel.

For the next two Sundays, if God permits, we will rest our gaze on the city of Philippi and the events that occurred there so very long ago, but which are recorded for our encouragement, exhortation, and admonishment in Acts 16:11-40.    Our focus this morning will be on vs 11-24 and next week on the rest of the chapter.  I have framed this in my own study almost as if it were a play, with scenes, acts, staging, characters, conflict, and resolution. I have discovered that it even has stage lighting!    And there is more.  It has strong connective tissue with what has gone on before and it sets the stage for what will happen down the road.  It is a masterpiece in every sense, and I invite you to join me as the curtain rises.

 

I.               The City of Philippi 

Read 16:11-13

11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the[d] district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 

The curtain lifts as Paul and his entourage enter Philippi.  They disembark at Neopolis and walked the 12 miles or so on the great Roman road ‘the Egnation Way”.  This highway connected the Adriatic to the Aegean Sea and further connected the Roman empire to what is now Constantinople… or is it Istanbul?  I am told that you can still walk portions of this road today, and upon whose enormous stone slabs marched the legions of Ceasar, and bore the footsteps of the greater conqueror, the apostle Paul, and his partners in the name of Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

You will notice the Colosseum and the marketplace, or Agora.  You will notice the shrines to the oracle of Delphi where the priestesses, fortune tellers with [literally] a “python spirit” would hold court and for a fee predict the future.  You will notice the Roman fortress and garrison, and its attached prison.  This is a city of Greek heritage doing everything it can to ape her powerful sister and become another little Rome. As Paul and company walked through the city gates, we wonder along with them, ‘where is the man of Macedonia, who so urgently asked for help in Paul’s vision?  They apparently   arrived without fanfare, no welcome committee, no synagogue.  We may imagine that they walked the streets of the city, with eyes wide open and ear to the ground.  Finally,  after some days, they exit through the city gates and make their way down to the little  river, the Gangites,   where it says, ‘as they supposed there was a place of prayer. Before we move to that scene let me give you a little additional context for the city of Philippi.  It is important because throughout this story, the tension in the city is palpable.  We should take a moment to understand why.     Approximately 350 years earlier The Macedonian King Phillip, [father of Alexander the great] conquered this city and cheekily perhaps named it after himself.  Situated as it was along the Egnatian way, it predictably became the route by which Octavian [Augustus Caesar and Marc Anthony pursued the armies of the murderers of Julius Caesar, Cassius and Brutus.  Caesar’s armies won at the battle of Philippi, and the city was chosen as the place where his armies could be mustered out of service, and given land, respect and position in what became ‘the Roman colony of Philippi, a leading city of the district.  So, you have Greek heritage, a clinging to some sort of ancient and cultic Greek religion, maintaining its legitimacy by not rocking the political boat, a cosmopolitan center of international trade under the heel of Roman law, and a a superimposed Roman culture.  This is the city of Philippi.

One more thing.  Interestingly, it appears that it was without a synagogue.  Had there been one, surely that would have been Paul’s first stop.  The absence of a synagogue would suggest that there were not the requisite ten male Jews in the city.  

 

II.              A most extraordinary woman

Read 16:14-15

14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.

I have titled this two-part series, ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ as an intended cheesy reference to the structure of the events in this city as they unfolded.  Paul has specific and life altering engagements with three very different people with strangely similar longings.  The first of these is an interesting woman, a businesswoman named Lydia.  Now, being from Thyatira in the region of Lydia, which is in modern day Turkey, it could be that what we read as her name may have been a reference to her place of origin.  [Your guess is as good as mine on this one, but let’s continue to call her Lydia shall we, if for no other reason that our dear Lydia Kohlmeyer has had the good sense to choose her for a namesake!  I checked actually and there is a younger Lydia among us whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting yet.  Excellent job in choosing your name, young lady!... now if there are other Lydias among us, I apologize and will pass out a resentment register as needed] What do we know about her besides her name? 

1. She is a seller of purple goods, [or perhaps purple dye] an expensive and upscale product by any measure, a purple garment would be worn by kings.

2. She is a foreigner in this city being from Thyatira.

3. She is a worshipper of God…

   What does this mean, ‘a worshipper of God’?  In a nutshell it refers to gentiles who though not grafted into the family of Israel through proselytizing, nonetheless, identified with and followed the law of Moses.   And given that description it is no wonder that Paul and co. find her and others at the place of prayer on the Sabbath.

4. Finally, though we do not immediately see it, she, it appears is a woman of some, perhaps considerable means.  Widowed?  Perhaps, though we see no evidence of that.  Children?  Again, nothing in the narrative to suggest that.   An agent perhaps of a manufacturer in Asia, a sales rep?  Again, just conjecture. 

But we know from vs 14 one very important thing about her.  Her heart was opened by God to do what?   To pay attention to Paul’s words.  What a small thing it seems, to actually listen, to hear what was important.  She unknowingly perhaps joins a fraternity of women in scripture, women whose hearts were opened to listen and to hear.

Now it may surprise you to learn that people sometimes choose to not listen to good instruction, and I want to tell you a story to illustrate that point.   It was in the late seventies and my bride and I were young marrieds and we purchased a stereo system with a turntable and lots of shiny buttons and dials and we were very excited to open the boxes and set it up.  I was greatly disappointed to discover that no matter what I did, the turntable would not turn.  It was obvious to me the problem had to be the plug on the end of the cord.  What else could it be?  So, I went out, grabbed a pair of wire cutters and cut the end of the cord off, spliced in a new plug using about 6’ of duct tape, because I could not the electrical tape to cover the splice…  that’s when I happened to look over and saw the look of horror and non-comprehension on Cath’s face.   Now, she was still in the ‘who is this man and what have I done’ phase of our relationship and could not believe that I would butcher our new thing without even reading the instruction manual.  Of course, as you have surely guessed, my surgery did not work.  What I failed to understand was that the turntable would not turn until you brought the thingy over the top of the record stack.  Point of the story.  Never take attentive listening for granted.   Lydia joins a host of biblical women who listened well, especially when the stakes were very high.

Consider Elizabeth for example who in Luke 1:41 listened to the leaping of the child in her own womb and she proclaimed a prophetic word of praise to God and an encouragement to her cousin.

Consider Mary the mother of Jesus who in 1:38 listens intently and reflectively to the to the message of the angel   and responds in this way, “behold I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.

Reach a little farther back in time and consider Abigail who listened to the ominous words of her servants when her husband out of pride refused to heed a clear warning.  Her acute attention and quick response save her life and that of her entire household.  You can read it in 1 Samuel 25

Consider Mary the sister of Martha in Luke 10: 39.  The text says that she sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.  She was commended with a promise that what she heard would not be taken from her. 

Consider the sinful woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  Notice what Jesus said about her?   In Luke 7:47 Jesus says to her Your sins are forgiven.  She listened and we know that because her heart was broken in repentance and gratitude.

Finally, and perhaps strangely, consider Bathsheba who listened to the voice of the prophet Nathan with great care in 1 Kings 1:11 and following.  Do you remember his warning?  In a rough paraphrase he said to her, “Listen Bathsheba, unless you listen well and take my advice, neither you nor your son will survive this day!  And she listened and acted swiftly and successfully. 

And now we can add Lydia to the list of those women who listened with intentionality, heart opened in a supernatural way, and whose listening resulted in the glory of God.

The concluding words of this scene are telling in what they include and what they leave out.   In vs 15 there appears to be an immediate jump from her Spirit enabled hearing to her baptism.   The clear presumption is that her careful attentive listening resulted in repentance and faith.  And like the Ethiopian eunuch, she must have asked to herself and to Paul, ‘what hinders me being baptized?’

It is hard to conclude otherwise than if the Spirit opens the heart, bringing your ears to attention to the gospel, saving faith will likely follow as night follows day.  Hard to believe, yes?  And yet it raises an unexpected question, I think.  Do we really listen to the message of the gospel in all its vast implications?  Or are we more interested in our own ‘yeah but’ response. There are surely some in this room who have ‘heard it all before’, yes?  Have you heard this gospel so many times that you no longer really listen to its call?   If so, let this be an encouragement as well as a warning.  And remember that the words Paul spoke were words that were frankly bigger than he was.  They were words that brought about her improbable surrender to Jesus Christ.  I should say, ‘impossible’, because absent the power of the Lord to open the heart, it will remain forever closed.   

The scene ends with what will be a link to the end of the chapter, which we will see in due time. In vs 15 she implores Paul and his retinue to come and stay in her home, where she and her newly won household may have the privilege of caring for those who have come so far to speak precious words of life!

Before we draw the curtain closed on the story of this quite remarkable woman, let’s make a couple of observations.  Every part of this scene was choreographed by God ahead of time.   And none of it would have met the expectations of Paul or his friends.  Secondly, have you ever marveled at the independence and stubbornness of the human heart?  It really is a marvel.  People will usually die before they surrender in matters of pride, injustice, or ridicule.  And yet in Lydia we have been shown what can happen when the Lord crashes into the heart of a stubborn man or woman… Or child!

 

III.             A young woman doubly cursed

Read 16:16-18

16 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. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18 And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

The curtain rises on another unlikely encounter.  Have you ever met a fortune teller?  One who claimed to be able to tell the future?  Many years ago now, we smiled at the thought of Yuri Geller bending spoons over the radio [milt Rosenburg show… anybody remember?] by the power of his extraordinary mental capacities.   We chuckled when my Dad famously said, “Well I guess it would be a good thing if I had a need for a bunch of bent spoons!”    The fact is however, that false prophets are dangerous, and their cruelty is made manifest in the crushed hopes of vulnerable human beings who traffic in their offerings.  A fortune teller preys on the weak and the heart broken.  There is nothing benign about it.  And it is no wonder that the penalty according to the law of Moses for a false prophet was to be put to death!  Deut.  18:20-22    Did you know that there is another test of a false prophet? Deut 13:1-3 adds a critical and nuanced test.  If the prophet’s words come to pass, but he would lead the people away from their Lord and God to worship other gods, they are to be put to death also.   By the way, in almost every case false prophecy is accompanied by financial entanglements that not only empty hearts of hope.  They also empty purses and billfolds of money.

Of course, we assure ourselves, no one today actually believes in the powers of fortune tellers, right?  Well, time for a little pushback.  First of all, over 2 billion dollars are spent in the U.S. every year for the assurances of mediums, and the comfort of astrologers.  Nancy Reagan famously consulted her horoscope every day for guidance in all things.  Please understand that the monetary waste is the least of what is lost.  For you lose any reasonable filter.  You have no ground to stand and say, ‘I’m sorry but that is crazy!’  And think about what you unintentionally gain, a sense of fear as well as a simmering anger.  You seldom find one without the other.  By entertaining the ominous ‘what-ifs’ and false promises of fortune tellers, who are pretty much everywhere by the way, you awaken to, and have no defenses against, an uncontrollable darkness crouching at your door. Ultimately you become afraid to open that door!  Folks, please be wary of modern-day fortune tellers.  They will turn you ultimately into cynics, doubters and name-callers.   They   may come in many guises, be they biased and inflamed mainstream news reporting or blog post claims that are simply crazy!  The believer does well to walk carefully when strolling along the broad highway of network news and social media.

  Well, you might ask, who should I listen to?  One answer is to suggest that you should not get all your marching orders from one source.  Find a balance in where you get your information.  Don’t put all your eggs in one basket so to speak…  But, in thinking about it, that is kind of like getting multiple fortune teller and letting them duke it out and pick up the pieces that do not cancel each other out.  That is of course is pretty much what King Ahab did in 1 Kings 22.  Remember?  He had 400 false prophets, and 1 genuine article.  We can do better than that!   I have three things off the top of my head.  Listen to God’s word, saturate yourself in it.  Listen to and talk to your fellow believers in your local church, all of them if you can, and though it might sound disingenuous in some way, listen to the voices of your Elders.   I promise you, though we may be as confused as you are about many things, I can say this for sure.  We don’t bite!   Folks, it is why we are here!

  And with these things in mind let’s join Paul and Silas and Luke and others in their next encounter.

We don’t have long to wait.   On a return visit to the place of prayer at the riverside, they [note the ‘we’] they were met by a slave girl who is unnamed in the story but even at the outset is doubly cursed.  Possessed of a demon and mastered by men who would profit from the false hope that she peddles.

If you look at the scene carefully you will observe that we see the slave-girl only dimly.  It is as if the house lights are lowered and we can’t quite make out her expression.  We are not told her name and we do not know her back story……  yet here she is!

Let’s pause for a moment to dig a little deeper into who this unfortunate girl was.   She, described here literally as having a python spirit, owes allegiance to the oracle of Delphi, a Greek god worshipped in a roman city, she was almost certainly a Greek woman with masters who navigated these tricky waters in a way that netted them loads of profit over time.

  In any event, Paul and his friends soon have another, altogether unexpected member of the entourage, following along behind, shouting, proclaiming the allegiance of these men to a new God, the most high. Not once, or for an afternoon, but it says, ‘for many days.’  How long would it take you or me to get fed up with it?  It is an interesting question actually. Did Paul allow her to spew out her proclamatory dissonance because at a technical level it was true?  Did it take him a few days to realize that she was in the service of her ‘horrible house guest’ and human handlers, under whose thumb, was somehow drumming up her own business on their behalf, hitchhiking as it were on the coat tails of the real thing in Paul and Co.   Or could it have been that he saw her as both an antagonist and a victim, and upon being convinced that she was bound, tormented by an evil, demonic spirit, found within his own spirit a growing sense of outrage at this sub-basement level of pain and suffering at the expense of the God that Paul had served long and faithfully, and who deserved way better from his fallen created creatures.   I think that is what is going on here.  Knowing intuitively the price he was likely to pay, he rebuked the spirit with power and resolve, calling on the name of Jesus Christ in a command to ‘come out of her’ and that is exactly what happened, not the next day or over time, but as the passage says, at that very hour.

There is an important question raised in this scene.  Did the slave girl surrender to Christ?  It is certainly more ambiguous than in the previous scene, but there are a couple of things that would suggest that she may well have.    First, her desperate need was met in the name of Jesus Christ.  And to heal the body without healing the soul would seem like a hollow victory!  The second thing is that the slave- girl is the second of three persons encountered by Paul in the story.  She is sandwiched if you will between Lydia the Asian purveyor of purple cloth and the Roman war veteran, both of whom are saved to the uttermost and are baptized almost before you could fill the bathtub!  As the salvation of the other two is made explicit in the context, it may reasonably be inferred here as well. [note: this is developed more extensively in Stott, The Spirit, The Church, and the World.] 

 

IV.            Yet the piper must be paid. 

Read 16:19-24

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. 20 And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. 21 They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” 22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. 24 Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

As the curtain rises on this scene, you will notice commotion in the marketplace or gathering place, the Agora, where goods and money changed hands and the magistrates held court.  Paul and Silas are seized and presented before the assembled community with four charges against them:
-Jews
-disturbers of the peace
-advocates of unlawful customs
-perhaps most serious of all, they are violators of Roman law

The results of mob rule are predictable and swift.  The public join in the attack.  The magistrates command that they be stripped, that they be beaten with rods and thrown into prison, feet in stocks, under the watchful eye of a reliable Roman war vet.  I suggest that, because it is the kind of patronage job one would expect to be given as a reward for military service rendered.  The spotlight will be on him in the 2nd and final act.  For now, though it is enough to know that he will be the third gospel encounter of Paul described here, in the city of Philippi.

Until then, stay tuned next week for the next scene   entitled ‘Roman soldier and Roman law in the service of the most high God.’

 

V.              Conclusion:

As we conclude this morning, many questions come to mind.  Did Paul and co. have any regrets about heeding the Macedonian call?  Did Lydia or the slave girl feel any guilt or shame as they heard the blows land on the apostle Paul?   Or, how about this intriguing question, that we will explore next week:  Why did Paul not play the Roman citizen card here, like he did in Acts ch. 22?  

All in good time…  But consider this observation and the question that follows.  There are two women in this remarkable story who are about as different from each other as they could possibly be.  Lydia is a business woman with wealth and standing in the community.  She has a household that she manages and is responsible for.  The slave girl is doubly cursed, and she does not even own her own person.  They are linked only by a desperate need for the gospel of Jesus Christ, as well as a great rescue from their own bondage, but seemingly nothing else.  Here is the question:  Is the gospel enough to bind them together in their affections?   The church at Philippi takes root over time under Paul’s watchful eye and heart.  Did the slave girl timidly knock on Lydia’s door on Sunday mornings to join her gospel sister in worship?

The way we answer the question is crucial for you and me.  The simple answer is that ‘yes, the gospel is enough.’  Their sisterhood is anchored in their mutual heart longings and more so by genuine adoption through salvation by faith.   Maybe though, and boy am I preaching to myself here, you are still in your “who are these people, and what have I done?” phase of your relationship with your brothers and sisters here today in this place.  Matthew Henry in his commentary on Ephesians 1: 15 hit me between the eyes with his observation: “Those who love saints, as such, love all saints, how weak in grace, how mean in the world, how fretful and peevish soever, some of them may be….” 

If the gospel is not enough, that is a precarious place to stand, yes?  Here’s what that might look like.  Our affections for one another might require our shared gospel identity and perhaps a common interest in golf, or maybe a sympathetic political ideology.   Our affection for one another might require a shared surrender to the gospel of Jesus Christ and a common career path, similar social or economic status.  It might require a congenial manner of life or even dress.  Could it be that our affections for one another could require the gospel plus the friendship of our children!  May that never be, and if it is, then we ought to ask ourselves, ‘what are we doing here!’  We might as well join a supper club!

   What to do?  Let me suggest two things, and they are very simple actually.  First, pray for and with your brothers and sisters, especially the fretful and peevish ones!  That is how in my experience you cultivate the bonds of true affection.   The second thing is to intentionally sit under the strong word of scripture together in the same place, drawing encouragement and hearing warnings from the same source at the same time.     

Grace Church, do you ever stop to think what a remarkable thing the church is.  We are all so very different, with incredible stories, each of us.  The curtain rises and falls on us just as it did for those three people in Philippi so long ago!    Praise God that we are linked by the gospel and it is enough,  and by nothing less than pure grace we have the added privilege of sharing a truly abundant life together that requires sharing food and lawn chairs and sometimes head lice,  and to be so connected  that we will walk with each other in laughter and argument and even silliness from time to time, knowing that we will also walk with each other in the unexpected times of collapsing grief,  and confusion and seeming chaos.  This is the abundant life.  It is worth guarding and protecting. 

It is Paul once again who sets this idea into its proper context in his short letter to these same Philippians. Ch. 1:27-28 puts it this way, and we will conclude with his exhortation:

27 Only let your manner of life be worthy[a] of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.

14 Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15 I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?  1 Cor 12:14,15 

____________________ 

End notes:  

-I found Matthew Henry’s commentary in one volume to be very helpful in this respect.  He walks through the chapter making brief observations as He goes, allowing them to stand alone.  For example, his note on the last verse of the chapter, which will be covered in part II says this: “They took leave of their friends: they went to the house of Lydia, saw the brethren and they comforted them.  Young converts should have a great deal said to them to comfort them, for the joy of the Lord will be very much their strength.”  These brief observations become like nuggets of treasure picked up along the way and make us eager to find the next one.

-I found John Stott’s commentary on Acts, The Spirit, the Church, and the World, to be really helpful in a number of ways.  First, he  explains  much of the background of this cosmopolitan city/ colony, which sets up his portraits of the main characters.   He makes much of the diversity of the three converts, establishes two important points of plausible conjecture, the probable conversion of the Slave-girl, as well as the Roman war-veteran identity of the Philippian jailor.  Taken together these portraits add up to a pointed commentary on the sovereignty of God, and also on the beauty of His church.

-For background context on the nature of the Oracle of Delphi, and the cultic religion of the ‘snake goddess’ I found this website concise and helpful. Witchcraft goes mainstream, and becomes big business - Marketplace  “Two billion dollars are spend annually in the U.S. on physic readings, tarot card reading and new age off shoots.”

This site was also helpful for background context.  The Girl with the Python Spirit (rdgstout.blogspot.com)

 

 

Next Week: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Act II, Acts 16:20-40, Todd Walker