Freedom From the Chains of Bondage - Acts 16: 16-40

You know, when Andrew and Ishii were leading worship, it was really Holy Spirit led, and so much of what they sang was giving glory to God and Jesus, and this is what we want to do every week when we meet, right, brothers and sisters, as we want to proclaim Jesus is Lord of our lives.

And so this morning I want to start with something a little light.

You know, I remember back in 2010 My family and I took a trip to Italy to celebrate the wedding of 1 of Cynthia's cousins.

And before the day of the wedding, we had to visit all of Cynthia's aunts and uncles.

It's just something you got to do, right?

And so 1 afternoon, we were having lunch at her aunt's home and the boys and their young cousins decided to go play in the bathroom.

My boys don't know I'm telling this story, they're already looking at me.

And so we noticed at 1 point that they weren't actually coming out.

And they had locked themselves in the bathroom and anyone who has visited Italy or has a house with old doors knows that these older doors have a skeleton key, right, that can be removed from the door And I think that key must have been 4 inches long.

Well, what started out as a game now became serious.

The children began to cry and bang on the bathroom door.

Get us out of here, mommy, daddy, we're trapped.

I don't recall all the promises that they made us that day to behave, but you remember Julian would have been 4 and Joshua 8, and thankfully the bathroom window was open, so we told the children, just throw the key outside of the second floor window and we'll catch it.

But I remember hearing a thud as it hit a parked car, just outside of that window.

And when we retrieved the key and opened the door, the children ran out to hug us to say they were sorry, and they were quite shaken up.

And Cynthia's aunt was a little upset too that they were playing in her bathroom.

Well, this morning we have before us a much more significant form of being locked up and freed in our story of Paul and Silas and their encounter with a Philippian jailer and being freed from prison.

And so I've entitled my message, Freed from the Chains of Bondage.

And I would like to present to us this morning 3 scenes from this passage.

Freed from spiritual bondage, and I want to look at the young slave girl in verses 16 and 18.

And secondly, freed from prison's bondage and the power of prayer and praise in the believer's life.

And then lastly, freed from sins bondage and the miracle of salvation that takes place in a believer's life and baptism that follows as obedience in verses 30 to 34.

The Apostle Paul declared in Romans chapter 8 verse 18, yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

Paul probably wrote those words on his third missionary journey around the year AD 57 which would have taken, which would take us to a period not long after his imprisonment in Acts chapter 16.

And I can imagine as he wrote these words about our earthly suffering, the memory of his imprisonment and bondage would have still been fresh in his mind.

This morning all 3 of our scenes deal with different forms of bondage and the suffering associated with it.

But I have good news because we serve a God that is bigger than any form of bondage that I may be facing today.

And the big picture for us to remember is that the power of darkness is no match for the power of God.

Ultimately, the hope we have in Christ, this hope of salvation, will free us from our groaning of earthly suffering and bondage to a future glory we cannot begin to imagine.

So let's read our passage together in Acts chapter 16 verses 16 to 40.

And I'll be reading from the New Living Translation this morning.

So it is a little different from the ESV, but it provides a little bit of color to this amazing account.

1 day, as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination that enabled her to tell the future.

She earned a lot of money for her masters by telling fortunes.

She followed Paul and the rest of us shouting, these men are servants of the Most High God and they have come to tell you how to be saved.

And this went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

Her master's hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace.

This whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews, they shouted to the city officials.

They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.

A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods.

They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison.

The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn't escape, so the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stalks.

And around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening.

Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake and the prison was shaken to its foundations.

All the doors immediately flew open and the chains of every prisoner fell off.

The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open.

He assumed the prisoners had escaped so he drew his sword to kill himself but Paul shouted to him, stop don't kill yourself we are all here.

The jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

Then he brought them out and asked, sirs, what must I do to be saved?

And they replied, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved along with everyone in your household.

And they shared the word of the Lord with him and with all who lived in his household.

Even at that hour of the night, the jailer cared for them and washed their wounds.

Then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized.

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.

The next morning the city officials sent the police to tell the jailer, let those men go.

So the jailer told Paul, the city officials have said you and Silas are free to leave.

But Paul replied, they have publicly beaten us without a trial and put us in prison and we are Roman citizens.

When the police reported this, the city officials were alarmed to learn that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens.

So they came to the jail and apologized to them.

Then they brought them out and begged them to leave the city.

When Paul and Silas left the prison, they returned to the home of Lydia, And there they met with the believers and encouraged them once more.

Father, I pray this morning your Holy Spirit would work in each of our lives.

God, We thank you for this miraculous story of transformed lives that took place.

We thank you because there's no power greater than you.

And so, Father, I pray your word would not return void.

It would be abundant in everyone that hears it today, and we would be encouraged and leave here changed and drawn closer to you.

And so in scene 1, freed from spiritual bondage, If you recall from last week's message that Nick had spoken, the passage from Acts 16, and specifically in verses 14 and 15, we read about the work of salvation that God performed by opening the heart of Lydia to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

And no sooner had her salvation and baptism taken place, and Satan is hindering God's work.

And in this case, to use the demonized girl.

And it's very clear in scripture that our warfare, our fight is not physical, right, it's spiritual.

For we're not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world against mighty powers in this dark world and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

That's what Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12 says.

And it's also clear that God desires that His children worship Him only.

Anything else is idolatry and playing with fire.

Turn with me in your Bibles to the Old Testament, to Deuteronomy 18, verses 9-14.

And in it here, God is very clear to his people that he desired that they be free of detestable or abominable practices and be blameless.

And it says, when you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be careful, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there.

For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering, and do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead.

Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.

It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you.

The nations you are about to displace consult sorcerers and fortune tellers, but the Lord your God forbids you to do such things." And so God was very clear what these detestable or abominable practices were.

And in verses 16 and 17 here in our passage, we discover what 1 of those detestable practices was.

This young girl followed Paul and the group, shouting, these men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.

And this slave girl's body was possessed by a demonic spirit that knew exactly who God is and declared it through her day after day.

The words most high can also be translated El Elyon, which is the name for God, the most high.

And that is the God that we serve brothers and sisters, the Most High God, amen?

This spirit of divination that this young girl exhibited is what is called a python spirit.

That expression comes from Greek mythology And Python was a snake that guarded the Oracle of Delphi.

And essentially, this girl was a medium in contact with demons that could supposedly predict the future.

It's a warning to us today to stay away from this form of witchcraft.

These detestable practices that Moses warned the Israelites about apply to us as well.

Palm readers, fortune tellers, sorcery, tarot cards, Ouija boards, Wicca, astrology, horoscopes, numerology, reading tea leaves, seances, voodoo, shamans, witch doctors, the list goes on.

Anything or anyone that take our hope off of God to consult any of these detestable practices is playing with fire and is very, very dangerous.

If you wear charms, You'll see this in southern Italy, the cornicello.

It's an Italian pepper charm or charms that people wear to protect against the evil eye or evil spirits and bad luck.

His name is Jesus and the Holy Spirit dwells in each believer.

I can't get better protection than that today brothers and sisters.

Back in our passage in Acts, Scripture says that Paul had had enough of this as he most certainly did not want people to believe that he was mixed up with this slave girl's evil practices of divination.

And so with just a simple word, the powerful name of Jesus, she was delivered that very hour.

And in that moment, the slave girl's owner lost their means of business.

It was financially lucrative then and it still is today.

It's estimated the psychic services industry, including palm readers and mediums and astrologists, is worth well over 2.2 billion US dollars.

And at 1 time, even the cosmetics giant Sephora launched their own $42 starter witch kit containing sage, tarot cards and rose quartz.

The board game company Parker Brothers has had the patent for the Ouija board since 1967.

If hearing this makes you fearful, we need to be reminded today that there is no name under heaven or earth that is more powerful than the name of Jesus.

Demons shudder at the mention of his name.

Put your trust in him today and throw out anything that could be remotely attached to these practices." So what was the so-called claim made against Paul and Silas by the slave girls' masters to the officials.

Verse 21 says, They advocate customs that are not lawful for us Romans to accept or practice.

Paul and Silas worshipped the Most High God, and Roman religion at that time was polytheistic.

They believed that impersonal spirits or supernatural powers inhabited objects such as trees and streams or earth.

And as the Roman Empire expanded, it imported and assimilated many religious ideas and pagan gods from Greece and the Orient.

Roman gods were fused and identified with the gods of the Greeks.

Buildings and temples and monuments to these gods were erected.

Astrological beliefs and magical practices flourished And this was the culture that early Christians were living in and Paul and Silas were preaching and living in that culture.

Brothers and sisters, this power that Paul declared saying, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.

There is power in the name of Jesus and today I can be free from any spiritual bondage that is holding me back from serving Christ completely once I've surrendered to him.

Scene number 2, freed from prison's bondage.

I can also be faced with great difficulties and trials and can be confronted with great moments of suffering and pain for taking a stand for righteousness.

And in their moment, Paul and Silas, I scratch my head and can't understand it, but they could have easily shown the officials their Roman citizenship card right away and gotten off with a lighter sentence perhaps and yet in this instant it didn't happen.

God used the negative circumstance of their imprisonment to bring about a positive outcome.

In this case, the salvation of a Roman family.

We know this verse from Romans 8.28, which declares, and we know, that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

And so I may be going through a test of my faith today and wonder why it's happening.

God, I don't understand why this circumstance is taking me down this path, but I trust you to lead me through it.

In Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, He declared in Matthew 5, verses 10-12, God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers.

Be very glad, for a great reward awaits you in heaven.

And remember the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.

I could only imagine what that reward will be.

And in this second scene, I'd like us to dig a little deeper about the effect that prayer and praise has in the believers life during our trials.

You see about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.

What does my prayer life and praise look like in my times of affliction?

Perhaps I may find it difficult to think about praising God when I'm going through a trial or faced with a difficulty.

My fretting and worry can consume my desire to pray.

But here Paul and Silas provide us with our example.

They prayed and sang and their faith was strengthened.

And get this, even the other prisoners listened to them.

Why would the other prisoners listen to them instead of telling them, hey keep it down over there, I'm trying to sleep, it's past midnight.

And yet the original Greek verb translated listening means to listen attentively.

Here are 2 men who had just been beaten up and they should have been angry with the world, not singing.

And yet they had the prisoner's attention.

And I wonder how many more were saved hearing Paul and Silas in that very hour.

As the psalmist declared, the Lord is my strength and shield.

He helps me and my heart is filled with joy.

I burst out into songs of thanksgiving and so as we pray, singing becomes a natural outcome of our worship.

I grew up in a home my mother sang every moment of the day that she could she would be cleaning the house and singing something and unfortunately my brother and I would sometimes tell her okay it's enough but I still hear that voice she had a strong alto voice I still hear it in my mind.

I'd like to read some examples of biblical worship before we look at the amazing outcome of Paul and Silas' circumstance.

In the Old Testament we read of our worship being offered to God as an offering and a celebration of praise.

In the Book of Psalms, where many of our biblical references of worship come from, we can shout for joy, We can sing the glory of his name.

We could give to him glorious praise and we did some of that this morning.

We can pray with our hands raised as a sign of surrender and offer a sacrifice of God to and offer a sacrifice of praise to God for His greatness.

In my distress and affliction, I could cry out to God, as Hannah did when she desired her own children.

Or we can make music with an instrument as David did on his own stringed instrument.

How about our corporate worship and praise?

Well, the book of Nehemiah provides us with an example.

The Israelites, we read in chapter 8 of Nehemiah verses 5 and 6, give us an example of corporate worship.

It says, And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people." So there's a reason why we stand on these platforms, right?

And as he opened it, all the people stood, and Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and All the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands, and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

In the New Testament, we have Mary's song of praise that she exclaimed when she was with her cousin Elizabeth.

She rejoiced, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.

The wise men in Matthew chapter 2 verse 11 says that when they saw the child with Mary, his mother, they fell down and worshipped him.

In the Gospel of Luke chapter 19, we read about Jesus' triumphal entry.

What was the reaction by his disciples when they saw him?

Verse 36 says, as he rode along the crowd spread out their garments on the road ahead of him and when he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.

Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord.

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven.

But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that.

And he replied, if they kept quiet, The stones along the road would burst into cheers.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus is worthy of all praise.

And he desires to hear our prayers and our praises today.

Our audible worship to Him is a natural outcome of our love and adoration to the King of Kings.

We also do it out of obedience to God's Word.

James tells us in chapter 5, verse 13, are any of you suffering hardship?

So we do it, we do it to give glory to God because of who He is.

We do it during trials and affliction, and the Holy Spirit helps us in our prayers, even when we don't have words to utter.

We do it as a sign of repentance with a humble heart.

And we even do it when we experience loss.

Job chapter 2 20 and 21 says, Job fell to the ground and worshipped.

And so for Paul and Silas, praying and singing praises to God even with their feet clamped in stalks was a very natural thing to do, even in this seemingly hopeless situation of being locked up in the inner prison, sore with bloody wounds.

Brothers and sisters, Scripture provides us with prayers and ways we can worship God our Savior, but what is important is that we do it.

We do it because it honors him and it glorifies him and it strengthens our faith.

Despite their suffering in this difficult circumstance, Paul and Silas chose to pray and sing hymns.

And when I think about the Philippian jailer, I imagine him being a hard man, numbed from the work he was responsible for, having executed prisoners and witnessed the stench of death on a daily basis.

His heart would have been calloused having this type of position.

And yet God can soften even the hardest of hearts and use any situation, even a natural disaster like an earthquake, to put fear in the hearts of people to get their attention.

In this instance, the jailer, after being roused from his sleep by the earthquake and confronted with his own mortality for seeing the prison doors wide open he was ready to stab himself.

Now exclaims, what must I do to be saved?

And you may be here this morning wondering the same thing.

What good work must I do to earn my salvation today?

Paul and Silas simply said to him, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.

The burdens I've carried, past hurts and failures I've lived with, by simply believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm set free from sins bondage.

Romans chapter 5 verse 8 and 9, it says, but God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's condemnation.

And after the jailer's initial confession, Paul and Silas, they took the time to explain the Word of the Lord to him and his family.

And now with a transformed, softened heart, He washed their wounds.

They were just his prisoners and now he's washing their wounds.

And then he and his family were washed from their sins and baptized at once.

All of the examples that we've read about, brothers and sisters, in Acts all portray baptism in the same manner.

It's simply an act of obedience after a confession of faith because of belief in the name of Jesus.

They all took place immediately, and I often wonder if we've complicated the act of baptism or added works required in order to be baptized.

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