Acts 16
COMMENTARY:
: 5 And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily. (1577 “churches” [ekklesia] means congregation, assembly, gathering of persons with a purpose, gathering, or a calling out.)
DEVOTION: The people who gathered on the day of Pentecost started what is called the congregation of the righteous in the New Testament. They gathered around the belief that Jesus Christ came as the Messiah and died for the sins of those who accepted HIS sacrifice.
One the day of Pentecost there were three thousand plus in the assembly of Jerusalem. They met in house churches. They met in other locations. It continued to grow to a group of about ten thousand believers.
Next came the persecution of those who believed which caused them to scatter away from Jerusalem. The apostles stayed in Jerusalem to give the assembly a center leadership position.
The next stage of the growth of the assembly happened as the LORD led the apostles to Samaria and Caesarea where those who were mixed and Gentile joined the church. The Holy Spirit made it plain that everyone needed to know the LORD.
Missionaries were sent out to help the church grow. This caused the assemblies to be established with a Biblical faith. They taught what Jesus taught. This also caused the number in the assemblies to increase DAILY.
The LORD still wants the church to increase daily with believers. This can only happen if all believers are out witnessing for the LORD. Each believer is either helping the growth of the congregation they are a member of or hindering the growth. There is no status quo in Christianity. New people coming into the church as visitors will either be greeted friendly by all of the congregation or will be looked at as intruders in the church.
CHALLENGE: You have to ask yourself if you are a good welcoming committee to new visitors or grouches. We either have a smile on our face or a look that says “why are you here.”
: 6 Now when they had gone throughout Phryia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. (2967 “forbidden” [koluo] means hinder, withstand, keep from, to be prevented from doing something or being in a certain state, forbid, withhold, or restrain.)
DEVOTION: Many of us don’t like any restrictions in our life. We want to do what we want to do when we want to do it. We take our selfishness and our laziness with us into our spiritual life in Christ.
Here we find that Paul and Silas are on their second missionary and they were prevented or forbidden by the Holy Spirit to go certain places. They probably thought that they could go anywhere and preach the Gospel. This was not true. Remember that God has a plan that HE made before the foundation of the world as to what was to happen and when.
They were to go to certain places that were prepared ahead of time for them to be, so that they could win many to the LORD. The Holy Spirit was showing them the way they were to go.
Today it is the same. The LORD opens doors and closes doors. We don’t understand it but we accept it as HIS plan. Does that mean that some people will never be reached with the Gospel? The answer is NO!! No one will have an excuse when they stand before the LORD. No one will be able to say I never had a chance to know YOU.
When the LORD opens the door for you to talk to someone about HIM, you need to go through it. When the LORD closes a door you shouldn’t try to go through the closed door. Ask the LORD to give you wisdom regarding what doors are open to you and what doors are closed.
In verse fourteen we see that Lydia’s heart was opened by the LORD. She became a believer.
CHALLENGE: People with open hearts hear the Word of God and respond. God chooses to use HIS people to witness to open hearts.
: 16 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. (4436 “divination” [puthon] means be a fortuneteller, soothsayers, diviners, denotes the spirit that speaks through, or ventriloquist.)
DEVOTION: Many times, we think that demon possession is only something that happens to people in Africa. That is a lie of the devil. His demons or fallen angels are possessing people in every nation of the world. He knows that his time is short and he must act to prevent the Gospel from reaching every soul he can possibly reach. He knows he is in a battle against the LORD Jesus Christ and that he is going to lose the war but hopes to win many battles.
We have many fortune tellers in our world. They have businesses in every major city. They are on television on a regular basis to encourage people to think they know what is going to happen in the future. We have many games in the marketplace that help people practice the black arts. We have some that openly worship the devil. We live in a time period where the “walking dead” is used in many movies and television shows. Our society makes a joke of it. Satan likes this to happen.
Now Satan and his angels, know who Jesus Christ is and who HIS genuine servants are that are in our world. He tries to get those who claim Christ to deny HIM. He has many pastors and religious leaders in his camp. They say they believe the Bible but teach things that are contrary to the Bible. This is especially true regarding birth and marriage today.
If Satan can get genuine believers sidetracked from witnessing for the LORD by making them just concerned about social issues, he has won a battle. Our main concern should be salvation of souls. The demons in the girl knew who Paul and Silas were and what their mission was.
CHALLENGE: Our mission should be the same. Don’t let Satan sidetrack your outward expression of salvation.
: 25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. (5214 “sang praises” [humneo] means sing a religious ode, to celebrate in song, sing songs from the Jewish psalms, song addressed to God or sing a hymn.)
DEVOTION: Paul and Silas are on the second missionary journey. They are joined by Timothy. As they travel the Holy Spirit directs them on which way to go. They were told not to go in two directions by the Holy Spirit. Paul had a vision regarding going to Macedonia. They ended up in Philippi in this chapter.
They went to the riverside where women gathered for prayer. They met Lydia who as a business woman. She had her heart opened to the message of the Word of God. She was saved and baptized. She had Paul and company stay at her house.
One day as they were going to the prayer meeting at the river side, they were bothered by a woman who was possessed of an evil angel. She continued daily to bother them until Paul turned around and cast out the demon in the name of Jesus.
Her masters were angry because they were earning a lot of money with her comments. They stirred up the crowd which ended with Paul and Silas receiving a beating and being cast into jail.
While in jail they acted like you and I would have acted if we were falsely accused and put in jail. They sang praises to the LORD. We would do that too. Right???
Paul and Silas were put in prison without a trial. Paul and Silas were put into the inner prison. Paul and Silas had stocks on their feet. If this were us, what would our reaction be? We were preaching the word. We were seeing people follow Jesus. We cast out a demon in Jesus’ name. Now we were in prison because we were doing the Lord’s work. What would we be saying to one another?
Here we have Paul and Silas praying to the Lord. Here we have Paul and Silas celebrating with praises to God. They were having a worship service in prison. The other prisoners were watching.
God sent an earthquake. All the chains fell off. All the doors of the prison were opened. The jailer woke up and was going to kill himself but Paul yelled out that everyone was still there.
The jailer asked what he had to do to be saved. The jailer was converted and baptized. Praise the LORD.
When our circumstances seem hopeless. When we have things go wrong in our lives, what should we do? Sing? Pray? Have a worship service? YES. YES. YES.
CHALLENGE: Watch people at the next service that you attend to see how much excitement they have when they sing praises to the LORD. Also, examine your singing. Should we have more excitement than Paul and Silas in jail????
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