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I work in Salem - sometimes known affectionately as prison town. Salem is home to the Oregon State Penitentiary. Built in the 1850's, the prison sports cement walls 20 feet high. It is home to the state's most notorious and dangerous killers. Over the years, inmates at Oregon's maximum lock up have tried some pretty creative ways of trying to escape. One guy actually got out - by hiding in a bunch of laundry. He ran into an adult bookstore where the owner apprehended him. A couple of years ago a group of inmates tried to dig a tunnel under the prison wall. They got 24 feet out from the loading dock, shoring up their "Great Escape" tunnel with shipping pallets. A food service worker saw an inmate with a muddy lantern and foiled the plot. I wonder if any of them thought about singing their way out of prison? Okay, you laugh, but today we find our friends: Paul and Silas, doing just that. And it's a lesson to us when we find ourselves in a prison of high walls - cement or situation - and need a way of escape. Vs 1 Timothy is introduced here. Paul later put Timothy in charge of a group of churches, and wrote two letters to him, detailing leadership structures and other things for those churches. Vs. 2 What do people say about you? What would you like other people to say about you? The Greek Martureo means: "to be a witness". Like it or not, your life is a witness of who you are. Do the things you do reflect the character of Christ? I don't mean: are you perfect? None of us are. None of us have perfect lives either. Timothy wasn't perfect - he had a tendency to let God's gifts drift and go unused. The point is: are you soft clay the Lord can work with and through? Are you dependant on Him, looking to Him, seeking to be like Him? Vs. 3 So why did Paul circumcise Timothy? Aren't we free from the Jewish law once we become a Christian? Yes. Is Paul saying Christians should be circumcised? No. Didn't he rail against that very thing in Galations? Yes. Here's the deal. Paul did this for appearance sake. What? That's right. Timothy was the son of a Jew and a Greek. To the Greeks he would have been looked upon as a Jew no matter if he had been circumcised or not. To the Jews that he would go and preach to, however, he would be looked upon as the uncircumcised son of a Greek and an offense. In fact, marriage between a Greek and a Jew was illegal to the Jews. So Paul removes the offense where he can. It didn't change Timothy to circumcise him, but it did change the attitude of those Timothy preached to. We find out more about Paul's position on this in: 1 Cor 9:19-23 19 Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (NIV) A modern day counterpart to this might be if you felt called to preach to the Hells Angels. You are all ready for your preaching, your hair cut short, your clothes right out of the J. Crew catalogue, your Bible in your hands and fire and brimstone on your lips. To the folks from church who send you off, you'd look just great. But how far do you think you'd get with the bikers? You'd get tossed out of there before you could utter a word. But, if on the other hand, you tune up your Harley, put your hair in a pony tail, pull on your leather biker pants and ride up the Interstate to the nearest truck stop - you will appear to others that you've gone over to the dark side - but to the bikers you'll be accepted. You haven't broken any laws, or sinned in any way. The accoutrements of the biker on the outside might be foreign to you, even strange, but its just a façade, a tool, to preach to them the transformation that God wants to do on the inside. Vs. 4 - 5 The "decisions" we talked about last week. Mainly, that the churches were not to: 1) Abstain from food sacrificed to idols 2) Abstain from blood 3) Abstain from the meat of strangled animals (the blood still in it) 4) Abstain from sexual immorality Interestingly, these were concessions to the Jews. To many Jews these things would have made the people part of the pagan worship - even to the idea of temple prostitution. Yes, they ate the blood as food. Vs. 6 - 7 The Holy Spirit kept them from going to Asia - and later the "Spirit of Jesus" - 1st use of Jesus and the Holy Spirit as one - kept them from Bithynia. How often do we think that every door should open for us, every opportunity must be from God and therefore we must do what we purpose to do. Not so. In fact, God here demonstrates that he closes doors to help us make decisions too. How were they prevented? We don't know. Perhaps it was a sense, perhaps it was circumstances. They realized that their lives and ministries were in God's hands and whatever happened to them God guided and provided. For us it is the same. We must "commit our way" to the Lord, then trust that He will open and close doors for us - sometimes through what happens, sometimes through what we feel He is telling us. Vs. 8 - 10 It wasn't until one door closed that God opened another. Paul didn't know where to go, he just knew where not to go. Where are you in your attempts to discern God's will for your life? Does it seem just like he's closing doors and not opening them, telling you where not to go and what not to do, but not giving you firm direction? God doesn't need our assistance in perfecting His plan. He doesn't say: "You know, I've got this and this that I need done, but I just can't figure out how to get the right people in the right place." If God is saying "no", it doesn't mean He disapproves of you, it simply means that, like Paul, He wants us to obey whatever He tells us to do, even if that is nothing. The direction will come later. For example - Lindy and Roger's bakery. It seemed like a bunch of dead ends - a bunch of "no's". Finally, when it seemed like there was nothing else they could do, God gave them direction from a totally unlikely source. For Paul - he wouldn't have gone to Macedonia, if the Lord hadn't close the door to Asia. For us - we won't go where God really wants us to go if we are so busy doing what we think God wants us to do that we can't hear His voice. A side not in Vs 10: The "they" turns to "we". Not so obviously, Luke joins the journey here. Luke continued with Paul all the way to Philippi. Vs 11 - 15 Neopolis was a port for the city of Philippi. Philippi was an important Roman colony. It was filled mostly with Roman citizens. Interestingly, Paul goes down to the watering place by the river. Normally he would have gone to the Jewish synagogue, but apparently there weren't even 10 Jewish men in Philippi to make up a synagogue. So instead he goes to where he supposed a synagogue might have been, a place where the Jewish women congregated. Lydia could mean "The Lydian" signifying the region of Thyatira, which was known for dealing in purple cloth. She was a gentile who had accepted Judaism, and now Christ. She was a woman of wealth, and after receiving Christ she received Paul into her home where many of her household followed her example. This leads us once again to see that you have an effect on those who look to you. Lydia could have remained quiet about her salvation ("It's a private matter"). But she did not - and many saw salvation. We too should live our Christianity on the outside, not the inside, of our lives. Vs 16 - 24 Some notes on this story: The girl is literally called a "pythonspirit". The priestess of Apollo was thought to have the spirit of a python. Anything this girl would have said would have been considered spoken by the gods. Paul may have waited just to avoid the very situation he found himself in. Eventually, though, he had to deal with the enemy and force his hand. Paul and Silas got in trouble because they disrupted business - not for preaching the gospel. Vs 21: The Romans allowed the Jews to practice their religion, but not propagate it. Paul and Silas were seen, not as Christians, but as Jews who had transgressed the Roman law. Vs 24. The stocks: not only were their feet fastened, but the stocks could be spread apart, forcing the legs into a very uncomfortable position. Vs 25 I love this verse. While Peter slept during his incarceration - Paul and Silas prayed and worshiped. What do we do when everything seems dark in our lives? Do we tremble with fear, do we give ourselves ulcers with worry, do we strike out at the injustice of it all? Or do we commune with God? Worship is a powerful weapon. Worshipers marched at the front of God's army - and the enemy fell before them. Worshipers marched around the walls of Jericho, and they crashed to the ground. Worshipers surround the throne of the Almighty God who is Omnipotent. Worshipers filled that jail cell in Philippi - and the doors couldn't stay closed. Vs 27 - 29 How does Paul know the jailer is about to kill himself if it is pitch black? Perhaps he saw the jailer's outline in the door. Vs 30 - 34 The jailers were free to treat their prisoners in any way they wanted, as long as they produced them to the magistrates when demanded. So its not out of the realm of possibility that this jailer, once he received Christ, would bring Paul and Silas to his own table. Again this shows that even in the direst of circumstances, people who you would think would never accept Jesus could end up as your greatest ally. Vs 35 - 39 Paul calls the magistrates on the carpet because as Roman citizens, Paul and Silas were immune from certain forms of punishment. Their rights as citizens were flagrantly violated and there was no due process for the charges against them. Vs 40 I like how Paul doesn't accept the appeasement of the officials - he doesn't leave the city but goes back to Lydia's house and encourages the new Christians, then he leaves in his own good time. It's likely that Paul went through all this, not for his own self-vindication, but that the young church he had just planted would have no shadow over it. Conclusions I know I say this a lot, but we simply cannot underestimate the power of worship. The question is, how much do we tap into that power? Paul and Silas could not bring their portable CD player with them into the jail - so they had to have the songs in their hearts. How well do you know worship songs? Do you know them by heart or do you totally depend on the words up on the overhead on Sunday mornings? Have worship ready when you need it. Sitting there in those stocks, uncomfortable, in jail, in a tight space - its not the most conducive to a spontaneous worship service. I would suggest to you that practicing a passion for God's presence - focusing on the Lord with intensity - prepares us to worship in the hard times. Make Sunday mornings your choir practice for the dark times during the week. Now - you may not find the prison doors swinging open instantly - the situation righting itself right away. But don't give up. Getting out prison sometimes means you are in the physical prison, but spiritually you are free as a bird. One final point: don't think that inaction means you are not following God's will. Wait, pray, listen, and wait some more. Give God time to speak and time for it to settle in. Take "no" as direction, not correction. Don't be in such a hurry. Remember: for God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. |
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