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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Section - Chapters 16 Previous Section - Chapters 15 ch. 16:1-5 ch. 16:6-10 ch. 16:11-15 ch. 16:16-40 Timothy Joins Paul And Silas (ch. 16: 1 - 5) Paul
left It
is obvious that Timothy grew up in a mixed marriage since his mother was
Jewish and his father a Greek. His
mother must not have been a faithful Jew since she married a Gentile and
also since Timothy was not circumcised as a baby.
Paul
must have seen growth in Timothy because he wanted Timothy to come along
with them on their trip, yet before leaving town Paul had Timothy
circumcised. Why did Paul do
such a thing when he put no importance on circumcision?
Luke tells us that Paul had Timothy circumcised because there were
many Jews in this region. Paul
only had Timothy circumcised to make him more acceptable to the Jews, thus
making ministry easier for them. This
operation had nothing to do with Timothy’s salvation, or his growth as a
Christian. It was only a
practical matter that would only help spread the gospel.
To Paul whether one was circumcised or not, it did not really
matter. There was no big deal
with Timothy getting circumcised, as long as there was no hint of this
having anything to do with his salvation. One
might ask, “how would people know if Timothy was circumcised or not”?
Luke tells us the answer. In
verse 3 he says that “everyone knew that his father was a Greek”,
therefore everyone would naturally believe he was not circumcised.
Maybe, if Timothy had a Jewish father Paul would not have had him
get circumcised. One
thing that Paul did as he went through these cities was to deliver the
Acts 15 letter to the churches. Paul
wanted to make it very clear that the Gentiles would not need to associate
themselves with the Mosaic Law. The
Law had nothing to do with them, and he used the letter to support his
teaching. Luke
closes this section by saying that the churches were very encouraged and
grew in numbers. Paul’s
Vision Of The Man Of Verse
6 says that Paul and his companions traveled
through Phrygia and In
one incident the Holy Spirit told Paul and his friends not to preach in Then
a second incident tells us that the “Spirit of Jesus” told them not to
go into Bythinia. To whom He
told this to and why, we don’t know.
Once again, the Lord intervened and changed the direction that
these men were going. It
has often been said that we should not be stagnant as Christians.
We should just go ahead and do something for the Lord, and if He
wants to change our direction He will let us know somehow.
The people who say this tell us that it is easier to steer a ship
that is moving than one that is not moving.
This appears to be the case with Paul and those with him. Note
that the “Spirit of Jesus” told these men not to go into Bythinia.
We can conclude then that the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus
are one in the same. This
shows you the “oneness” between the Holy Spirit and Jesus, which is
part of the argument for what we call the Trinity. Luke
records that while in Troas, a coastal city, Paul had a vision of a man
from Macedonia. The man told Paul to come
over to Paul,
and those with him sailed northward and then took a road inland to So
as Paul’s practice was, he found Jews on the Sabbath and would speak to
them. This time he found a few
women and he proceeded to speak to them.
One particular woman was named Lydia, a business person from Thyatira. Luke
says in verse 14 that Philippi
is considered a European city, thus To
me it is interesting to note the phrase, “the Lord opened her heart to
respond”. Over the centuries there has been much debate over what is
God’s part and what is man’s part in the conversion process.
I do not believe in predestination.
So I believe man has a part to play in the conversion process.
Yet on the other hand God, by His Spirit has a real part to play as
well. You see His part here,
and that is “opening the heart” of the unbeliever so that he or she
can “respond”. From birth
our hearts are closed, locked up from the presence of God.
Only the Spirit of God can unlock our hearts and open the door to
our hearts. Once that door is
open, and we see the light of the Lord shining through, that is the
gospel, then it is our choice to “respond”.
As with This
tells me how we can pray for the unbeliever.
I often hear people praying that Jesus will save a particular
unbeliever. Of course He wants
that person saved. He has
already done all the work necessary for that person to be saved, but He
can’t make them be saved. That
is their choice. He can
encourage them to be saved, by “opening their heart’s door” to the
gospel. This means
that the Holy Spirit can speak to the heart of the unbeliever so he
can hear the clear gospel and decide for himself.
So the prayer we should be praying is that God would open the door
to the unbelievers heart, and that the Holy Spirit would speak to that
particular person and help and guide him through the salvation process if
he so decides that is what he wants. It
appears that the rest of Luke
records that all of Lydia’s household was baptized. Who
would have been a part of her household?
It would have included servants as well as relatives, and children
living with her. The fact that
her whole household was baptized has caused much debate.
The question is asked, “did any infant children get baptized”.
The answer to this question is not really known.
For those who believe in “infant baptism”, they would say yes,
there were little children here being baptized.
For those who don’t believe in “infant baptism”, they would
say that there were no children present, and if there were, they did not
get baptized. But if this was
the case, then her “whole household” did not get baptized.
Because of the measure of speculation involved, it is very
difficult to conclude from this Scripture alone the validity of “infant
baptism”. Besides, we do not know whether there were any children in her
household at the time. This
section closes with Lydia
inviting these men to stay at her place, but only if they consider her a
real believer. Once
again, Lydia, a woman was the first Christian in European Rome.
When Paul first came to this place of prayer, and saw only a few
women, he did not seem to be discouraged.
He preached to these few women, and just imagine what this little
gathering of people produced. It
set the stage for centuries of Christian activity, and millions of people
finding faith in Jesus throughout Paul And Silas In Prison (ch. 16:16 - 40) Verse
16 says, “once when we were going to the place of prayer…” meaning
that Paul and his company often went their to speak about Jesus.
On this one occasion they met up with a “slave girl who had a
spirit”. Through this
spirit this girl would predict the future, thus making lots of money for
her owners. This
girl kept on following Paul around for days saying that these men are
servants of the most high God. This
obviously became very irritating to Paul so he turned to the girl, and
told the spirit to come out of her. The
spirit immediately came out of the girl. Notice that Paul did not cast
this spirit out upon first seeing this girl.
It took many days for him to get upset enough to do this. His
suggests to me that Paul didn't cast every demon out of people that he
saw. Verse
20 tells us that there were in fact more than one owner of this slave
girl, and when they found out what Paul had done they were so upset that
they dragged Paul and Silas into the market place.
Note that both Timothy, and Luke, who was now with them did not get
dragged off for some reason. The
owners brought Paul and Silas before “the magistrates” and told them
that these men were Jews, and that they were teaching things that should
not be taught to Romans. Once
the crowd in the marketplace heard what was happening they joined in the
attack. The magistrates then
decided to strip the two men and beat them. Verse 23
tells us that once they were beaten they were thrown into prison.
They were put into an “inner cell” and “fastened” their feet
together. Verse
25 says that “about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing
hymns”. Then all of a sudden
there was an earthquake that shook the prison to its core causing the
doors to the cells to open and the chains to fall off all of the
prisoners. As
we have discussed earlier, Roman guards were responsible for keeping their
prisoners in jail and if one escaped the guard would be punished by death.
Knowing that the
prisoners were now able to leave on their own accord the guard pulled out
a knife to kill himself, but Paul quickly told him not to take such
drastic measures because no one had escaped. Obviously
the Lord used this event to bring salvation to this guard.
He was so overtaken with the event that he ran to Paul and Silas
and asked “ sirs, what must I do to be saved”?
This man asked the right question.
He knew why Paul and Silas were in jail.
He knew it had to do with this teaching called salvation.
He now knew, because of this miracle, that what these men were
saying was true. Thus once
again we see the miraculous moving of the Lord in the
book of Acts. It
is interesting to note the word “sirs” in this verse.
The Greek word “kurios” is the word translated as “sirs”.
This Greek word is the word for our English word “lord”, which is used
concerning our “Lord” Jesus. The
jailer must have been thinking that Paul and Silas were two very extra
ordinary men. In
response to the guards question Paul says, “believe in the Lord Jesus
and you will be saved, - you and your household”. This is one of those
often misunderstood verses. Paul
told this man that the way to being saved was for him to put his full
trust in Jesus for salvation in all of is varying aspects.
This is important to the context.
The only way that this man would receive God’s salvation was for
him to put his trust in Jesus. Therefore
when it comes to the rest of his family, the same rule would have to apply
to them. They were not saved
because of the fathers faith. Each
person in this man’s household came to salvation after they heard the
Word of God. Each person
believed for themselves. This verse, especially in light of the rest of
the Bible does not teach “household” salvation because of one
person’s faith in that household. You
also cannot claim salvation for members of your family and use this verse
to back up your claim. The
Lord is not obligated to make people believe who don’t want to believe
because a father or mother has faith.
Each person must come to faith in their own heart. It
is clear from what Luke writes that Paul and Silas were taken home by the
guard, they were washed, fed, and their cuts and bruises were attended to.
At this time Paul and Silas spoke the Word of the Lord to the other
family members who also believed and they all were baptized in water. Verse
34 says that the guard “was filled with joy because he had come to
believe in God – he and his whole family”.
This verse is important to what I have just said concerning
household salvation. Luke says
that this man had come to believe, and also that “his whole family”
had come to believe. This says
it clearly, that is, each member of the family believed for themselves.
It
is apparent that once the family members were baptized the guard took Paul
and Silas back to prison, most likely because they did not want any harm
to come to this new believer. When
daylight came the guard was told by the authorities to release Paul and
Silas. Paul
could have easily slipped out and went on his way preaching the gospel to
others, but this was not the case. Verse
37 gives Paul’s reply to his release.
It says, “they beat us publicly without a trial, even though we
are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison.
And now do they want to get rid of us quietly?
Let them come themselves and escort us out”.
There
are some things to note here. Both
Paul and Silas were Romans. Do
you remember when Paul and Barnabas split up and Paul decided to take
Silas? We noted then that the
choice of Silas was wise since he was a Roman and Barnabas wasn’t.
Seeing what just happened, maybe the split resulting in Silas going
with Paul was God’s will after all. The
point here is that by Roman Law, a Roman citizen could not be beaten.
A major injustice had been done against both Paul and Silas.
Paul was standing up for his legal rights.
He was not being a poor humble Paul and just walking away.
He was exerting his rights as a citizen.
To me this is important. Christians
do not always need to take a back seat and be second class citizens.
If our legal rights are being discriminated against, we can follow
in Paul’s footsteps and demand our rights.
The
authorities both beat and imprisoned Paul and Silas.
They beat them, which was against the law, and put them in jail
without even a trial. Yes, the
authorities did not appear to know that these men were Romans, but if a
proper trial would have been arranged, that would have been one of the
first things to be dealt with. Paul
therefore was going to make this point clear.
If they were publicly beaten, then they would be publicly released,
and by the same authorities that put them in jail, not some man under
their authority. When
the authorities heard that Paul and Silas were Romans, they were afraid
and came immediately to appease the 2 prisoners.
They kept asking Paul and Silas to leave the city. The reason why
the authorities were trying to get Paul and Silas out of town quickly is
because Paul and Silas could have brought charges against these men.
They chose not to do that. My
guess was that Paul would rather go and preach than to spend time in a
court case. They
did not leave town immediately. They first went to visit
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