Acts 16 (Bible Study) - (3 Conversions)
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Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. 2 The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. 4 As they traveled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. 5 So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.Paul’s Vision of the Man of Macedonia
6 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. 8 So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. 9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi
11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district[a] of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Paul and Silas in Prison
16 Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 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.
19 When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”
29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole household.
35 When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” 36 The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”
37 But Paul said to the officers: “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? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”
38 The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. 39 They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. 40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
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Acts of Jesus through the Apostles
Introduction
Paul’s second missionary journey was his greatest. It was to main cities of 3 Roman provinces, Macedonia, Achaia, Asia. Paul’s urban-centric missionary strategy was crucial. Planting a church in each city like Phillippi, Thessalonica, and Berea - Macedonian cities.
1. Acts 16:1, 6-10. Look at a map to see how unusual a route this is. a) On the basis of Acts, what are the ways that the Holy Spirit may have been guiding them away from these provinces?
b) What does this incident tell us about how God will guide us?
a) How may the Holy Spirit have been guiding them?
It can be seen from the map that Paul and company returned to where they had been on the first journey; Pisidian Antioch, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts16:1). It would be natural to go north to Asia, Mysia, or Bithynia. But they were “kept by the Holy Spirit” from preaching in those regions. They had to journey a long way before they were allowed to stop and minister. The text does not say how the Holy Spirit dissuaded them. In Acts 11:28 it was by word of knowledge or revelation to a person. In Acts 15:28 it was by discussion and group consensus. In Acts 13:1ff it was by group prayer. Why they did not go north may have been a) through an illness or a legal ban or b) through reasoning or conviction in prayer, or c) through a a lack of agreement within the group, or d) through a miraculous circumstance such as a prophecy or dream or vision. All methods of the Holy Spirit. Since it was not specified it was probably ordinary rather than extraordinary otherwise Luke would have recorded the miracle or vision. Luke doews however record Paul’s dream of a man of Macedonia calling him to preach there.
NB A “no” is an act of guidance. In addition, we now have letters 1 & 2 Thessalonians , Ephesians and Corinthians 1 & 2. Note the pronoun change from “they” to “we” implies that they picked up Luke at Troas. Summary: God’s guidance is negative as well as positive, closed and open doors.
2. Acts 16:11-15. What do we know about Lydia and how she was truly converted?
Note: “a place of prayer… on the Sabbath” indicates that these were Jews and God-fearing Gentiles who met weekly for worship, but that there were not enough of them to have an official synagogue. So what Paul and his friends went to was, essentially, a synagogue service of teaching/discussion of God’s Word.
First, we learn that Lydia was a businesswoman, a dealer in dyed cloth. From Thyatira, a place known for its dyes (an ancient inscription in that place refers to a guild or association of dyers that was centred in that city). She was a dyer or a trader networking in her home city. Second, she was a “worshipper of God” (v.14) a convert to Judaism (revered the Old Testament and worshipped God.
Notice the statement about becoming a Christian. “Whose heart the Lord opened to give heed to the things that were spoken by Paul” (v14 ASV). But God reached Lydia through the preaching of the word by Paul. Her response was only possible because her heart was opened by God. Without Holy Spirit intervention, the listeners’ hearts are closed, and the speakers words are ineffective. Read Acts 13:44, where we are told that “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” — not that “as many as believed were appointed to eternal life”. It is the same with Lydia. Her heart was not opened because she responded to the gospel — she responded to the gospel because her heart was opened.
Notice also the pathway to faith:
a) She believed the gospel “responded to Paul’s message” (v.14). The gospel was coherent, attractive, convicting.
b) She brought her family (oikos) to the Lord. Acts 16:15. Oikos means her servants, her children, if she was married; her husband. Perhaps, she led other adult members of her household network to Christ as well.
c) Her home became a centre of ministry. She invited the missionary team to live and operate out of her home. It became a house church. Once your heart is opened to God, your resources: home wallet, possessions become open as well.
3. Read Acts 16:16-19. Contrast the slave-girl with Lydia and especially Paul’s ministry to each. What is Luke trying to show us?
The contrast between the businesswoman, Lydia and the slave girl could not be greater. “They differ so much from one another that [Luke] may have deliberately selected them to show how Jesus’s name changed the most diverse types. (FF Bruce, p.332). The girl “had a spirit by which she predicted the future” (v16) NB the Greek she “had the spirit of python.” A “pythoness” was a person who was possessed by the spirit of the python which guarded the mythic temple of Apollo and the Delphic oracle. Greeks named them “ventriloquists” (see Bruce, p.332 n.35). They made clairvoyant predictions and proclaimed prophecies and gnomic utterances in strange and foreign voices. Society considered them inspired by Apollo and the python, people paid the masters of this slave girl for consultations. And “she earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling” v16).
So the contrast between Lydia and the girl was thus: Lydia is a respectable business woman, a pillar of the community; the slave girl is virtually an item in a freak show. Lydia is a very religious person who loved and knew the Bible; but the slave girl is starved of any knowledge of the truth - a marginalized non-person, without dignity, powerless, without even any self-control. Whereas Lydia has a moderate amount of power, both social and economic. F. F. Bruce said, the gospel reaches and transforms every person. It is not only for the cultured and the able, nor is it only for the helpless and the broken.
Paul ministers differently to the two women. Paul recognises her as demon-possessed, and exploited by her human masters. In one stroke Paul breaks the power that both have over her. How?
Over several days we are told that Paul grew “troubled” (v18), i.e. grieved and distressed for her. Finally, he publicly challenged the demon in the name of Jesus, and it came out of her. Even her masters saw she had new peace of mind. She became calm and “normal” - they became mad!
Lydia had come to Christ quietly, but the slave girl very noisily! Lydia had come to Christ in a Bible study but the slave girl met Christ through a powerful encounter. To Lydia, Jesus was presented as the Messiah of Israel; to the slave girl, he was presented as the bondage-breaker, all-powerful liberator. This shows us - that that Jesus is also the liberator for Lydia, and he is also the fulfiller of the law for the slave-girl — but in their initial encounter, each was confronted with a different feature of Jesus glory. We need to be flexible when presenting the gospel. Consider how different a person’s problems, needs, and issues can be! The gospel is as much for “nice” as for broken people.
4. Read Acts 16:19-40. a) What led the jailer to believe?
b) Compare his worldview with that of Lydia and the girl.
c) How does Paul lead him to Christ?
d) Why does Paul insist on a public apology v.37?
Paul and Silas found themselves in jail because the masters of the slave-girl were furious that their income lost. They cleverly aroused the people’s racist attitudes by talking about these “Jews” polluting the culture of “us Romans”. So, they were imprisoned. It leads to the conversion of the Phillipian jailer.
a) What led him to seek Christ?
First, Paul and Silas, who would have been bruised and bleeding, were praying and singing hymns to God at midnight (v.25) – their testimony was key. The jailer (v.25) saw how Christianity strengthens you to face the worst that life can send.
Second, when the earthquake came, and all were unchained, the jailer was shocked to find that Paul and Silas had restrained the inmates. By doing so, they had saved his life. This act of service to him humbled him, and the view of their influence (over the prisoners) probably awed him as well. This led him to ask, “what must I do to be saved?” Sum: he was impressed with their character and helped by them
b) Compare his pre-Christian spiritual condition.
The jailer was somewhere between the conditions of Lydia and the Pythoness. He wasn’t a moral, Bible studying person, but neither was he out of control and broken. He didn’t come calmly, like Lydia, during a Bible study. Neither was he challenged by the evangelists like the girl. When he asked “what must I do to be saved?” he would not have known very much about “salvation” (unlike Lydia). He was simply aware that these men had a power and character and peace that he lacked and he wanted.
c) How Paul led him to Christ.
First, Paul summarized the gospel: “believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your family” v.31. (Meaning this is not just for you, but for your whole family.) Second, Paul “then… spoke the word of the Lord to him…” (v.32). A brief gospel summary was not enough. Third, Paul brought the word to the family! This is wise because, if an individual converts without the rest of the family, it can lead to division and alienatio. Also, it shows that people tend to come to Christ via relationships.
Fourth, they were baptised when they believed (v.33). Obviously Paul thought it important to let the people show their commitment to Christ quickly. This closure results in wonderful joy (v.34).
d) The public apology.
It is not like Paul promote himself or to try to humiliate an opponent. Rather, “this may have been extremely important for the freedom of the church he left behind” (Triton, in Stott, p.268).
It was illegal to beat and imprison a Roman citizen without a trial. The magistrates knew now that Paul could appeal and create great trouble for them. By showing them this power he had over them, he was probably guaranteeing that his new church at Philippi would not be harassed.
There were many conversions at Philippi but Luke deliberately chose these three.
As John Stott says, “racially, socially, and psychologically they were worlds apart. Yet all three were changed by the same gospel and were welcomed into the same church.” (p.268). (a) Racially — Lydia was a foreigner from Asia Minor, the slave-girl probably native Greek,and the jailer probably a Roman. (b) Socially — Lydia wealthy, the slave girl was a non-person socially, and the jailer a civil servant. (c) Psychologically/mentally — Lydia was very wise and “together”, the slave-girl was deranged, while the jailer was probably a retired soldier, a “working man”. (d) “Felt needs” — Lydia’s was probably more intellectual, responding to a dissatisfaction with her view of the world and meaning in life (after all, she had everything else — self-esteem, success, a family). Paul responded with gentle discussion. The slave-girl’s need was deep and emotional. She was an addict with a completely broken life. And Paul responded with a word of command. The jailer’s sense of need was more acute than Lydia’s and yet less so than the slave-girl’s. He seemed to realize that “he didn’t have what it takes” to face life. And Paul responded to this man of action (probably not an intellectual) with a fairly direct presentation and then he called him to a decision.
What is most surprising (maybe deliberate) is that these three persons were opposite to what a Jewish male like Paul would have been. In fact, every Jewish head of a house would rise in the morning and thank God (in a very typical and common prayer) that he was not born a Gentile, a woman, or a slave. Yet here were these three kinds of people all now united with Paul as brothers and sisters, and now the new foundation of the new church! It is noteworthy that Luke ends the story referring to all the new Christians as their “brethren” (v.40). How important it is to show the world that through Christ people can become brothers and sisters who, outside the church, cannot even get along.
