Can you imagine walking into your house on a pitch black, moonless night, knowing exactly where the light switch is, but deciding not to turn the light on, but rather stumbling around in the dark? Can you imagine being lost in the woods, lost? as the day grows colder and icier with a lighter in your pocket and plenty of kindling underfoot, but deciding not to try to start a fire to keep warm, but rather facing hypothermia. Can you imagine not being able to get home for hours by the appointed time, your spouse worried and fretting about you with a working cell phone in your pocket and deciding not to dial your spouse's number, but rather to continue to let that loved one work. I'm sure there are extreme examples that we could dream up In all of these cases where we wouldn't turn the light on or we wouldn't try to light a fire, perhaps we believe there may be a burglar in the house, perhaps we live in California and starting a fire to keep warm may end up in a wildfire that burns homes down and businesses. But in the normal course of events, we flip that light on without a thought. We pull out that cell phone and give our spouse a call. And yet, can you imagine having the power to rescue a soul from hell, the power to lead a person to forgiveness and eternal life, and deciding not to use that power? I'm afraid that's much easier for most of us to imagine because most of us do it all the time. Romans 1.16 tells us that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Like a cell phone, most of us carry the gospel around with us wherever we go, and yet how often do we simply decide not to pull it out of our pocket? when it could have such an overwhelming impact. Our study of the book of Acts this morning brings us to the first missionary endeavors in what we today call Europe. And these endeavors illustrate the power of the gospel. So let's read as we begin, Acts 16, beginning in verse 11, Acts 16, verse 11. Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis. And from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony, a Roman colony. And we were staying in that city for some days. And on the Sabbath day, we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made. And we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us. Now it happened as we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us who brought her masters much profit by fortune telling. This girl followed Paul and us and cried out saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us the way of salvation. And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that very hour. But when her master saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. And they brought them to the magistrates and said, these men being Jews exceedingly trouble our city, and they teach customs which are not lawful for us being Romans to receive or observe. Then the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at mid-midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called out with a loud voice, saying, Do yourself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? So they said to him, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them, and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household." Now what we have in these verses are three vignettes. three short stories that illustrate the power of the gospel. If we want encouragement not to hide our light under a bushel, if we want encouragement not to keep the good news in our pockets, then here it is. So first, let me introduce you to these three individuals. These three individuals illustrate a truth that we've seen again and again in the writing of Luke, and that is that the gospel is not just for people like me. This gospel is not just for people like you. It is for every tribe and kindred and tongue and nation. A great diversity of human beings will know the power of God in the gospel. So first of all, in verses 11 through 15, we meet a God-fearing Lydian businesswoman. A God-fearing Lydian businesswoman. Now, most of us know this woman as Lydia from our Sunday school days. But it is probable that Lydia, or the Lydian, was actually her business name, like the Terminix man, or the cable guy. You see, we're told in verse 14 that Lydia was not actually a native of Philippi. She was from Asia Minor, from the city of Thyatira, which was in a region called Lydia. And the region of Lydia was famous for purple dye. And so the people of Philippi, Lydia meant purple dye. And thus this businesswoman was the Lydia lady. She was the purple dye woman. That was her business. That's how everyone knew her. And we learn in verse 13 that Paul met her outside the city at the riverside where women, apparently Jewish women, went to pray on the Sabbath day because there was no synagogue in Philippi. among the Jews, in order to start a synagogue, there had to be a quorum of 10 adult Jewish men in town, and apparently there were not such in the city of Philippi. So, it would have been Jewish women who met at the riverside, they would have read the scriptures, they would have read the prayers that normally would have been recited in the synagogue, but they did it at the riverside. And when Paul and Silas, two Jewish men, arrived, the women asked them to speak. And it must have been a very interesting time because they shared with them the true identity of their Messiah. Told them the good news about this Jesus and were told that Lydia, her heart was opened and she believed. The second vignette stretches from verse 16 to verse 19. Here we find a second woman, a demon-possessed slave girl. A demon-possessed slave girl. Now, verse 16 is one of those verses that no English translation gets correct because it would just take too many words. Our New King James Version describes her as a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination. Now, in the original language, the words translated spirit of divination are pneuma puthona. Pneuma puthona. Most of us know that that word pneuma means spirit. Puthona is the word in the Greek language from which we get our English word, Python. Literally, she had a Python spirit. Now, like everybody with me, What in the world is a python spirit? Well, I'm glad you asked. It'll take a big long explanation, and that's what they could not put in the translation. It just would have taken way too many words. This is all based on Greek mythology. According to Greek mythology, the Oracle of Delphi... How many of you have ever heard of the Oracle of Delphi? Okay, the Oracle of Delphi was where you could have the future foretold. So according to mythology, the Oracle of Delphi, the temple there, where the Oracle dwelt, was guarded by a snake, by a dragon. And the Greek god Apollo came and slew the dragon, and thus he became the deity of the temple, and it was said that he embodied the python. And he was able to inspire his female devotees, Pythonesses, to foretell the future. And that's why the rest of verse 16 tells us that this girl made money for her masters by telling fortunes. Now, from a biblical perspective, we understand that this girl was demon possessed. Whether she had some genuine ability to foretell events that was given to her by the demon that possessed her, or whether she was just a charlatan, we really don't know, we're not told. What we are told is that she was a slave. She was human property. She did not even share in the profits that were generated by her fortune telling. And for some reason, this girl decided that she would become the advertising agency for Paul and Silas. According to verse 17, this girl followed Paul and us and cried out saying, these men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us the way of salvation. Now, if this had been today, they would have paid her master's extra dough. I mean, you know, we're getting good advertising, right? Isn't that what churches do today? The average evangelical church out there spends a lot of money on advertising. Doesn't make a whole lot of difference to them who does it. That's not the reaction that we see Paul take. Let me read the comment from one of the better commentaries on the book of Acts so you get an understanding here. Most people imagined a kind of organizational flow chart for the various gods with their roles and powers, and many cults recognized a most high god in their hierarchies. So those who heard her yells were likely to think not of the one true god of the Old Testament, but of their own highest god. which might be Zeus or another pagan deity. There also is no definite article in the Greek text before way of salvation, so it may be understood as referring to a way of salvation, not the way of salvation." Now Paul responded to this girl much in the same way that Jesus responded when the demons advertised his ministry. He finally became so provoked by her that he cast the demon out of her. And it's interesting, verses 18 and 19, there's actually a play on words. In verse 18, Paul commanded the demon to come out of her. And according to verse 19, her owners realized that their hope of gain had come out of her. Same word. Paul had exercised the demon and the owners of this girl realized that her fortune-telling had been exercised as well. And so they dragged Paul and Silas before the local magistrates, and we will talk more about that a little bit later. The third short story here concerns not a third female, but a battle-hardened Roman jailer. A battle-hardened Roman jailer. Philippi was a Roman colony, and it was a Roman colony where many Roman soldiers retired. And so it is most probable that this jailer had been a Roman soldier in his former life, just as today when many former military personnel end up in law enforcement. The same thing happened in that day. And so this Roman jailer would have been somebody who was very used to dealing with hard men. And he would have had, as one commentary that I read put it, he would have had a short supply of the milk of human kindness. Now the lives of Paul and Silas intersected with this Roman jailer because they were unjustly accused. They were then beaten with rods and then they were thrown into his prison for safekeeping. And the trial of Paul and Silas, or the lack of trial, is worth our consideration, but it's going to have to wait until this afternoon's discussion. So I trust that after you eat your little snack, you'll be back and we'll talk more about that. All I want to say about it at this point is that the response of Paul and Silas to persecution set the stage for the salvation of this jailer and his family. That dynamic, persecution bringing about the growth of the church, we see it again and again and again in the pages of Acts. And it has been repeated thousands of times, tens and thousands of times down through the history of the church. I have no doubt that it's being repeated today in many countries. where persecuted individuals handling that persecution by the grace of God have opportunities to bring people to the Lord Jesus Christ and the church is growing. So, we meet with three individuals here who experienced the power of God in the gospel. Now, we turn to a second question that this chapter answers about each of them, and that's where did the gospel impact their lives? One of the interesting experiences I've had here at Midway Bible Church, because of the way our Constitution's been written since our very first day, is that I've heard all of your Salvation Testimonies. And many of our Salvation Testimonies are very similar. They follow a very similar pattern. And what this chapter emphasizes is that The gospel not only impacts different types of people, it impacts them in different places in their lives. It impacts them in different ways. So first of all, we see the Lydian lady who was impacted at the point of understanding and enlightenment. Though she met Paul with the other Jewish ladies at the riverside, she was most likely not a Jew. Lydia most likely was a Gentile God-fearer, because verse 14 says of her, she worshipped God. She was a God-worshipper. She was a God-fearer. She believed in the God of Israel, but she probably had not actually become a proselyte, an actual convert to Judaism. She would have had some understanding of the Old Testament. To put it in terms that we use today, she would have had a biblical worldview. She believed in the one true and living God. She was not a pagan. She was not an idolater. She was not a polytheist, as so many were in the Roman world in that day. But at this point, she was no better off than many Jews. She was still unredeemed. She still knew nothing about Jesus. But when Paul shared the gospel, when he told her who the true Messiah was and what he had done, verse 14 says, the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. The Holy Spirit enlightened her heart, gave her understanding of the gospel. Now we might frame Lydia's story as the default. This is the way most of us are saved. This is how most of us think of the gospel at work. We think in terms of making sure that people clearly understand the gospel. This is why we learn to present the plan of salvation. We want the Holy Spirit to use us like he did Paul here in this passage, to enlighten hearts, to give understanding of the gospel. When I say that this is the default way in which the gospel normally works, I am implying that the gospel impacts people in other ways as well. And in the other two short stories here, we see a couple of those ways. So in the second short story here in Acts 16, the slave girl was impacted at the point of power and deliverance. at the point of power and deliverance. The slave girl's story was completely different. She was so wrapped up in her sinful life that she was completely oblivious to her true spiritual condition. And she certainly had no familiarity, despite the fact of what she was saying about Paul, she had no familiarity with the true way of salvation. And yet, in an instant, the power of God completely changed her life. From the lips of Paul, she heard the name of Jesus, and she was delivered from the demon that possessed her. And we find similar stories about Jesus delivering from demons and from disease that are found throughout the gospel accounts. The gospel has power to deliver not just from sin and death and hell and Satan. It has power to deliver in other ways as well. Some of you remember my friend Toby. I baptized him right here in this baptistry. I met Toby after I preached one Sunday morning at a sister church. And when I met Toby, I was not certain that he was saved. He didn't know the right words. He didn't really know how to even talk about salvation in the way that we would talk about it. And as I talked with him, I could sense that he, I mean, he just had a hunger. He, you know, and I agreed to disciple him. And just a week or two after I got to know him, I really came to understand what had happened in his life. Toby had been a functional alcoholic for years. He had worked at Floor Daniel all over the world in multi-million dollar building projects. And he was the kind of person who was able to drink and basically be partially inebriated all the time and yet functional. People didn't really know that he was drunk. His drinking lost him his first wife, lost him his children. But as I said, Toby normally kept his drinking in check to the point to where he could function. But one night Toby crossed the line. And he got blind drunk, and then he got in a car. And he had an accident, and he told me he easily could have killed somebody that night. But he didn't. Policemen stopped him, arrested him on a DUI, put him in a cell. And in that cell, he will tell you he spent the night with Jesus. And Jesus saved him that night. and delivered him from alcohol and when he left the drunk tank the next morning he had been completely delivered from alcohol. He never drunk a drop again. He was burdened for those in prison. He was involved for the rest of his life in prison ministry. He believed that Jesus reached him while he sat in a prison cell and Jesus could reach other men while they sat in prison cells. I tell you Toby's story because when I met Toby, I couldn't even tell if he was really saved. He couldn't even express it. He didn't know anything about the gospel. He just knew that he had met Jesus and Jesus had delivered him. You see, God doesn't save all of us through our brains, through our understanding. God saves some of us in a different way. Delivers us. Now, I'll be truth with you. I'm not really sure if this slave girl was saved. It doesn't tell us here, does it? Most of the commentaries that I read, they want this girl to be saved. They want her to be part of this church that got started in Philippi. But there's nothing really in the text to tell us that. And in fact, it leaves us with a question. Can the power of the gospel deliver somebody like this and that person not be saved? If you come back this afternoon after the snack, that's one of those questions we're going to talk about. And then the third short story is different in yet a third way. The Roman jailer was at the point of death. He was at the point of suicide when the gospel stopped him in his tracks. Let me put it this way. The Roman jailer was impacted at the point of felt needs. At the point of felt needs. Needs that he felt deeply. Now, there are those that are skeptical about this part of the story. They doubt that anyone in the sandals of the jailer would really think about taking his own life. I mean, after all, he was not responsible for the earthquake. He could certainly claim that it was an act of the gods beyond his control. But I think those who express skepticism on this basis are really importing a modern viewpoint into the story. Because for a Roman soldier, duty was absolute. For a Roman soldier to have understood that he had failed in his duty, he rather would have faced death than that kind of shame and that kind of dishonor. So here we have a Roman soldier, a jailer, trapped by circumstances. There seems to be no way out. Suicide is the only way out. And when Paul stopped him by crying out, don't do yourself any harm, we're all still here, he came to Paul and said those famous words that most of us learned in Sunday school, what must I do to be saved? I want you to stop for just a minute. Let's pause, time out. What do you think he meant by those words? Do you think he was asking for a salvation sermon? Paul, would you please present the plan of salvation to me? Do you think that's what he meant? You see, for us, when we see that word saved, that is a catch word for us. We all understand the religious New Testament meaning of the word saved. I don't think this guy had any idea about that meaning of the word. That word saved in the Greek language, in the context of the Roman Empire, would have had a much, much broader meaning. Now, according to the commentaries, you know, maybe this Roman soldier, maybe he heard that demon-possessed slave girl, you know, crying out about what she said about the Apostle Paul, that he was proclaiming the way of salvation. To me, that still doesn't... She didn't explain what salvation meant. I mean, the best that I can come up with is that that jailer may have been listening to the Apostle Paul pray, and Silas pray, and the hymns that they sang, and maybe he got some idea about that. But I cannot help but think that when that jailer came to the Apostle Paul and knelt down and said, what must I do to be saved? He wasn't just talking about being saved from sin and hell. I think he was talking about other things as well. How can I be saved from this fix that I'm in? But here's my point. Whatever needs people feel, believing on Jesus is still the answer. Can I repeat that? Somebody comes to you with a problem and we immediately, we're Americans, we're very pragmatic. We say, you know, I'll help you. We can figure out a solution to this. You don't want to know how you can be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Whatever you need to be saved from. That's the point. You make Jesus your Savior, you make Jesus your Lord, whatever your problem is, it's going to get better. I run to Christ. You know, sometimes we talk about the fact that the gospel is not good for felt needs. I'm sorry, I disagree. The gospel is good for whatever you need to be saved from. It'll save you in every sense of that word. Now, do I believe that the Apostle Paul later on, by the way, if you notice how he evangelized this This Roman jailer, it was a two-step process. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. And then later that night, he explained a lot more about it, didn't he? But whatever you're feeling, whatever needs you feel, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is always the answer, the best answer. And sometimes I don't think we get that. We want to put Jesus in this little corner. He takes care of spiritual problems. He takes care of sin and hell type problems. No, Jesus, Jesus takes care of every problem. Then finally, Let's look at these three short stories each one more time and ask a final question. What were the results of the gospel? What was the results of God's power at work through the gospel in each of these cases? First, the Lydian lady exercised her spiritual gift and helped found a church. We see the immediate results of her conversion of the power of God at work in Lydia's life in verse 15. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us saying, if you've judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us. First she was baptized. Now we say, well, of course, I mean, that happens with everybody. Well, no. You have to understand that in that culture, in that day, in that setting, baptism was much more consequential than it is for us in our culture. She was publicly pledging allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. That was an illegal thing. Do you understand that? That was an illegal thing in the Roman Empire. Because if you believed in one God, if you believed in Jesus Christ, it meant that you didn't believe in the gods. And you were called an atheist in the original sense of that word. You had rejected the Roman gods. And so it was a mighty step for her to be baptized. And then notice that her entire household was baptized as well. And in fact, we see that the entire household of the Roman jailer was baptized. We have two instances of household conversion and baptism. What about that? Come back this afternoon, after the treat, and we'll talk about that one too, okay? That one really deserves some discussion. But there was also a second result in Lydia's life. As I thought originally about what was going on with Lydia, I was tempted to characterize her response as simple hospitality. But I believe it went beyond that. Lydia was a businesswoman. She would have had a larger home, more financial resources than the great majority of people in that day. And she immediately put those resources at the disposal of the church. Many believe that this brand new church met in Lydia's home. And I believe Lydia displayed the spiritual gift of giving. In one of the passages in the New Testament that lists spiritual gifts, giving is one of those gifts. And someone once told me, you can't have the spiritual gift of giving money if you don't have the gift of making money. And some people have that gift. I believe Lydia was one of them. And the church needs people with that kind of a gift. You know, I mentioned my father last Sunday. My father, for nearly 50 years, was an elder in the local church that I attended as a boy, as a teenager, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. My dad was also the vice president for manufacturing for Kenna Metal, for a Fortune 500 company. And my dad never let on how much money he made, but my dad must have made good money. You know, he put six children through college, and none of us worked a day while we were in college. My dad sent us to college and said, go to college. And I know that my father generously supported the church, generously supported missions, and he was jealous of that role. I remember talking to him one time. There was a huge emphasis in the church that I grew up in on people going into full-time Christian service. During the years that I was there, about 50 people went into full-time Christian service from that church. Sometimes I would look at my dad. He's just a businessman, but my dad would say to him, God needs people in full-time Christian service. God needs pastors and God needs missionaries. But God needs people like me who can make money and support those people in full-time Christian service. And you know, I got to thinking about that. The older that I got, the more that made sense to me. That's true. And Lydia, I believe, was one of the first of those people that God called and God gifted in that way. And she supported Paul, and she supported Silas, and Timothy, so that they could do the work that God had called them to there in Philippi. And then in the second short story, the second vignette, the results are quite different. The gospel struck a blow against human trafficking. The gospel struck a blow against human trafficking. You know, we tend to think in our enlightened age that slavery is a thing of the past. That's not true. I didn't really realize that until I started studying this passage this week. Human trafficking is taking place all around us. Those who track such things make this statement, there are more slaves in the world today than at any time in human history. That is an astounding statement. More than 100,000 from our country are trafficked every year. This isn't a problem somewhere else. And because of the history of Christianity in our country, in our region in particular, this is an area where Christianity is really looked down on. You Christians, you were part of this. You held, you know, Christians held slaves and said that the Bible supported that. And while it is true that there's not an outright condemnation of slavery in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, the gospel pushes back on slavery. We see that particularly in the New Testament book of Philemon. And we see it here in Acts 16. The gospel struck a blow against human traffickers here in this chapter. And here's what I want you to get. Paul delivered this girl from demon possession and basically stuck his finger in the eye of these human traffickers. And it cost him big time. He carried the scars for the rest of his life. And so I believe this story, to some degree, portrays the relationship between Christianity and human trafficking. The power of the gospel tends to destroy slavery. It puts pressure on it. It pushes back against it. That's the natural arc of the gospel in lives. And so when you think about this, when it intersects your life, make sure that the gospel is pushing you in the right direction in regard to what's happening today. I support a mission agency in India. And they have a specific part of that ministry that it's committed to rescuing women from human trafficking in India. And from time to time I read stories in their newsletters that are heartwarming. We can have a part in this. This is part of the power of God in the gospel. And then, the final short story. The Roman jailer completely changed his behavior. I described the jailer earlier by saying that he was short on the milk of human kindness. You know, he was charged by the magistrates with making sure that Paul and Silas did not escape. That's all the charge that was given to him, and what did he do? After that beating with rods, Paul's back, Silas's back would have been bruised and bloodied. He threw them into the innermost part of the jail and he put their feet in stalks. And often those stalks held your legs apart at an odd angle. It most probably would have been very difficult for Paul or Silas to get comfortable. It certainly would have been impossible, I think, for them to sleep. with backs that were bloodied and bruised, the only way to lay back? Verse 24 gives us a glimpse into this man's soul before he was converted. He had no problem with brutality. He had no problem with inflicting pain. He had done it probably for decades. But once saved, we see a complete conversion. We see fruit meet for repentance. He cleaned their wounds. He took them to his home. He fed them. He made them comfortable. A completely uncaring man was transformed into a caring individual. That is the power of God in the gospel. And many of you have experienced that kind of transformation in your lives, and it's one of the most encouraging things that we see when we see the gospel save individuals. Now, I've preached this message this morning to demonstrate just one truth, the power of God in the gospel. We must not leave that power untapped. Years ago now, I think it was probably in 2005, I went on my first missionary trip. No, this would have been my second missionary trip, so maybe it was 2006 or 2007. Went on my second missionary trip to Haiti. And we flew into Port-au-Prince from Miami. And then we got in a little puddle jumper. I'm talking about a little puddle jumper. It wasn't like a Cessna. It was a bigger plane than that, but it was little. Were you on that trip? And we flew from Port-au-Prince, which is close to the coast, we flew into the interior of the country. We flew into the highlands, which means we flew over most of the country. And as we got somewhere in Haiti, I mean, Haiti looks like the other side of the moon. It is just barren rock. The climate, they have broken the climate The rain cycle has just been busted by the fact that they've taken all the wood, all the trees out. And we get somewhere into the middle of this country that looks like the other side of the moon. And I look down and there is just this humongous installation like nothing else I've seen in the entire country. And so I tapped somebody on the shoulder who had been to Haiti before. I said, what is that? I said, is that a military installation? What is that? And they told me it was a hydroelectric plant that had been built by the US Corps of Engineers. And it could have delivered enough electricity to completely meet the needs of Port-au-Prince. and it was not functional. The US came in and built it and the government of Haiti was so corrupt that they could not even keep it online. Right there in the middle of that country, completely untapped power The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Are we leaving it untapped? Because we're not bold enough to open our mouths. We're not concerned enough to open our mouths.