It takes courage to sing the Psalms. I'll be explaining that in a little while. Please turn to Acts 16. We'll be reading verses six to the end of the chapter, a little bit longer than usual, but it is all about Paul and Philippi, which is our Consideration this morning. This is Paul's second missionary journey. He's left Antioch and he is proceeding through various regions of what we now know as Turkey. Hear God's Word. Acts 16, verses 6 through 40. And let us pray for help. Father, we cannot do this profitably in our own strength. There are some things we can get out of the Scriptures that lay on the face of it that even the natural man can benefit from. But, Lord, the benefits of righteousness, truth, life can only be brought to us by the Holy Spirit speaking through the Scriptures. And so, Lord, we pray that you deal with us as you dealt with Lydia. that you would open our hearts to receive the things that you are speaking to us today. Lord, have pity on us. Help us, for we are your people, you are our God. Speak to us. Speak to our hearts. By your word, in Jesus' name, Amen. Acts 16, 6 through the end. They, that is Paul and Silas with Timothy, passed through the Phrygian and Galatians region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. After they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them. And passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. A vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him and saying, Come over to Macedonia and help us. When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. So, putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to Semothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony, and we were staying in the city for some days. And on the Sabbath day, we went outside the gate to a riverside where we were supposing that there would be a place of prayer. And we sat down and began speaking to the women who had assembled. A woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening. And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, If you had judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us. It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl, having a spirit of divination, met us, who was bringing her master's much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, These men are bondservants of the Most High God who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. She continued doing this for many days, but Paul was greatly annoyed and turned and said to the Spirit, I commend you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out at that very moment. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. And when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, these men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans. The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely. And he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, And the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there came a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer awoke and saw that the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice saying, do not harm yourself, for we are all here. And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. And after he had brought them out, he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him, together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds. And immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. And he brought them into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole household. Now when day came, the chief magistrates sent their policemen, saying, Release those men. The jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, The chief magistrates have sent to release you. Therefore, come now and go in peace. But Paul said to them, They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans. and have thrown us into prison. And now are they sending us away secretly? No, indeed, but let them come themselves and bring us out." The policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, and they came and appealed to them, and when they had brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city. They went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed. Paul is Spirit-led and Spirit-filled. In verses 6 and 7 in this chapter, you see that the Holy Spirit was leading him through Asia, not to the left or the right. It led him on and eventually led him to Macedonia. The Holy Spirit was leading Paul, and Paul was following the Holy Spirit. And as with Peter in chapter 4, Paul was Spirit-filled. Chapter 13, in a particular case, he looks at someone and, filled with the Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, Elemas the magician. And so Paul is doing everything that he does as empowered by the Holy Spirit. Paul is not working with some natural ability, but he is working with supernatural empowering by the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5.18, Paul says, do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. And later on in Ephesians 6, he speaks about the full armor of God that is empowered by the Spirit, including prayer. Pray at all times in the Spirit. Be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might. And we are strong in Christ and by the Spirit, and that is also how it was with Paul. You need the Holy Spirit for the courage that you need to live the Christian life, and to do the work of evangelism that we are all called to. And Jesus promises us, ask and it will be given to you. Even the Holy Spirit. Ask for the Holy Spirit to empower you to do what God calls you to do. And the Lord will provide the Holy Spirit to you for those things. Were you in a situation where you have an evangelistic opportunity and you know you can't do it? You don't have what it takes to say what needs to be said and do what needs to be done. That is true. That is a sober self-assessment. But that's not where you stop. You see what needs to be done. You are not able to do it. You pray for the power of the Holy Spirit. And then in that strength, carry on. And we have a wonderful example of Paul doing exactly that in this chapter. This is profiles in courageous evangelism, namely Paul in Philippi. Remember John Kennedy's book, Profiles in Courage? Stories of people who did wonderful things. Well, this is Paul who did wonderful things, not by natural endowment, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he sets an example for us, not that we are apostles, but that we have the same spirit that he did for the things that God calls us to do. He says to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 2.2, after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness of our God to speak to you the gospel. The same boldness that he had to speak and act in Philippi, he now very shortly thereafter exercises in Thessalonica as well. Jesus upbraided the apostles. He says, why are you so timid? Why are you so cowardly? Don't be afraid. Be courageous. And it's a very sobering thing in Revelation 21 that the lake of fire is prepared for the wicked. And the first category of the wicked that the lake of fire is prepared for is the cowardly. Cowardice is at root nothing other than unbelief. Cowards are those who do not trust God to empower them for the work that they're called to do. All of us wrestle with this to a certain extent. Some of us wrestle with this mightily. But God gives power to his people. So the first thing is the courage to follow the Spirit. Paul had courage to go where the Spirit told him to go and not to go where the Spirit told him not to go. Now, you may think, well, it doesn't take a great deal of courage to follow the Holy Spirit. Well, think about it. Where did the Holy Spirit lead Jesus? The Holy Spirit, after the Lord's baptism, led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. So if you follow the Spirit, you may be going into some difficult things in difficult places, and it takes courage to follow the Spirit. The Spirit may lead you into great victories of conversions and multitudes called to the gospel. And even in the midst of that, He may lead you to persecutions, stoning, insults, poverty, pain, and all kinds of trouble. So it takes courage to follow the Spirit. The exhortation is follow the Spirit. But do you know what this takes? It takes courage. The second thing that Paul exhibited courage in was that he went to church. It takes courage to go to church. You look in the next chapter, in chapter 17, he goes to church in Thessalonica and they beat him. And when Paul says in Galatians that we should not bite and devour one another, he's not talking about people outside the church, he's talking about people inside the church. And it often happens that you go to church and you're abused. And you're beat up. And your kids are beat up. Because the church is people and people are people. And we don't always behave at our best. It takes courage to follow the Spirit. And it takes courage to go to church. Because church life is difficult. And it isn't necessarily any particular church. You go to this church and you get beat up. Oh, I'll go to another church. Well, good luck with that. Because you're going to go to another church and you get beat up there too. It's the way it is. And it takes courage to go to church. And Paul was unafraid. He got up on the Sabbath morning and went to the place of prayer, unafraid, courageous, knowing that there would be difficulties, but courageous in the spirit to face them and deal with them. The third thing that Paul exhibited courage in is that he began a conversation with other people. And you say, well, how hard can it be? Begin a conversation with other people. That doesn't really take courage. Haven't you ever been in a place where you're with someone that you've never met before, you want to talk to them about the gospel, and you're intimidated? If that hasn't happened to you, will you please talk to me afterwards and explain to me why that has never happened to you? Maybe you never meet anybody you don't know. I don't know. But for most people, When you meet people, and especially new people, trying to find a way to talk to them about the gospel is a challenge and it takes courage and therefore requires the power of the Holy Spirit. Think about Philip in chapter 8. Philip is talking to an Ethiopian. That's different than Philip. I remember the first time my kids saw a black person. We're in a store in Syracuse. I had both of my kids, just had Paul and Nadia at that point, and they're in the shopping cart. They're just sitting in there. They had never seen a black person and they're both preschoolers, but it's been a while. They should have seen a black person. But us, we go, what can we say? So walking, pushing the cart down the aisle, and a black man, large black man, comes down the other way. And Nadia sees him first. And her jaw drops to the floor. And then Paul sees Nadia looking at him. And they are completely awed. They don't know what this creature is. And we are in that position very often where we meet someone new who is different from us in a certain way and we're completely overwhelmed and intimidated. Maybe Paul at the riverside with women, with only women, and that can be intimidating. It can be intimidating when you're called by God in his providence to speak to people who are different from you in a substantial way. And we need the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome those intimidating circumstances and to speak Consider Peter in Cornelius's house. Peter, the Jew, speaking to a Roman centurion. He's a Roman and he's a centurion in the army that has possessed the land and is oppressing the people of God. That had to be difficult. And not just because of food considerations. It requires the power of the Spirit. Even Paul, Ephesians 6, 19, this is, be strong in the Lord. Pray for me that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. Paul did not speak by natural endowment. He spoke as the Holy Spirit empowered him in answer to the prayers of his people. We need the Holy Spirit for courage to speak to other people, to open our hearts to people, and that opens our mouths. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks. And if your heart is not open to people in an open concern for their eternal well-being, you will not open your mouth. And if your mouth remains closed, maybe it's because your heart is closed to people. And we need to ask God by the Spirit to open our hearts, to love our neighbors enough to risk embarrassment by opening our mouths and telling them about Jesus. But it takes courage to do that. Fourthly, it takes courage to trust God to work wonderfully. We have these situations both with Lydia and with the Philippian jailer. where whole households were converted. And Paul was trusting God for this. What is our expectation? When we share the gospel, our expectation is nothing will happen. And that if anything happens, it will be one person who is converted. Do we ever consider that God is so great that God has and can still convert the individual, his wife, his children, and everybody that works for him. That is the God that is at work here, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It takes courage to trust that God can do such things. Very often, the Lord gives us what we expect. And if we expect nothing in unbelief, we get nothing in unbelief. It takes courage to trust God, to work through such as even we are, to take weak and inarticulate people and do miracles by means of them, as he did with Paul. Jesus would often say to people, take courage, even before he dealt with them, the paralytic, take courage, your sins are forgiven. And in Matthew 9.22, the woman suffering from the hemorrhage, he said, daughter, take courage, your faith has made you well. What is it about courage? Courage has an expectation. Biblical courage is not gritting your teeth, sucking it up, and pressing through things. Biblical courage is the will to do the will of God in expectation of His blessing. When He says, why are you so afraid? I'm here. Take courage. Because as you persevere in willing the will of God, doing it, God will give a good end. And so biblical courage always has a hope that is drawing it and not merely a gritting that is driving it. Fifthly, courage to welcome converts into the church. Paul, Lydia is converted by the grace of God, the Philip and Jailor likewise, and they are each baptized, which is the means by which people are welcomed into the visible church. And so as we often say, baptism, you are a member of the visible church. And so if you're not a member of the visible church, you're denying your baptism, you're vacating your baptism, as it were. But think about it. Why do you take courage for Paul to accept Lydia into the church, and accept the jailer into the church. Just put yourself in their place. Lydia, a very wealthy woman with a considerable business. What could you rightly fear about a very wealthy woman with a considerable business coming into your church? She's going to take over. She's going to run the table. She's got the financial power and she will insist on her own way. There is risk. Philippian jailer. He's just manhandled Paul and Silas. Now they're welcoming him into the church. He's a jailer for the Roman Empire. He'll betray us. We'll welcome him into the church. And his loyalty to the Romans is going to trump his loyalty to Christ at some point. And he will be an informant on us, and he will betray us to the Roman authorities. Every time we welcome someone into the church, there is a risk that we will get burned. We have gotten burned. We are getting burned. And we will get burned by folks coming to the church. And that's why it takes courage to welcome them in. It took courage for the church to welcome you in. It took great courage for the church at Syracuse to welcome me in. And I'm sure there were people in the congregation thinking, what in the world is this session doing? But we're all a risk. We're all a big risk. But no risk, no return. Big risk, big loss, or big gain. You cannot live without risk. There is no faith without risk. You have to take a risk, but it has to be guided by the Holy Spirit, informed and led by Him. But you must take informed risk. Notice also that baptism is the goal of evangelism. Presenting the gospel, you are not endeavoring to lead people to sign a card or anything else or to come forward. Always in the Bible. presenting the gospel, calling people to confession of sin, confession of faith in Christ, and submission to baptism. Baptism is the goal of evangelism. Your goal as you evangelize your family and friends is to bring them to the session for baptism. Item F, courage to accept hospitality. In verse 15, she prevailed upon us. Paul was reluctant. In First Thessalonians, he says, we didn't eat anyone's bread without paying for it. And Paul did not want to abuse the privileges were extended to him. And when you accept gifts from others, there is a risk that you're going to be criticized for being a freeloader. And it takes courage to accept the gifts that God gives. for the enabling of his work. The Philippians, as we see in Philippians 1 and 4, were very generous with Paul and provided for him in a way that others did not. It requires humility and it requires courage to face the inevitable criticisms. The courage to forbear public insults. It's a question as to what, when the slave girl was proclaiming, these are servants of the Most High God are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. Why didn't Paul deal with the demon right away? Why did he forbear this for as long as he did? It seems that at first, this incident that was repeated was simply an insult to Paul. And as an insult to Paul, it was forbearable. But it became an insult to the gospel and to the message of the gospel that had to be dealt with. Think of a person, Harborfest. You're walking down West First Street near Bridge. And some person who is generally known in the community as crazy is following you saying, this person is a wonderful Christian. Now that's undoubtedly true, but that this person is publicly declaring it is embarrassing. But it's forbearable. As long as it does not dishonor the name of Christ or hurt the church, it is forbearable. And sometimes you just need to put up with insults. You need to forbear these things. And it takes courage to bear public insult and to turn the other cheek publicly. And that seems to be what Paul was doing at this point. But then it became an offense to the gospel and a danger to the church. And so Paul turned and drove out the demon. And it takes courage to drive out demons. You think of the seven sons of Siva who tried to drive out demons in the name of Christ and the demons brutalized them. And Jude and Peter indicate that demons are nothing to mess with. The beings in the spiritual world are real and they are dangerous and you don't mess with them. Even the Archangel Michael called on the Lord to rebuke the demons, didn't mess with them. And it is a crazy presumption to just walk around as if you can flick your finger and deal with demons. That is not the case. They are very dangerous and the Empire does strike back. This is a power that obviously Jesus exercised and that he endowed the twelve with in Matthew chapter 10. And so it is a power that God has given to His church. The demons are very dangerous and yet they are defeated. Satan has been reduced from one who presides over a world empire to someone who is merely a terrorist. He is on a short chain. He still has power. You don't mess with a big dog on a chain. You figure out how long the chain is and make sure that you walk outside of that perimeter. It's the same way with Satan. He is chained. He's a terrorist, but you don't mess with him. It seems to me that the power and authority to cast out demons was something that was given to the apostles, along with miraculous healings, as something that confirmed their unique testimony to the gospel. And once that testimony was given, that endowment ran its course. The Holy Spirit may give whatever he wants to whomever he wants, whenever he wants, and argue against that. But as a general provision, I think we cannot assume that every Christian has the power and authority in calling from God to cast out demons. But what do we have? In Ephesians chapter 6, be strong in the Lord, the strength of his mind, put on the full armor of God so that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. What we do have are the ordinary means of grace, the word, the sacraments, prayer, and altogether in fellowship. These are the things that the Holy Spirit uses to empower the church to deal with the demonic world. And we need to devote ourselves to these things, not only for our own growth and grace, but also to protect ourselves and to help others who are overcome with demonic influences. What do you do for someone in the present age who has a demonic spirit? You bring them into the midst of the church, where the spirit will speak to them through the scriptures, where they will be comforted and encouraged in the assembly of the saints. You're looking for the extraordinary blessing of ordinary means for this purpose. Paul exhibited courage to suffer persecution, and that I think is self-evident and does not need proof. But the next item is courage to rejoice under suffering. Paul and Silas are rejoicing in the midst of suffering in the middle of the night. They are singing hymns of praise to God. They are not rejoicing in suffering, but they are rejoicing under suffering. And the reason is that they have hope. God causes all things to work together for good to those who are called according to His purpose, even suffering. And that promise of God gives us hope and joy even in the midst of it. That God will use this for good in our own lives and in the life of the church. So Paul says in Romans 12, 12, rejoicing in hope. Our joy is not in our present circumstances. Our joy is in what God has promised us. And we may see the realization of that promise in this life, or it may be deferred into the last great day. But it will come. God will deliver us. God will bless us. And in that certain expectation, we rejoice. And we can rejoice even in the midst of pain, because we know that that day is coming. In the meantime, we look like idiots. singing in a prison. You must be insane. Not at all. Because we believe something that is absolutely certain, that contradicts and will overcome our current sorrows. So also in Romans 15, 13, Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, so that you abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives you faith in God's promises, which results in hope. And in the confident expectation of that goodness of God, we can and are enabled to be courageous in rejoicing even in the midst of our sorrows. You can let your sorrows overcome you, or you can overcome your sorrows by the power of the Spirit in the promises of God. Adam K., courage to sing the Psalms. They were singing hymns of praise to God. What is the theme of the Psalms? Throughout, it's deliverance. God help me. That's how the Psalms often start. A prayer of deliverance and then they end with a praise because it's been granted. Psalm 88 is about the only exception to that general rule. And so, in prison, Paul and Barnabas were singing songs of deliverance. I don't think that they were singing Rescue Me with Fontella Bass. You know, Paul and Barnabas standing up in the prison with their chains on. Rescue me. I don't think that's what they were doing. So what were they singing? Well, the song they sang after the Last Supper in Matthew 26 was Psalm 118. The songs, the hymns that they were singing were the songs and hymns of the Psalter. Because the Psalms and the Psalter are songs of deliverance. And just take in your English concordance the phrase, deliver me as a string. Seventeen examples of the Psalms crying out, deliver me. And you can go on all kinds of similarities to that. Rescue me, bring me out, lift me up. It's the constant thing. But what does it take to sing psalms of deliverance in a prison? It takes hope that you will be delivered and courage to sing those psalms expecting that deliverance. Because when you sing psalms of deliverance in a prison, When you are rejoicing in the midst of sorrow, you are setting yourself up for disaster. Because you are saying to everyone, God will deliver me. And what if he doesn't? You will be embarrassed and you will be ashamed. And it takes courage to sing psalms of deliverance in a circumstance of captivity. In this case, Paul was delivered. Later on, he is not delivered and he is executed. Did God fail him? Not at all. Hebrews 11, some are delivered from death, some are delivered through death. And Paul was delivered out of prison this time and into the presence of Christ in the end. And that is deliverance. And again, all hope and courage in God's promise of deliverance will be completely vindicated at the last great day. And whatever interim things may happen, good or bad, that is our final reference point. Everything is made right then. Item L, courage to evangelize your persecutors. This is the guy who threw Paul, physically threw him into the inner sections, bound him with chains, brutalized Paul, and comes to him, what must I do to be saved? What might have been your fleshly response? Forget it, pal. You just beat me up. I'm not doing anything for you. But it takes courage to evangelize those who abuse you. And lastly, Paul demonstrated courage by using his rights to serve. He could have claimed Roman citizenship when it would have done him some good, but he didn't. He suffered for the sake of the gospel and identified with Christ of the cross. But when his citizenship would vindicate the gospel as not being a source of trouble, and protect the church from similar persecution, then he invoked his Roman citizenship. And as we've considered recently in Galatians 5, we are given freedom, not to serve ourselves, but to serve others. And we are given rights, Paul was given rights, not to serve himself, but to serve the church in the interest of the gospel. So be strong and be courageous as you go into all the world in the name of the Lord, evangelizing and making disciples. We are very much like Israel, being sent into the promised land, being urged, be strong and be courageous. And we are sent into all the world with the Great Commission, and we are urged, be strong and be courageous. Israel was charged to take the land. We are charged to take the world in the name of Jesus. to the utter ends of the earth. But you cannot do that in your own strength. In Acts chapter 4, Peter said, take note of their threats and grant that your bond servants would speak your word with all confidence. When they had prayed, the place was shaken, a lot of shaking going on in Acts. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. Paul asked for prayer for him, that the Holy Spirit would empower him to speak with boldness. The only way that you can be courageous in all these ways, in the interest of the souls of men, is by the power of the Holy Spirit. Ask for it, and God will give it to you. Let us pray. Father, as we look at ourselves in the mirror of Your Word, we see that we are afraid. We are of little faith. We find that we are stupid, lazy cowards. And so, Lord, we cry out that You would fill us with Your Spirit. We thank You that You have given Him to indwell us and to apply the benefits of Christ day by day, more and more. But Lord, we need a particular filling by Him so that we will be empowered to follow Him and to seize the opportunities that He gives to share the Gospel. Lord, we too often shut our hearts and shut our mouths, but please, by the Spirit, open our hearts to speak, our mouths to speak. Open the ears and hearts of others to hear and save them. Give us Your Spirit, that we may speak Your Word with boldness. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.