“Singing at Midnight”
(Acts 16:11-40)
Series: The Church on Fire!
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
First Baptist Church Henderson, KY
(2-3-08) (AM)
- Take your Bibles and open to Acts, chapter 16.
We are continuing our study of the birth and expansion of the church. We left off last time with God’s directing Paul and his missionary team to a new frontier. They were planning on going North, but God told them to throw out their printed itinerary from Mapquest and called them West into Europe. Their sailing West across the Aegean Sea would be far more important than Christopher Columbus’ voyage in 1492 “to sail the ocean blue” and far more important than Vasco de Gama’s voyage to find a trade route to the Far East, for this voyage West meant that the Gospel would travel across the sea and eventually reach continents such as ours.
Now it has often been said that wherever the Apostle Paul went, one could expect the breaking-out of either a revival or riot. And there is a bit of both in our text this morning as Paul and his missionary team reach land and begin sharing the Gospel. We will be studying from verse 11 to the end of the chapter, but what I want to do first for our reading is just read a few verses right in the middle of the text, then we’ll back up and deal with all of them in our verse by verse fashion. But right now focus with me on a dark time in the lives of these brave Christians. We’ll read just four verses.
- Stand in honor of the reading of the Word.
22 Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods.
23 And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.
24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
- Pray.
Introduction:
Midnight is the darkest hour of the evening. The sun has set hours earlier and it will be more hours still before it rises again. Midnight is often used as a metaphor for the difficult times in our lives. Are you familiar with midnight? When is it midnight? It’s midnight when a sudden and serious illness in the family brings everyone to a standstill and nothing is more important than our loved one’s getting better. It is midnight when we are told we are no longer needed at the job where we have invested over a decade of faithful service. It is midnight when the doctor comes out of the Emergency Room shaking his head. It is midnight when we don’t know how to pray and all we can do is groan.
Around the year 320 AD, there were 40 men who faced midnight as brave soldiers in the famed 12th Legion of Rome’s Imperial Army. They are known to us today as “the 40 martyrs of Sebaste.” These men were included among the number of troops under the authority of Emperor Licinius. One day the emperor sent down an edict commanding all of his soldiers to offer a sacrifice to his pagan god. The 40 men were followers of Jesus Christ and they refused to worship another god. They said, “You can have our armor and even our bodies, but our hearts’ allegiance belongs to Jesus Christ.” The emperor decided to make an example of the soldiers, so in the middle of winter he stripped them of their clothes and marched them out onto a frozen lake. Left to stand naked on the ice, the emperor told them, “Renounce your God and you will be spared from death.”
Midnight; what do you do when it’s midnight? Paul and Silas are undergoing severe persecution. They are arrested, beaten, and thrown into prison. Their legs are put into stocks that stretched them until they seemed they would snap off of their bodies. And in this dark hour, the Bible says in verse 25 that Paul and Silas are praying and singing hymns to God.
The events of our chapter all happen in a town called Philippi. You can visit Philippi today, including the site of the jail where Paul and Silas were imprisoned. Paul would later visit Philippi again and would also write one of his letters to the church at Philippi. We know it as the Book of Philippians. It’s in that letter that Paul tells us how he was able to endure the persecution he faced in Philippi as well as how he could endure all expressions of midnight the Christian faces. In Philippians 4:13, Paul writes, “I can do all things through Christ who (what?) strengthens me.” By His grace God strengthens us. He gives us the ability to get through anything and everything.
I want to go back to verse 11 where we left off from last week and talk about what we can do by the grace of God. Let’s look at them together. First, by God’s grace:
I. We can Evangelize Appropriately (11-15)
11 Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis,
12 and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days.
So Paul and his missionary team of Silas, Timothy, and Luke for the first time make their way into Europe with the Gospel. After arriving at the sea port of Neapolis, they walk about 10 miles to Philippi where they will stay for a few days.
A couple of things struck me about these opening verses, about evangelizing appropriately. I thought of these as I was studying this week and, in light of the fact that we are beginning the next semester of our FAITH Evangelism Training tomorrow night. The first thing is that biblical evangelism means we go to where the people are. We don’t expect them to come to us with an attitude like, “Well, they know where to find the church.” Our mission is more urgent than that. It is a matter of life and death. So we go to them. We go where they are. We visit them. We take with us the gospel and we go to them. That’s what Paul did.
13 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.
Apparently there was no Jewish synagogue in Philippi. Jewish law required a minimum of 10 men in order to establish a synagogue and apparently they were short of the number. But the Bible says there were some women gathering together by the riverside to pray and so Paul and his missionary team go down there. They went to where the people were. Now here’s the other principle: Allow God to do the work.
14 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.
I want that phrase there to liberate all of us who feel responsible for whether a person accepts the gospel message we share. We share the gospel and we want people to say, “Yes, I want to receive this salvation!” but they don’t always respond that way. Some hear and believe and many do not. Look up here: it is not our responsibility whether a person believes what we share. It is God’s. The Bible says, “the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.” Who opened Lydia’s heart? Paul? No, the Lord. God takes the initiative in salvation. God makes the first move. I don’t understand the mystery of election, but I do know this: No one gets saved unless the Lord opens the heart to believe. Some hearts are open and some are not. Thank God, Christian, He opened yours.
15 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.
What did Lydia do after she believed? Look again at verse 15. What did she do? She was baptized. That’s always the order in the New Testament. Believe in Christ; an inward conviction, then be baptized; an outward expression. The first thing a person does after believing in Christ is to get baptized. It’s a matter of obedience. It’s a sign that a person really means business. If I believed I were a Christian and I had not been baptized, I wouldn’t leave here today without setting up a time to be baptized.
Then the Bible says that Lydia invited Paul and his missionary team over to her home. Her hospitality is an evidence of the genuineness of her conversion. Paul opened his Bible, the Lord opened her heart, and she opened her home!
By God’s grace we can evangelize appropriately. Number two, by God’s grace:
II. We can Engage the Adversary (16-24)
16 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.
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.”
18 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.
Paul is going about the business of sharing Christ with others and he encounters opposition by the adversary, the enemy, Satan. Expect Satanic resistance whenever you’re doing the Lord’s work. This woman is possessed by “a spirit of divination.” She is possessed by a demon. Now she is owned by men who are using her to make money. By the demon’s powers, she is engaged in “fortune-telling.” You know, some clairvoyant work of “fortune-telling” or “future-telling” is just a hoax and other expressions of it are demonic. That is why the Bible strictly forbids a believer seeking out a spiritist or some other person who claims to have clairvoyant powers.
The Bible says this woman is possessed by a spirit of divination, by a demon. The demon speaks in a way reminiscent of the demons who spoke in the presence of the Lord Jesus in the Gospels. The demon tells the truth: “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” That was true and it appears that demons cannot ignore the truth, but they can do their best to try to derail followers of the truth. That seems to be what’s going on here. Apparently, Paul wasn’t too bothered about this girl at the first, but then it seemed clear that she was demon possessed and so he commanded the demon to leave her and he left.
The point I want to make here is that while Satan will always do his best to derail us from following Christ, the strength that comes to us by God’s grace is stronger. We have God’s power working through us to defeat the adversary. That may not mean that you will need to exorcise demons as you go about your Christian life. In fact, that’s probably not as likely in our context. Satan works in ways he can get to us.
The Adversary’s work in our day and in our context is much more subtle. He tries to get us away from Christ by doing what he can to keep us in love with this world. So he works through our stuff, our possessions, our comfort and our riches. He lulls us into thinking all is well. And when we have difficult days and when we’re faced with moments of “midnight,” Satan laughs as we doubt and wonder whether following Christ is really worth the effort. But by God’s grace we can engage the adversary and defeat the adversary. That’s what happens to Paul and Silas.
19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.
20 And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city;
21 “and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.”
Now that wasn’t the real problem. The real problem was in verse 19. The girl’s masters “saw that their hope of profit was gone.” Not only was the demon “cast out,” but their money was “cast out,” too! So they’re like, “Arrest and beat these guys!”
22 Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods.
23 And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.
24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
We’re approaching “midnight” in the lives of Paul and Silas. And this leads to the next point in our study. By God’s grace we can evangelize appropriately. By God’s grace we can engage the adversary. Number three: by God’s grace:
III. We can Endure Adversity (25-40)
25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
Ray Stedman wonders what hymns Paul and Silas were singing. He says, “I don’t know what they sang. I know what I’d be singing: ‘Rescue the perishing, care for the dying!’” But of course they weren’t asking for deliverance. The context suggests that their prayers were expressions of praise. They were singing at midnight.
By God’s grace you can endure adversity. You can! God gives you and me the unique ability to sing praise to God in our darkest hour. James writes in James 1:1-2, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” By God’s grace you can endure adversity. You can sing at midnight. God loves the praises He hears. He answers their praise with a praise of His own:
26 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.
27 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.
He knew that if the prisoners got away that his life would be required. Rather than facing the humiliation of his authorities, he plans to take his own life.
28 But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here.” 29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.
34 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.
Sometimes God uses a crisis in order to bring persons to saving faith in Him. God uses a crisis to save this jailer. God may be using your crisis to bring you to His precious side. This jailer gets saved and, like Lydia, opens his home to them. After their “Celebration Time,” he brings them back to the jail. Let’s read what happens the next day.
35 And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers, saying, “Let those men go.”
36 So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart, and go in peace.”
37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us openly, un-condemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.”
Paul and Silas were Roman citizens and therefore were exempt from the beating they received and for being thrown into prison without a trial, but the magistrates never took time to check into that.
38 And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans.
39 Then they came and pleaded with them and brought them out, and asked them to depart from the city.
40 So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
Paul and Silas are like, “We’ll go, but we’re going to take our time about it!” They did this of course out of concern for the new believers in Philippi and out of concern for future missionaries to the town. They want to do what they can to protect the believers. And by God’s grace they endure adversity.
God strengthens us through adversity. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:11-12, about the persecutions he endured and he writes, “And out of them all, the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” We all face it, but remember that God uses adversity to make us stronger.
Recall again James 1:1-2: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”
And look to Jesus as your example. In Hebrews 12:2, the writer encourages us to look to Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus endured adversity. He endured the cross for you and me.
Concluding Illustration:
By God’s grace, we can endure adversity. We can enjoy His strength; strength such as that shown by “the 40 martyrs of Sebaste” I mentioned to you earlier. That chilly winter evening Emperor Licinius had those 40 Christians stripped of their clothing and marched out to stand naked on the frozen lake. They were told all they had to do was recant, to renounce or give up their faith in Christ and their lives would be spared. All they had to do was to come forward and the emperor would let them live.
Not one man came forward so the emperor left them there, huddled together in the cold. Throughout the dark night, the men stayed close together, refusing to give up their faith in Christ for the temporary pleasures of this world. Had you been an observer there you would have watched those men shaking, huddling closely to one another for warmth, and you also would have heard the sound of singing. Yes, singing. Their song was a song of victory. They sang the words over and over again, “Forty Martyrs for Christ.” One account of the event has this line as part of the song: “Lord, we are forty who are engaged in this combat; grant that we may be forty crowned, and that not one be wanting to this sacred number.” They sang at midnight.
The officer in charge that night had been so moved by the entire scene that during his watch he had come to faith in Christ. By dawn thirty nine of the men had frozen to death. The remaining survivor unfortunately gave in to the pressure and relented. And as the weak man crawled to safety, recanting his faith in Christ in order to live, this Roman officer broke rank and walked out onto the ice. He stripped off his clothes and openly confessed his faith in Jesus Christ. The furious emperor demanded that he renounce Jesus, but he refused. They had sung “Forty Martyrs for Christ,” and this man completed the number again and was willing to sing to his death. So when the ordeal was finally over, the Roman soldiers carried forty frozen men off the ice, forty martyrs for Christ, forty men who by the grace of God and the strength only He supplies, “sang at midnight.”
- Stand for prayer.
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