Bible Guys Classics: Acts 16

So today we're going to hear about Thunder You telling the story or am I? I'm gonna let you tell the story. But he's Chris, I'm Jeff, and we're the Bible guys. Okay. Yeah, So Jeff did not know during the beginning as we were talking that that was from you don't talk about Bernie. Yeah, so I know, though we don't talk about Bruno. No, no, no, no, I know that song. I just didn't realize that phrase. Yeah. Well, I mean you have to really like the song to know what I was referencing. Yeah, right, do you sing it in the showering? Do you sing Disney songs? I sing it always, yes, because you know a lot of Disney songs. Well, we sing it around the house. The only person who knows more Disney songs than you that I know is my wife. By the way, on the way home yesterday, just literally last night, like a couple hours ago, we were coming home and for some reason, it came into my daughter's said a deer. Oh, because we saw a deer, a female deal ray a drop of golden sun. And then it turned out it turned into all of us singing it and my son joining into and then all four of us are singing it, and then it turned into me asking Siri to play it, and then we listened to the entire song and we all sang along with it all because we saw a deer. Wow, that's wonderful. So I also saw a deer last night. I was in my tree stand and I was trying to figure out there's a whole bunch of sausage walking around the woods. I'm trying to get take it home. But I wasn't singing. So you guys are the von Trapp family? Is that is that? I'm not saying we're talented. We like to sing. Okay? Well, good? So today is the dad joke competition. This is kind of one of those recurring things that comes back, and I feel like I'm more prepared than I was last time on this, and I'm confident I'm going to take you down. All right. You want to start? No, you start? Oh me start? Okay? How about this one? After an unsuccessful harvest? Why did the farmer decide to try a career in music, I don't know, because he had a ton of sick beats. Oh that's hilarious farmer jokes. Now, did you know that the creator the Umbrella was just gonna call it umbrella, but then he hesitatedlla. Oh that's terrible, that's awful. All right, how about this one? Just get back from a job interview where I was asked if I could perform under pressure. I said I wasn't too sure about that, but I could do a wicked Bohemian rhapsody. So you can't you're not sure? Yea, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay. So, uh. What did Mike Tyson say after working out with Chris Hemsworth. I don't know, you're going to be thor in the morning. Oh, bad taste, bad taste. You're gonna be throwing. You're going to be the money. That's so funny. That's good. Okay, Uh, I'm glad that segments. And that's a funny one though these bust me up. I mean, I just love dad jokes man. Like the best you're gonna be the bad jokes are pretty good. So okay, before we get into this, would you do us a favor? Would you subscribe on the Bible guys dot com. If you go on there, enter your email address and subscribe, we'll send you information, will send you links every day. That kind of thing for the current. Links of the current episode for therent bother you. Right, you just get one email in the morning from us, right, and then anything new that comes out or whatever, if we need to tell you, then we can communicate with you that way. But that'll help us communicate with you better, and you'll be able to have a shareable link that you can share to your friends and family from there by email. Right, it's great. Oh, we love it, so do that and then if you do, you're our best friends. Yes, yeah, because all the cool kids are doing it. The cool kids always a couple thousand people have done it already, Yeah for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so you should do it because all the cool kids are doing it. Okay. So we are in Acts chapter sixteen, and you and I before this, before we started recording this episode, we both said this might be the coolest story in the book of Acts, right, certainly one of them. It's my favorite one. Anyways, Yes, okay, so we're going to start off in Acts chapter sixteen, Verse sixteen. Paul and Silas get themselves in trouble. Says one day, as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a demon possessed slave girl. She was a fortune teller who earned a lot of money for her masters. She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, these men are servants of the Most High God, and they've come to tell you how to be saved. This one on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, I command you, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her, and instantly it left her. Her master's hopes of wealth were now shattered. So they grabbed Paul and Silace and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace. The whole city's in an uproar because of these Jews, they shouted the city officials. They're teaching customs that are illegal for US Romans to practice. A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city of officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn't escape, so the jailer put them in the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks. Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. Suddenly there was a massive earthquake and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off. The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners escape, so he drew his sword to kill himself, but Paul shouted to him, stop, don't kill yourself, We're all here. The jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And then he brought them out and asked, sirs, what must I do to be saved? They replied, believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved along with everyone in your household. And they shared the word of God with him and with all who lived in his household, even at that hour of the night. The jailer cared for them and washed their wounds, and then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized. He brought them into his house and set a meal before them, and he had his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God. The next morning, the city officials sent the police to the jailer let those men go. So the jailer told Paul, the city officials have said, you and Silas are free to leave, go in peace. But Paul replied, they've publicly beaten us without a trial and put us in prison, and we're Roman citizens, so now they want us to leave secretly certainly not let them come themselves and release us. When the police reported this, the city officials were alarmed to learn that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, so they came to the jail and apologized to them. Then they brought them out and begged them to leave the city. When Paul and Silas left the prison, they returned to the home of Lydia. There they met with the believers and encourage them once more. Then they left town. Such a cool story. It's a great story. So the so the thunder part was when the you know, the earthquake, the earthquake happens. That was my little reference there. And can we start there at the beginning where Paul decides to cast a demon out of a fortune teller. Yeah, and then everybody gets upset because that was the source of income. But let's not pass up the fact that there was a demon who could see the future and. So well could at least tell fortunes. Yes, at least tell fortunes, which is future right maybe. I mean, so you've seen fortune cookies or seen zodiac writings and things like that, and it's just people predicting a lot of times. But what they do is they customize it for you. So if you go to if you went to a fortune teller today, there's some that are Charlatans that they just pick up on body language or they sneak stut moud of your purse to figure out what's going on and to tell stuff. So do you have do you have a relative sick? I do? Yeah? Is this person important to you? She is? She is really right, And that's what they do. So they pick up on little cues and they figure out how to kind of customize the thing to get more money out of you. So there's that side of it. And then this is clearly a demonic thing that had maybe some special demonic knowledge and that's what would get them information. But this demon didn't have to necessarily know the future. That this demon could just know special things about those people. Yeah, well, well, you're all right in saying it doesn't say future, it says fortune telling. Right right, yeah right, so fortune telling is you know, that's how we hired you at Heritage Church. I was trying to figure out when I should How are you not at cracked cookie at Payway. And they said, you know, hey way, Yeah, the future is bright. That's great. Move with caution is what it said. So my life applicated move with caution. Jeez, I wanted to move on. You're still wanting to tell your job. So the Life Application Study Bible says uh that the Gospel would be later hurt in Ephesus when in Ephesian idol makers, the Gospel also hurt Ephesian idol makers financially. That's coming up in Acts chapter nineteen, resulting in a citywide riot when people are more concerned about their economic well being than the glory of God and the salvation of lost souls. It's a clear sign of idolatry, greed, and wilderness. So it's just it's it's so amazing on something that unrelatable with seeing demons in a person being cast out, which is not something that is very common for us to be a part of, is also carries with it a principle that says, when we're more upset about our ability to make money over you know, the furthering of God's gospel and the good things of God, then that's a problem. So that's that's a great application for us today. Yeah, I think so. And then the other big one here is she's she's saying, hey, these men have come to tell you how to be saved. Right, So what does she say? She said, there's servants of the Most Hi God, and they've come to tell you how to be saved. Now, remember when we mentioned before, just believing isn't enough. You have to have received Christ as your personal savior. Because even the demons believe in God. And here this demon recognizes the Most High God. Right. But it's interesting they've come to tell you how to be saved. It seems like Paul wouldn't have minded that she was doing it, because that's all true. It's true. Oh, hey, that is why we're here. We're here to tell you how to be saved. The problem was he cast out that demon because he did not want to associate his message with a demonic message. Right. He was differentiating between the two, so he neutralized the demon power so that he can then just let God's power rise away. Well, not to mention he helped the little girl, Yeah he sure did, sure did. So what a wonderful thing. Well then they wind up losing their income and they get mad and they get arrested and get put in prison, and then pretty cool story. And by the way, if you'll permit me, please just just give me a little bit of leeway here, let me see, Yes, I permit you, Oh good, thank you. I had to think about it. So all the way through this chapter it talks about the church terminology of saved. So this is where we sort of get it. So Paul uses it all the way through the Book of Romans. I mean, it's here in the Book of Acts. And and by the way, that word saved means to be rescued, right, that's what it literally translates into. So so they're telling people how to get saved. The Roman soldier you know this, the person in charge of the of the jail fell before Paul and Silas asked the exact same question, what must I do to be saved? And by the way, so it's no secret that I don't I don't love church culture all that much. But but it's it's it's only because when it hurts. So let me say it a different way. Do you remember when we used to use the word secretary. We used to use the word secretary all the time, and now we change it to what admin? Or administrative assistant? Right? We used to say stewardess? But now what do we say? Right? And so we used to say waiter, but now we say waiter. Well, no we say server, server, yeah, waitress, waitress, word association game. No, no, no, it seems that way. But know what I'm saying is is that there's nothing wrong with the word waiter or waitress. But when society attaches that word to something negative, all of a sudden, it's an untouchable word. So secretary becomes this abusive nineteen fifties women shouldn't be, you know, all this kind of thing right then, And because that word seems tainted, it becomes derogatory. When technically the word secretary is a great word, sure, but because it's attached to something negative, then it's almost like I want to abandon the word. And to be quite honest with you, the word saved is a biblical word, but I never use the word saved ever. And the reason why is because I think with a lot of people, there's church terms that get attached to a church culture. And if there's a church culture that seems to be a little bit negative in somebody's mind, and if those are the people that are using church terms, then all of a sudden it feels tainted. So you know, you hear the word saved, and for you, you may say what's wrong with that because you have a great church experience with that, But with me, it immediately takes me to all the churches that I have problems with. So anyway, all that to say this, so I just I always like to say, the word saved is the term that we're using. It's a biblical word, but what it really means is putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, right. It means making a decision to trust Christ to go to heaven. And that's the word. But you'll never almost hear me, never say the word. Say whenever I use the word saved, I don't really associate it with negative church experiences, but I do I am aware of how lost people of the world would currently maybe not understand it. So any word that is in the Bible, that's common, that has a really important meaning. I'll keep using the word. It's a biblical word, but I'll always use it in the context of the definition. So I always explain, explain, here's what it means. Right. I think the word saved is really, really, really important because a lot of people have replaced the word safe with you need a relationship with God, or you need to have more faith or whatever. As opposed to like salvation. Salvation means you need to be saved from something, right. And you know, I've had a lot of conversations with people who go, I'm a pretty good person. I just and so what they're looking for is more blessing from God on their pretty good life, as opposed to understanding, I'm a lost sinner that is on my way to hell unless God saves me. I need a savior, I need I need to be saved. And so the word is an important word, but we always need to use it in the content. We have to give the definition of it, rather than allowing the current colloquialisms and the current definitions in society to drive. The meaning of it. We have to come back to the Biblical definition of it. Yeah, and if you're if you're going to use a synonym to your point, just use a synonym that focuses on the actual salvation of a person as opposed to having to knowing God or something. Yeah. Yeah, well it's not inappropriate to use the word rescue or whatever else. Right. But yeah, so they wind up getting arrested for no reason. They hadn't done anything illegal. Right, although they say they say, they claimed that they're doing illegal. Sure, but they hadn't actually broken the law. Conversation was not illegal. And uh so they wind up getting put in prison, and but they're not treated like Roman citizens. Can you imagine the apology that had happened? Oh man, can you imagine after stripping them and beating them with wooden rods. I don't know about you, but that does not sound fun at all. Well, they had to have their wounds addressed later, so you know they were wounded pretty badly. They're putting stocks. Yes, have you been in any of the prisons, the Roman prisons in like Rome. Or they have or not in Rome? But I was in prisons in Israel? Yeah, how long? How much time did you do? So you know, they'll always have like something attached to the floor, some hooks, some circles, some rings. They'd run chains through those and then they would attach like in this one, they were stocks, so they'd have their foot put their feet put into these stocks. They'd lock it down so they couldn't move They're completely immobile. Then they'd be attached to the floor. They couldn't move around it all, right, And. Sometimes it was the risks and the risks and ankles. Yeah, and it was somewhat torturous, right, It wasn't intended to be like full on torture, but it was a miserable experience. You know, through the nighttime, you couldn't move around much. You're kind of the chafing, all those kinds of things that would happen. But this was not a treatment for a Roman citizen who had not been tried. So Roman citizens were guaranteed a trial before you were put in the prison, right right. But non Roman citizens were just treated like non Roman citizens. They're just thrown a prison, beat up, roughed up and stuff. And so they just assumed because they had this Jewish accent and they were talking to Jews and whatever, they must be Jewish, and so they didn't realize that both paul In Silts were deserved a different treatment. Right legally, Yeah, And. It also says that they were thrust into the inner dungeon, which means it's not as if they needed the stocks to keep them safe, right, They were already in the prison, and then they put them in this center of you know, the the facility, which is you know, to be guarded, so there's guards watching them. They're already in the inner dungeon, and so they're thrown in the stocks for good measure of torture, and. They're wounded so badly, and they're in such a miserable circumstance, and they're in the worst of the worst. That's why, as asking if you've been in any of the old Roman prisons, they're miserable, they're wet, they're gross, there's no light, the smell would have been horrible, everything else. And these guys are sitting there about midnight with bleeding, wounded, having been beaten for no reason, and they they're singing yeah right, and all of the other prisoners were listening. You know, they would have had the right to be mad that they felt like, hey, I'm just serving God, but this bad thing happened, and I'm mad at God. Instead they decided to praise God. And everybody else is watching. And I think that we have to be aware as Christians, your reaction to everything. There are lost people that are watching, your reaction to your boss, your reaction to your co workers, your reaction to bad circumstances, to the bad moments in life, to the all the things. Everybody they're watching, You're being watched, and so they're watching. And then this earthquake comes. They all get set freed, whoo, but none of them leave. They all stay. The other guys don't leave because they aren't Roman citizens, probably and they're afraid of getting killed if they leave. Paul and Status don't leave because they don't want to. They don't want this Philippi and jailer to kill himself. Well, I think that that's a possibility of why the other crowd didn't leave. I think it's impossible to say why, by the way, for any of that, but I think it's healthy to speculate. Well, I think it's healthy to speculate. We like, for instance, I could easily say the reason why they didn't leave is because Paul and Silas told them not to they immediately wanted to leave. In fact, they would have left if not for that. It was included in the scriptures. The scripture goes out of its way to say they were listening. Now, why would the scriptures say that they were listening to them singing. It's probably because it's directly connected to their motivation of why they didn't leave. So they're just thinking to themselves, I don't know what's happening, but here's what we know. We've never seen anything like that. And wherever you go, we go. Whatever you tell us to do, will do right. So you say, well, here's the reason why they didn't leave. They didn't leave because out of fear of getting caught whatever. I would say, that's a great speculation. There's nothing wrong with saying that, But it's more accurate to say it's probable, right, because it's not told here. See, I would actually lean toward the probability of them not leaving. For the reason why I said it, I always assume. Because of the testimony, Yes, Timony, something special policy, because they're just thinking, like, hey, we don't know what just happened. Yeah, but we just know that all of us aren't singing, right, Like all of us. We did none of us. In fact, there's probably several prisoners that have said, you know, I've been here a very long time, you know, and I've never seen anybody react the way that you reacted. And then as you're singing, all of a sudden, this this supernatural god force opens all of our stocks and all of our jail cells. So wherever you go, we go. Whatever you say, we're with you. That's why I would think that. They wouldn't leave. So what we do know clearly is that the jailer was going to kill himself, and the real reason was if a. Roman jailor lost his. Keep, then he would be executed, and so him taking his own life was going to be easier than the execution that he was going to have to face with the Romans. And so who's going to do? And they said, don't worry about it. We didn't leave. You don't have to kill yourself, and so I think it's really amazing. Apparently the jailor was also listening to them sing, because his very first response was sirs, what must I do to be saved? And great phrase? Not on that, but what what prisoners stick around? And and actually, don't you know, run when all the jail cells are opened, and he realized probably you know, again it's not spoken, but in that moment, it's safe to assume that he realized that his well being was more important to all the prisoners than their own freedom, Which means, why would a person do that? Can you think about this? That jailor could have It doesn't say that he that he was, but he was certainly in charge of the beatings, right, so it could have been. Right. So, so if you're the guy who's who's charged with beating people with wooden rods and torturing them and assigning them and everything else, and then all of a sudden they're showing you love, you know, they're more concerned about your well being than they are for their own freedom. Imagine how humbling that would be. It would it would crumble your soul to the core. It would humble you to the place where you're like, why am I worthy of any of this? So it says he falls down trembling, What must I do to be saved? You know, there's a lot of things that we can you know, we can basically just say this that the salvation of this man was more important than just about anything else, even their own their own lives. Yeah, Paul and Silas right. So it's just it's just a really great thing to cling on to. The salvation of one person is worth. Well, it's this whole household, by the way, his entire household. So to wrap up with this, the power of worship in a difficult time. When you when you honor God and worship God even when the worst things are happening to you, everybody else sees it. So those other people who are also going through difficult times are amazed by that kind of faith. And even the persecutors are like, there's something special here. Even when I'm trying to drive it out of them, they just rise above it. And God must be real. And that's what caught his attention was these guys. I believe these guys are worshiping even after we've given them our worst And later on he finds out they didn't even deserve it, and he shouldn't have done it, And you know, he could lose his job over the fact that all this happened. So I think the power of worshiping a struggle, don't minimize that you worship God even in the pain He gives and he takes away, but I still say Blessed be the name of the Lord. And that's I think maybe one of the greatest takeaways that we can take from this story. That's a great takeaway. You know, David did it job, did it ye? You know here we have Paul and Silas doing it. Yeah, so it's great. Yep. So a lot of things to take away from this Today's Today's passage. So we'll see you next time on the Bible guys. S