At the church where I serve, we are in the
middle of a sermon series entitled Party. During this series, we are going to
discover that when we read the letters that make up the Bible, we discover that
God loves a good party. And when we read the accounts of Jesus life that are
recorded for us in the Bible, we see that Jesus loved a good party. Jesus loved
to celebrate that things that He viewed a significant
with the people He viewed as being significant.
But if that is the case;
when did Jesus throw a party? When did Jesus celebrate? What did Jesus believe
was significant enough to be worthy of celebration? And when did early
followers of Jesus throw a party to celebrate something that they viewed as
being significant and worthy of celebration?
During this series, we are
going to look at three different events from history that are found in the
letters that make up the New Testament of the Bible that provide the answer to
these questions. And as we go through this series, my hope and my prayer is
that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts, and
hands to empower us to be able to celebrate that things that Jesus viewed a
significant and that was worthy of celebration the led Him to party, so that we
can reveal and reflect the celebratory heart of Jesus to those around us.
This week, as we continue
in this series, I would like for us to spend our time together looking at a
second event from history that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the
Bible. In this event from history, we will see early followers of Jesus throw a
party. And it is in this event from history where a group of early followers of
Jesus threw a party that we will discover a timeless truth about what would
cause these early followers of Jesus to party and celebrate something that they
viewed as being significant and worthy of celebration. So let’s look at this
event from history together, which is found in a section of a letter that is
recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Acts,
beginning in Acts 16:16-18a:
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 masters
much profit by fortune-telling. 17 Following after Paul and us, she
kept crying out, saying, "These men are bond-servants of the Most High
God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation." 18 She
continued doing this for many days.
Now to fully understand what is happening in this
event from history, we first need to understand the context in which this event
from history took place. During this section of the book of Acts, Luke, who is
the author of the book of Acts, was accompanying the Apostle Paul, Silas, and
Timothy on what would become known as the Apostle Paul’s second missionary
journey. During this missionary journey, the Apostle Paul, along with his
companions, were sharing the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel with
those who lived in the region of the world which we know today as Northern
Greece.
On this journey, Paul and his companions arrived at a
city in northern Greece called Philippi. The city of Philippi was a Roman
colony, similar to a military base today, whose residents enjoyed the same
rights as those who lived in Rome. Upon arriving in a new city, Paul would
always start by sharing the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel with
those who were Jewish ethnically and religiously. Then after sharing that
message with those who were Jewish ethnically and religiously, and after
receiving opposition from those who were Jewish ethnically and religiously,
Paul would then begin to share the claims of Christ and the message of the
gospel with those who were not Jewish ethnically or religiously.
So, as was their custom, on the day of the Jewish Sabbath
Paul looked for a place where he could engage the Jewish residents of the city
with the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. However, there were
few people who were religiously or ethnically Jewish in the city and there was
no synagogue. And because of that reality, on the Sabbath, Jewish people from
Philippi would gather at a location about a mile and a half outside of the city
on the river Gangites to pray.
It is in this context that Luke tells us that as they
were traveling to the place of prayer to engage the Jewish residents of the
city with the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel, they were met by
a slave girl who had a spirit of divination. This was a girl who was a slave
and who was possessed by a demon. As a result of being possessed by a demon,
she was empowered by the demon to predict and proclaim the futures of people.
In the culture of the day, just as it is today, people
desired to get a glimpse into their future before that future occurred. This
desire led the people of Philippi to search out this slave girl to have their
fortunes told and to receive advice from the gods about what their future held.
The owners of the slave girl, recognizing the opportunity for great financial
gain as a result of the desire that people had to know what their future held
before that future arrived, were exploiting this girl to become wealthy.
Luke tells us that upon crossing paths with this demon
possessed slave girl and her masters, the slave girl cried out with a loud
voice "These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are
proclaiming to you the way of salvation." This slave girl, possessed by a
demon, was identifying Paul and his traveling companions as being solely
committed to the service of the One True God and that they were publicly
proclaiming the way to salvation and rescue from their rebellion.
Day after day, as Paul and his companions made their
trip from the city of Philippi to the place of prayer and back, this demon
possessed girl and her masters would publicly proclaim this message while
following closely behind them. Now as you might imagine, given the demon
possessed slave girls penchant for drawing a crowd and making money for her
masters, you would think that Paul and his traveling companions would be
excited about the attention. And you would be wrong, as Luke reveals in the
second half of verse 18b:
But Paul was
greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the
name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!" And it came out at that very
moment.
Instead of being excited about the attention, Paul was
greatly annoyed by the continuing presence and proclamation of this demon
possessed slave girl. After all, Paul wasn’t looking to make a profit, and Paul
wasn’t trying to tell people what their fortunes were. Paul did not want the
crowd to get the impression that their motives and the message were even
remotely the same as the demon possessed girl and her masters.
After putting up with her presence and proclamation
for several days, Paul, annoyed with the situation, confronted the demon who
had possessed this girl and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, rid the girl
of the demon. However, while the girl was now freed from the enslavement of a
demon, she was not freed from the enslavement of her earthly masters.
And Paul’s intervention on her behalf was not
appreciated by the girl’s masters. Tomorrow we will see their response to Paul
and his intervention…
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