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When modern missionaries sang praises in a Taliban prison and saw a guard come to faith, it echoed an ancient story of midnight worship that shook foundations and changed lives forever. What happens when God's people choose praise over complaint in their darkest hour? How might our own suffering become the very means God uses to bring deliverance to someone else?
📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/how-god-works
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📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/how-god-works
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00:00So Heather Mercer and Dana Curry were in Afghanistan, and so I want to do some due
00:06diligence and make sure this is actually a true story that I read. So I did a little research
00:10and found out that it's recorded that they went to Afghanistan in 2001 on humanitarian efforts.
00:17Well, there's a backstory behind that. It was humanitarian efforts. They're there actually
00:20to preach the gospel in Afghanistan. Juanette Bright tells us exactly really what happened
00:26there. They were over there in Afghanistan. They were showing the Jesus film in Afghanistan.
00:31They were arrested by the Taliban. So the Taliban arrested them, put them in prison,
00:36makeshift shower, makeshift toilet. You can imagine it was pretty primitive there in the prison
00:40and kept them there basically for over three months. I did read that they were rescued or
00:46actually negotiated out of the prison, but they were there. It really did happen. They showed the
00:52Jesus film and got arrested. But despite their circumstances, Heather and Dana, every night
00:58in that prison, faithfully sung songs to God and praised him in the midst of a prison experience.
01:08After many nights of hearing the praises, this was what Juanette Bright tells us,
01:12a Taliban guard stationed outside the prison cell gave his life to Jesus Christ.
01:17And his statement to them was this, I decided that any God who would cause his children to worship
01:24him in such a place must be real. A similar event happened almost 2000 years ago that Heather and Dana
01:33were actually modeling is that in the midst of a prison experience, we have Paul and Silas
01:40praising Jesus in the midst of their suffering. What we see is that God is working through the
01:48suffering of his people for the redemption of others. That's a hard statement. I want you to think
01:54about that for a second. It could be that what you and I are suffering right now, God is going to use
02:01that for the redemption or the deliverance of someone else, but I'm the one that's suffering.
02:05So it seems for our side, that's a difficult thing to say that maybe because of my suffering,
02:11God is going to use my suffering to deliver somebody else and to redeem them because of my suffering.
02:19I wonder if we have forgotten that suffering is part and parcel of being a Christian of the
02:23Christian life. Yet, even in the midst of the suffering, the Paul and Silas experienced,
02:29they were filled with hope. They were filled with hope. If you remember what happened is they come to
02:34Philippi, Lydia comes to faith in Christ, and then they're going back to the place of worship that
02:40we saw last week, and Paul encounters a demon-possessed slave girl, and she's proclaiming,
02:46these are the servants of most high God that are telling you a way of salvation. And Paul then,
02:52as the text said, I like, he got greatly annoyed, and he turns to the spirit and he casts out the
02:56demon. Well, the owners of that slave girl weren't real happy, if you remember correctly, last week,
03:01and they brought the magistrates, the city officials in on what was the proceedings,
03:06and the city officials deemed them worthy of being beaten by the lictors. The lictors are the people
03:10that run around with these big, they're big cane sticks. Okay, we're not talking about a little
03:15switch that your mom asked you to go get off the tree somewhere. It stings on the back of your leg.
03:19We're talking about long rods that they beat you with, probably bloody because they have wounds,
03:24the text tells us. So they're getting, they get beat for, for casting out the D, the demon out of
03:30the girl, but oh, actually for, because they lost money and thrown into prison. And their feet are
03:35attached to the stocks inside the innermost part of the prison, the maximum security part of the
03:40prison. They're there. And remember, I told you the stocks have multiple holes in them. If they liked
03:45you, they put your feet really close together. If they didn't like you, they spread your legs real
03:48apart as a, as a torture, as a form of torture. So that's where we leave Paul and Silas last week.
03:55Now we find out what's happening in that jail, what takes place. Open up your Bibles and look with me
04:02in Acts 16, 25. So we, this is God's word. We want to look at it together. So it says about midnight.
04:09So I don't know what time they were thrown into prison. They're beaten and thrown into prison.
04:13Not sure, but about midnight. So around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying,
04:18and singing hymns to God. And the prisoners were listening to them. And suddenly there was a great
04:25earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were
04:31open. Well, that makes good sense to shake the building a little bit. That would pop the doors
04:34open. And everyone's bonds were unfastened. That's a little bit more tricky. I mean, bonds to pop off
04:41just because of an earthquake, that seems to be something other than a natural event here.
04:44And when the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about
04:51to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. Makes good sense. If you're in prison,
04:56doors are open. You're going to want to get out of there, right? They don't leave.
05:00But Paul cried out with a loud voice, do not harm yourself. Don't kill yourself. For we're all here.
05:10None of us have escaped. And the jailer called for lights and rushed in. And it was this dark. He
05:15wanted to see what was going on. And trembling with fear, it says, he fell down before Paul and Silas.
05:21Then he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord
05:29Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. And they spoke the word of the Lord to them. So
05:35Paul and Silas spoke the truth out of God's word, proclaimed Jesus Christ to him and to all who were
05:41in his house. And he took them, that's the jailer, he took them the same hour of the night and washed
05:46their wounds. So we know there's wounds. And he was baptized at once, he and all his family.
05:52Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them, former prisoners, now eating at
05:58the jailer's table. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
06:05What an event. It's not unknown. We've probably read this a lot of times, you know, the story of the
06:10Philippian jailer. He's, they're in there singing and praying. They have hope even in the midst of their,
06:16their suffering. It kind of reminds us of, of Peter. Remember when Peter was thrown into prison
06:21and actually the next day was going to be his trial. James had just been killed by Herod
06:25and Herod arrests Peter thinking to do the same thing to him. He's laying in that, that jail cell
06:30at night sleeping. He's not anxious. He's not fretting. He's not worried what tomorrow is going to
06:36bring. He's got hope that God is in control of the situation. That's in Acts chapter 12. Now,
06:43when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers.
06:48He's just sleeping, bound with two chains and centuries before the door were guarding the
06:53prison. He's got hope. God is in control of the situation. That's how Paul and Silas were. God's
06:58in control of this. Christians are always filled with hope in the book of Acts. So they're praying.
07:04That means they're praying themselves. It's something that they were doing present. So they're
07:08praying. They continue praying. Notice that Paul and Silas were not complaining,
07:14but praising. You and I know what it's like when we're suffering. Oftentimes, complaints come out
07:21of our mouth rather than praise. I've been there. You've been there. They're not complaining to God.
07:26They're praising God. They know God's in control, that there's hope beyond the suffering that they're
07:33experiencing. Charles Spurgeon, that great preacher said, any fool can sing in the day.
07:39It's easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight, but the skill for singer is one who can
07:44sing when there's not a ray of light to read by. Songs in the night come only from God and they are not
07:51in the power of men. Not complaining, but praising. A song in the night. Now, the question is, do things
07:59really change in my life when I praise God instead of complaining? Oh, yeah. It's kind of one of those,
08:06duh. Yes, they do. Things change. My attitude changes. The way I look at things changes. Instead
08:12of complaining and praising, everything changes when it goes from complaint to praise.
08:17Warren Wiersbe said, anybody can praise the Lord when things are going well, but it's during the
08:22furnace experiences that praise really magnifies the Lord. We can praise when it's going good,
08:27but when it's a tough time and we're praising the Lord, that honors Him. That glorifies Him.
08:32So, the text says that they were singing hymns. Singing hymns. And the verb was only used one
08:38other time. It's used in the sense of the last night before Jesus' death at the Passover,
08:47they concluded the Passover event before they went to the Mount of Olives. It says,
08:51they sang a hymn. Same exact word. It's a verb. It's only used there in Matthew and Mark,
08:57and then it's used here in a different form, but it's the same verb. They sang a hymn.
09:02In Matthew 26, we see that. And when they had sung a hymn, same verb, they went out to the Mount of
09:09Olives. What hymn did they sing? Good question. I'm glad you asked. It's typical during the Passover
09:16time, there were songs that they called the songs of the Passover, the songs of deliverance.
09:22There were Psalms 113 to Psalm 118. So, the text in Matthew says they sang a hymn, singular. This one
09:29says hymn, so there's multiple ones. That was singular in Matthew. Likely, they concluded before
09:35they went to the Mount of Olives with Psalm 118 and possibly even these very... Now, think about this.
09:42Jesus is about ready to go to the cross. The nation is going to reject him as the Messiah in mass. Some
09:47believe, some don't. And you can imagine singing this song the night before his death, Psalm 118.
09:55The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is
10:00marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
10:06Save us, we pray. Hosanna is a phrase. Hosanna. Save us, we pray, O Lord. O Lord,
10:12Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from
10:17the house of the Lord. The Lord is God and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festival
10:24sacrifice with cords up to the horns of the altar and there he goes off to Golgotha and the cross.
10:31It's very likely they could have sang this Psalm 118 right before they exited to go out.
10:35They would have sung the entirety probably during the whole Passover, Psalm 113 to Psalm 118.
10:44Every devout Jew would learn these songs by heart. They would be part of their repertoire. They would
10:49know these. Kind of like we've memorized some of our songs. They would have all these songs memorized
10:53as well. The text says that they were singing hymns. Again, it's in plural. It's written in a way that
11:00they were singing over and over again. So that's why it's translated hymns instead of hymn because
11:05there were multiple hymns, songs that they were singing. Not just one. Over and over again.
11:10We don't know which song they sang. We don't know. But the songs of deliverance would fit well with
11:17this situation that they find themselves being captive inside of a prison, having done no wrong
11:22whatsoever. The songs of deliverance from Psalm 113 to Psalm 118 would really fit what was going on in
11:28their life. Possibly they're singing these. Look at the headings for these psalms. Psalm 113. Who is
11:35like the Lord our God? Psalm 114. Tremble in the presence of the Lord. Psalm 115. To your name give
11:43glory. Psalm 116. I love the Lord. Psalm 117. The Lord's faithfulness endures forever. Psalm 118. His
11:53steadfast love endures forever. Could you imagine if they were? Again, we don't know. It's
11:58possible. These are songs of deliverance every Jew would know. These are singing their testimony
12:03before everyone in the jail. They're giving witness to God through all of these. Who's
12:08like the Lord our God? There's no one like him. None of the gods of the pagans are like
12:11him. Tremble in the presence of the Lord. Fall before him for he is holy and we are not.
12:16To your name give glory. I love the Lord. All of these things would give testimony to what
12:21was happening in their lives. What a testimony. Paul and Silas were sharing their faith through
12:27the songs that they were singing. John McGarry says, in the darkest and bitterest hour of their
12:33sufferings, these faithful disciples brought forth the richest fruits of their faith and piety.
12:39They're not complaining. They're praising God in song. And perhaps even these, these songs of
12:45deliverance they're singing about being delivered from the wrath of man.
12:49Psalm 42, eight says, by day, the Lord commands his steadfast love. And at night,
12:58his song is with me. That's what Paul and Silas were saying. His song is with me. A prayer to the
13:03God of my life. They were praying. They would break forth in singing and they would pray and they would
13:08break forth in singing and they would pray and they would break forth in singing. I guess you could
13:12say, this is the first gospel concert in Europe. The first one. Even though they've been beaten and
13:21their feet are in stocks, their spirit soared high with praise. That is not normal. That is something
13:29supernatural that the spirit of God works in us. Tertullian, the church father said, the legs feel
13:35nothing in the stocks when the heart is in heaven. I like that. I like that. The text tells us that the
13:44prisoners were listening. Now for all you grammar geeks out there, it means that they were constantly
13:50listening over and over and over and over again to every song that was being sung. The listening wasn't
13:55just, they heard it and then turned it off in their mind. They were listening intently to all the songs
14:00that were being sung. Earthquake comes. Earthquake, normal occurrence, happens all the time, especially
14:07in that region of the world. But this one came as a, was supernatural timing and effect. Just happened
14:14to come when they're in the prison. It just happened to open all the doors. It just happened to make the,
14:20the shackles fall off the hands of the prisoners. Oh, it just happened to, no, no. It's a natural event
14:26with the supernatural timing and effects that are going on here. The doors may have popped open,
14:32surely on an earthquake, but the shackles being unfastened, that's, that, that doesn't happen in
14:36an earthquake. And here it is. God kept all the prisoners in their cells. They didn't leave.
14:44You would think, humanly speaking, they'd want to run away, but God kept them in the cell. No one left.
14:48No one escaped. That's why the jailer was okay in the sense that none of those prisoners had escaped.
14:53Notice that Paul is more concerned that the jailer does not commit suicide than being set free.
15:01He didn't say, hey, set us free. God did. No, he's more concerned about this guy dying
15:04without Jesus Christ. Don't kill yourself is what he says. He's more concerned about the jailer than
15:10himself being set free. Certainly it must've been dark there in the innermost parts of the prisons
15:15because he calls for a light. And to call for a light means there must be another jailer there as
15:19well. So there's other people there in the prison as well.
15:21The earthquake and the fact that the prisoners did not flee, escaped, a flee and escape really
15:27captured this jailer's heart. He heard, he got a message out of that. You can almost say it like
15:34this. The miracle was more for the jailer than for the missionaries. It wasn't for Paul and Silas.
15:41It was for the jailer. Paul and Silas were suffering. And from that suffering came the deliverance
15:46of the jailer. As a jailer who was imprisoned, not Paul and Silas. He was the one that was
15:53imprisoned. He was enslaved to sin. He was captivated by sin. He was without God in this
15:59world and without hope. That's why Jesus came to give us hope, to set the prisoner free.
16:05That's what he preached in Luke and his own hometown of Nazareth. The spirit of the Lord is upon me
16:11because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to
16:17the captives, those enslaved to sin and recovering of sight to the blind, those who can't see the truth
16:24of God, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. The jailer
16:31who was in prison could be set free through Jesus Christ. That's why he came. That's why he came.
16:36Let me ask you, are you enslaved to sin today? Are you in prison to sin today? Are you under the wrath
16:44of God? Have you been delivered from your sin, born again into the kingdom of God? Are you still in
16:50prison like this prison, like this jailer was, imprisoned, enslaved to your sin? Believe in Jesus
16:56Christ today. He is the answer to our problems. He's trembling. Now the trembling, was it because he was
17:03afraid that maybe he was going to die? Or is it because God's at work in his heart? He's trembling.
17:08Possibly. He's trembling. Maybe it's that God is opening up his understanding and he's starting to
17:13see things clearly that he never did before. He's trembling in front of them. He had to understand
17:19that he was lost before he could get saved. Pagans don't understand that concept. I mean, pagans,
17:25those who have multiple gods, they don't understand this concept of being lost. They're okay as long as
17:30they do what their God wants them to do. But to be lost, we have to understand that we're lost first
17:35before we can get saved. Jesus came to save the lost. In Luke 5, Jesus said, those who are well
17:41have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I've not come to call the righteous, but sinners
17:46to repentance. We have to understand that we're lost before we can get saved. Notice what the jailer
17:52asked. He said, what must I do to be saved? And Paul responds, no, it's believe in the Lord Jesus
18:06Christ. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or no works necessary for salvation. It's not what you do.
18:12It's what has been done for you. There's a story of a series of meetings of evangelists and they had
18:20finished. The meetings had finished. The evangelist was helping the workman take the tent down. It's
18:25an open tent meeting. A young man who had been in the meeting the night before came up to the
18:31evangelist and asked him earnestly, what must I do to be saved? And the evangelist says, you're too late
18:38and kept working. Don't say that, exclaiming the young man, for I desire salvation. I would do
18:44anything or go anywhere to obtain it. I can't help it. The evangelist applies, you're too late.
18:49For your salvation was accomplished many years ago by Jesus Christ and it's a finished work.
18:57You're too late. You don't have to do anything for it. It's finished. All you can do is simply
19:03accept it. You have done nothing and you can do nothing to merit salvation. It is free to all who
19:08receive it. We don't do anything for our salvation. It has been done for us. He took our place on the
19:14cross, a voluntary substitution. He went instead of me to the cross.
19:23Are you saved today? Are you hoping to do something for your salvation?
19:29Get that out of your mind. We can't do anything for our salvation. We can't merit. We can't earn it.
19:33We can't work for our salvation. It's been done for us already. So if you don't know Jesus Christ
19:38today, you've never been born again and you think you have to do something for your salvation,
19:42remember, it has been done for you already. And believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is the answer
19:48to the question, not what you do. His response is the same as we tell other people. Paul's response
19:52was, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Look at the simplicity of his answer. He cut
19:58right to the kernel of the gospel. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the kernel of the gospel.
20:03Believe. Believe. Actually, it's a command. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a command.
20:11And this is a belief, not in a system of doctrines or teachings. It's a belief in a person,
20:17who this person is and what this person has done on our behalf. Not adhering to a church teaching or
20:24the teachings of men. This is about a person, Jesus Christ. It's all about a person.
20:30Romans 10, Paul talks about this. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus, the person,
20:38is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him, Jesus, the person from the dead,
20:43you'll be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified. And with the mouth,
20:47one confesses and then saved. It's belief in a person, not a system of teaching. He doesn't
20:52believe in Judaism. He said, believe in Jesus Christ. You will be saved.
20:56And that then was the opening for Paul. Because you notice that's not enough. He doesn't know
21:03anything. He's a pagan. He doesn't know anything about Jesus. He's heard maybe bits and pieces,
21:08maybe some of the songs he had heard. He knows nothing about Jesus. So you know what happens next?
21:12It says, Paul spoke the word of the Lord to him. He gave him the information about Jesus. He preached
21:18Jesus Christ to him, who he was and what he had done. So the command was, believe in the Lord Jesus
21:23Christ. And he can respond, but I don't know Jesus. So Paul speaks the word of God to him.
21:28The word of the Lord actually says they, so both of them are preaching to them. Again,
21:33I want you to notice it is the word of God and that's a means of salvation. It's God's word.
21:38We have to give people his word to believe on who Jesus is and what Jesus has done.
21:44And his whole household gets saved. Now, household salvation doesn't mean that the household
21:52is automatically saved because the head of the household got saved. In other words,
21:56if your parents were saved, doesn't make you a Christian. Okay. We have no proxy faith in this
22:01thing. You have to personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no proxy faith. You don't
22:05come into it simply because you belong to a church or your parents were Christians just because they
22:10were part of his household. They too had to believe as well. It wasn't just that they automatically all
22:14got saved because the head of the household got saved. No, there's no proxy faith. You have to make a
22:18decision. I have to make a decision. So the jailer's household was old enough to hear the gospel
22:23message, to respond to it, and to have joy about it, which means babies are not included in this.
22:29They can't be. Babies can't hear and understand or have joy. They're babies. They can't reason like
22:34that. So no infants are involved in this as well. No proxy faith. Adults. This is the second household
22:43that came to faith in Philippi in the book of Acts. So what's he do? Comes to faith. What's the first
22:48thing he does? Takes them out and he washes their wounds. We have evidence of his faith.
22:55The evidence of a changed life in the jailer was that he washed their wounds. These are prisoners.
23:02You don't normally invite prisoners into your home. That doesn't normally, you don't normally do that.
23:07They're prisoners. They're in prison for a reason, but he brings them into his home. He washes their
23:13wounds. He shows evidence of a changed life in him. He's not treating them with contempt anymore.
23:18He's now honoring them. Lewis Johnson reminds us that the Reformation battle cry is faith alone
23:25justifies, but not the faith that is alone. Faith alone justifies. But if you're justified by the
23:34blood of Jesus Christ, there will be works in your life because that's what James says.
23:38We're justified by faith, but the evidence of our faith is that we have good works in our life.
23:42That gives the evidence not to save us, but that we are saved. Here's the evidence of his salvation.
23:49Following the washing of the missionary's wounds, a more significant washing took place,
23:54their baptism. Often in the Old Testament, washings. In fact, in the book of Hebrews,
23:58washing is used in the place of baptism, I believe, one time.
24:00Washings. Baptism was their visible public profession of faith in Jesus. A pagan who turns
24:10by faith to Jesus Christ says, I want to be part of that group. I want to identify with those Jesus
24:16people. I want to be called a Christian too. I want to be. It publicly profanes it. I want to be part
24:24of that. Immediately after he got saved, typically in the New Testament, people get baptized.
24:29So they're now no longer prisoners, but brothers in Jesus Christ.
24:36So the magistrates get involved again. They come and announce the release of Paul and Silas. Look
24:41what happens in verse 35. But when it was day, the magistrates, so sometime during the day, it just
24:48says day. I don't know if that's morning, afternoon, sometime in the daytime. Okay. But when it was day,
24:53the magistrates sent the police saying, let those men go. And the jailer reported these words to Paul
25:00saying, the magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore, come out now and go in peace. Okay.
25:07They'll let you go. Just leave. Get out of here. Just leave. Look at Paul's response. But Paul said to
25:13them, they have beaten us publicly, uncondemned men who are Roman citizens and have thrown us into
25:21prison. And do they now throw us out secretly? No. Let them come themselves and take us out. Let
25:29the magistrates come themselves and take us out. The police reported these words to the magistrates
25:35and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. I'm sure there was a big gulp
25:41at this point. You do not beat Roman citizens uncondemned and without a trial. That's a no-no
25:49in Rome. That's a big no-no. So they're afraid. They're afraid at this point. So they came and
25:56apologized to them and they took them out, out of the prison, out of the area and asked them to leave
26:02the city. They don't want them there. So they, Paul and Silas, went out of the prison and visited
26:07Lydia, the lady that first came to faith, and her household. And when they had seen the brothers,
26:12they encouraged them and departed. So I don't know why the magistrates came up and said, hey,
26:18man, we've got to let them go. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Maybe they said, well,
26:21it was because of the mob that we reacted this way. Maybe we were a little hasty. Let's just let them go.
26:27I don't know. The text doesn't tell us why, but they changed their mind. They decided they were
26:30going to let them go. And Paul says, no, I'm not going to leave until they come and release this
26:35themselves. They beat us uncondemned as Roman citizens, highly illegal, not lawful to do.
26:43So Paul refused to leave until the magistrates came and apologized. And you say, well, that kind
26:48of sounds kind of petty. It's kind of petty. Why didn't they just go? I mean, they were let go.
26:53I just see it's kind of petty making them come. And there's a reason behind this. There's a good
26:57reason behind why they came and made them publicly proclaim that these two men were innocent and
27:03should have never been thrown into prison. It was highly illegal what they did to them. You're not
27:11allowed to beat a Roman citizen uncondemned at all. As a matter of fact, if that information came to a
27:16higher up and then all the way to the emperor, Philippi could lose their status as a Roman colony.
27:22That's how serious it was. You don't do that. Rome was very serious about treating Roman citizens
27:28correctly. So here's perhaps why Paul did this. The city must realize it was the Roman magistrates
27:36that caused the problems. The new church at Philippi was innocent, maintaining the witness
27:41of the church. Can you imagine? The two leaders of the church, the start of the church in Philippi,
27:46if the whole city thought they were a bunch of criminals and had been beaten and thrown into prison,
27:51and then they just scurried off secretly, what would the city think? Oh, that's the leader of
27:55that new Christian group over there. Those two criminals, our leader, the witness of the church
28:00would suffer. It would not be good for the witness of the infant church that their two leaders were
28:07arrested, beaten, and imprisoned. For the witness of the church, the city needed to know that Paul and
28:13Silas were not criminals. That's why he had them come and publicly have them apologize for their actions
28:20toward them. The church could have fallen under suspicion if Paul and Silas would have snuck out
28:25of town secretly without anyone knowing. Yeah, those two leaders of that church, yeah, we beat them,
28:31and now they snuck. Yeah, the witness of the church would suffer. So Paul says, no, for the sake of this
28:36fledgling church, this brand new church, we cannot put a verb, we cannot look at them as being a negative
28:43thing in the city. Paul and Silas treated like criminals were actually innocent, where the
28:49magistrates found themselves as genuine lawbreakers. They broke the law. So Paul and Silas accepted the
28:57apology. They didn't demand more. They didn't say, hey, we're taking it to your superiors. They didn't
29:01demand more. They accepted the apology. That was fine. Again, all they wanted to make sure this witness
29:06of the infant church was not hindered here. So Paul and Silas then go and visit the Christians at
29:12Philippi before they took off and they left the city. They did leave the city. And then it's also here at the
29:17conclusion of chapter 16. So they went out of the prison and when they had seen the brothers, they
29:23encouraged them and departed. The we section of this axe now has dropped off. Perhaps Luke stays in
29:30Philippi because we don't see we anymore for a period of time. I think back in a chapter or so, we're going to
29:35see we again. So he may have stayed in Philippi during this whole thing. So what do we learn out
29:40of this? First thing is this. Choose your attitude when suffering. You have the Holy Spirit of God that
29:47lives within you. You can choose whether you're going to complain and have doubt or whether you're
29:51going to praise and worship. Choose your attitude when suffering. Paul and Silas, again, did nothing
29:57wrong. And I don't know why they didn't invoke the Roman citizenship when they were beaten. I don't
30:02know. I'm not sure. But because they were beaten and thrown into prison and suffered, the deliverance
30:09of the jailer took place. Maybe that's what God wanted. I don't know. But they didn't invoke the Roman
30:13citizenship at that time. But choose your attitude when suffering. Choose what you want. Do you want to
30:19praise or do you want to criticize and doubt? Second, and this one's a hard one, God used the suffering of
30:27his people for the redemption of others. That's a tough one. Suffering serves a purpose. Suffering serves a
30:35purpose. That's a hard one for us because we're the ones suffering. But God can use the suffering of his people
30:40for the deliverance of others. Suffering serves a purpose. And lastly, the testimony of the local church is
30:48important. Keep her blameless. I'm not saying perfect. No church is perfect. We are a perfectly imperfect
30:53church. But we don't want people pointing your fingers at those people over a medical aid community
30:57church. They just, they're not loving at all. And they don't even like people when they come into
31:02the church. We don't, we don't want the witness of the church to be hindered. So the testimony of the
31:08local church is important. Keep her blameless. Not an unfamiliar text, but things that we can walk
31:15away with and learn. Let's pray. Father, thank you. It's hard for us to understand. None of us here that I'm
31:21aware of have been beaten for our faith. Probably none of us have even lost a job because of our
31:26faith. And to think that, that through my suffering, you can redeem somebody else. You can deliver
31:31somebody else. That's hard for me, Father. Help me to understand this. Help me to, help me to realize
31:37that suffering serves a purpose. There's a purpose behind the suffering. It's not an arbitrary thing.
31:42Nothing comes my way, Father. I know unless it comes through your hand first. It comes through your
31:47hand, the hand of a loving Father before it addresses me. I know that. So help me to understand
31:53that suffering does serve a purpose. And as we're living our lives here in the perfectly imperfect
31:59church and trying to be faithful to you, help us to maintain a good witness in the city of Medical
32:04Lake that we don't cast dispersion on your word or your gospel. That our testimony will remain good.
32:11So thank you, Father, for what you have done and what you're going to do. What you're doing in
32:15Philippi and what you're doing in Medical Lake, we are so grateful that you're at work here.
32:20We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
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