Sustain. We’ve been talking about this idea of sustain. How to keep our faith going, moving, and keep it in a growing place. We’ve been talking a little bit about this sub-series that I’ve been sharing. This will be the fifth week in which I’ve been talking about the apostle Paul’s second missionary journey. We’ve been using that as a template for exploring how to keep faith going. It’s based around Acts 16. As a reset, I am reminding everybody where we’ve been. I’m not going to go into all the details, but this is something that happened in real places. It’s very important for us to remember that. We even looked at the map to identify the ancient cities that Paul stopped at.

It’s still that region of the world that is so much in the news today. We talk about it all the time. You can see where Jerusalem and Israel are. North are Lebanon and Syria. If you turn west, then you head into that big stretch of land, Turkey. Greece is across the Aegean Sea from Turkey. If you were to go the other direction, eastward toward Jordan, you start heading towards places that are all over the news all the time; Iraq and Iran. Further to the far east of Iran and Iraq are India and China. The middle east has always been a significant part of the world because as you can see it saddles the two primary historic ancient continents. Europe to the west, and then Asia to the east.

This is where events in the Bible were happening. If you recall, the first Christians were moved to follow Jesus after His death because they had met the risen savior and believed His death was not the final word. Jesus was who He said He was; the risen savior. One of his harshest critics who met Jesus was Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee of Pharisees. They had an astonishing confrontation. Paul said that the living Jesus on the road to Damascus altered his life. Paul becomes a fierce ambassador for the cause of Christ. He wants to take the message of Jesus to the Jewish people, his own people. He also wants to take the message of Jesus to the Gentile world, the Greeks, and those who were non-Jewish communities affected by what at that time was the Roman empire. It was a culture that Paul was very comfortable with.

Paul was a man of two cultures. Capable of bringing the message of Jesus like no one else had been able to do. There’s another Antioch of Syria. That’s where the early church actually takes root, not simply a Jewish church as it had been in Jerusalem. In Antioch, for the first time in the history of the world, there is a coming together of Jewish and Gentile believers as a significant Christian expression. In fact, it’s in Antioch of Syria where people are first called Christians. This is where Paul went on his first missionary journey. Paul had a ministry partner named Barnabas. They had, if you recall, for the first time planted these churches. You can see some of them in Lystra, Derbe, and Iconium. It was in Paul’s heart a few years later to go back and see how those churches were doing. In Acts 16, Paul says to his ministry partner, Barnabas, “what do you think about going back and visiting the churches we planted to see how they’re doing? What do you think about making a second missionary journey to go see them?”

That sounds great, Barnabas says, but they end up actually having a disagreement. The disagreement becomes so fierce between them that we know that they actually agree to disagree. It was over who to bring with them. The argument was over a young man named John Mark. Barnabas wanted to give him a second chance. Paul said he had his chance and blew it. Paul didn’t want to take a chance. They ended up having such a strong difference of opinion, they parted ways. Paul says fine, I’ll just find another person to go with me. What we talked about was that at the very outset then of their venture, it begins with relational conflict. You would think God is in this. Yet it starts with relational conflict, a breaking of ways. Paul and his new ministry partner Silas decide they’re going to go for it. They go by land through Tarsus and head west.

Paul and Silas pick up a young man in Lystra, a young leader named Timothy. He joins their three-man team. Paul thinks, “okay, now we’ve come to a key place where we’ve gone about as far as we went before. We need to decide what the Lord wants us to do.” He had a clear sense of what he thought God wanted him to do. In his mind, the city of Ephesus, which was one of the great cities, was in what they called Asia minor. That was the place where he thought and assumed the Lord wanted him to go to take this message of Jesus. It had a large contingent of Jewish community with a lot of those who were Gentiles but were very open to the God of Israel.

The Gentiles became believers themselves. In Paul’s mind, Ephesus was the place to go. The scripture says the spirit warned him; don’t go there. Paul’s first choice to go to Ephesus met with the Lord putting some type of a roadblock in his way. Paul’s thinking, “Ok, I’ll go northward towards the black sea. That’s where the Lord must want me to go.” However, the scripture says that Jesus prevented and warned him again. No, that’s not the direction you’re supposed to go. He doesn’t know what to do. He knows he’s here for a reason. He doesn’t know which way to go. He can’t go back or in the direction he wanted. He can’t go north either. There’s only one real option left. Sometimes when you don’t know what to do, when you’re not clear and doors are shutting, stay on the path you’re on.

Paul stays on the road. We see where it leads him. He says, “I don’t know what God has in mind. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do. We’re going forward.” He goes all the way to the edge of land and hits water. You can see where Troas is. In Troas, near the ancient city of Troy, Paul comes to a place where he’s not sure what God wants him to do next. He has a vision or dream at night. In this dream, he sees this man dressed in Macedonian clothing. Clothing Paul could distinguish. The man said come and help us. Paul wakes up. At that point, they’ve added a fourth member to their team. A doctor, a physician named Luke who ends up recording what happens in the book of Acts.

Luke joins their team. Paul says after the vision, “you’re not going to believe I had this, I know what God wants us to do. He showed me this man from Macedonia, crying out. The reason God led us here is that he wants us to go and cross the Aegean and take this message to the Greek people, to the Macedonians.” This would be the first time in the history of the world that the message of Jesus would land in Europe at the edge of the European continent. At the edge of Europe Paul brings the message of Jesus. They bought a ticket, remember we talked about that last week, buy the ticket. They bought the tickets. They went, got on the boat, and started sailing towards the land of Macedonia, the port town of Neapolis there. They stop in Samothrace because we know they didn’t travel at night. They were able to stop there, and then the following day completes their journey. Where is this man from Macedonia? They get to Neapolis. Neapolis is still a port city today, a very significant city. Neapolis means new city. They get there and think, okay the Lord must want us to go to the city of Philippi, which was the city that the Romans planted.

Philippi was a colony of Rome. Rome would sometimes do this. They would occupy territory and plant an official colony. In this case, it was at the end of what was known as the Ignatian way, which connected to the Appian Way, which led them all the way back to Rome. Hence the phrase, all roads lead to Rome. Their system of transportation was part of what allowed them to really conquer so much of the known world. They were amazingly capable road builders. It also is no coincidence that the message of Jesus comes out at this critical time in history. The road systems for travelers and the safety of the PAX Romana exist and allows for the message to go into the far corners of the world. Having said that, there’s a city called Philippi, a Roman colony. In this colony, soldiers who had fought in Roman wars were allowed to occupy land, not have to pay taxes. The soldiers were given land if they were willing to move there.

We know in Philippi, there was a significant contingent of former Roman soldiers who had families now. There were also a lot of other kinds of people there. The city’s ruins are still there today. It’s a significant place in history because it’s where the apostle Paul and his team land. They are looking for the man from Macedonia. The one in his vision. They get to Philippi and they’re looking for a synagogue. A synagogue would have been the first place they would have gone. If you had 10 Jewish men, you could have a synagogue. There was not enough of a population of Jewish people evidently to even have a synagogue. Paul and his group didn’t know what to do. What is God doing? It just seemed like every time they thought they knew what they were supposed to do, they were met with some type of a roadblock.

They said, well, let’s go to the river, we hear there’s a prayer gathering there. There were some Jewish people who were there. We know they go there and end up having this wonderful, stunning, remarkable exchange, as they talk about Jesus. There was a group of women who were very devout. One of them is a very prominent business woman, which in that day was a very patriarchal culture, which means that she was a very capable woman. Her name was Lydia. She was a believer in the God of Israel, but a Gentile. She was someone who had a thriving business and extensive household and holdings. She was a seller of what was known as purple. There was a purple dye in Thyatira that was used for certain exquisite clothing. If one was good at it and knew how to conduct their business, they could become very wealthy selling that merchandise.

Lydia evidently had become an extremely wealthy woman. She loved God and was devout. When Paul, Barnabas, and the team brought the message of Jesus, the Bible says, Lydia opened up her heart to the Lord. She believed in Jesus. She opened up her heart and her entire household came. I’m going to read this through, so if you have your Bible or Bible app, I’m going through the portion that actually proceeds the part that’s in the handout. You can follow along. I want to summarize where we are and we’ll pick right up. It says, “on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the Riverside. Where we suppose was a place of prayer and we sat down and we spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was also a worshiper of God, a believer. The Lord opened up her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul and after she was baptized.”

 If you really believe, then I want you also to be baptized as a confession of that belief in Jesus. It says she was baptized and her household as well. All those who were attached to her, as it would have been the custom of those in the Eastern cultures. The entire household would follow the leader of the house. “As she urged us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, would you come to my house and stay? You don’t seem to have a place. I would love for your team to stay at my house.” She had an extensive house. We also know that Lydia’s home became the gathering and meeting place for the first church in Philippi. It’s a wonderful thing.

Now, a shift occurs. Watch what happens next. “As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling.” I did some research on this. The consensus was that she was a slave or a pythoness from Delphi. Or Pytho as it was called for the world-famous shrine of Apollo on the Southern slope of Mount Parnassus that overlooks the Gulf of Corinth. She was consulted, it would seem by the rich and the famous as a fortune teller. She was owned, not so much by a person, but it would seem by a syndicate, who profited off of her dark gift. She followed Paul crying out, most likely in a very mocking, eerie kind of way, mocking them daily. What she said actually was true, but it was the way she said it. These men are servers of the most high God who proclaim to you the way of salvation. The scripture says she kept doing this for many days. So Paul came off this really wonderful moment of Lydia and the openness of a group of people to the message of the Lord, realizing, wow, it wasn’t a man from Macedonia. It was a woman named Lydia. Now the whole message of Jesus is opening up. Now, Paul has to deal with this woman who’s kind of possessed or demonized. She mocks them daily as they move through the city and in the center court. It becomes a problem.

Paul says she kept doing this for many days. It felt weird. The mocking was not being done in the right kind of way. It was just undermining their purposes. Scripture says that Paul had become greatly annoyed. I love that. The feeling of darkness was building up in him daily. Paul could feel the darkness of the spirit. Finally, he turned to the spirit. Because clearly, something was going on. Paul turned to the spirit and said, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” It was almost as if I’ve had enough. He felt the time was right to confront the spirit of darkness. We are told that the dark spirit came out that very hour.

We read this piece about Lydia and this woman whose name we do not know. Lydia is this amazing business woman opening her heart to Jesus. This other woman, right on the backside of it, seems to be tormented, demonized, and she’s being used to traffic and make money. It’s a pattern that has sadly and tragically repeated itself in one form or another for millennia. It’s still with us now. The other woman was being used. That form of use is still today a blight and indictment of humanity. This woman had evidently had some occultic experience and was being used to somehow make money. She had some type of exposure to darkness and the occult. It dominated her life.

Her holders had been able to utilize that in a way that could make them very wealthy. We have this picture of a slave woman being used for who knows in what ways to make money for a group of men and a syndicate to take advantage of her. Even Her yelling reminds us of mental illness. Some of this seems to be when someone is traumatized or has an element of mental illness, at a spiritual level, we know the evil one preys on the weakness of the mind. In her case, it probably was a number of things that had contributed to her becoming what she was. What was interesting was her speaking out in a public way, yelling at the men. Feeling almost provoked by what Paul and Silas were doing in the team. She kept on, spiritually, yelling at them, randomly mocking them. She was a woman with great trauma and darkness inside of her who had been used and violated at a number of levels. She seemed to have this ability to make money for people.

This is the picture we’re given. Paul has enough and turns to her. He must’ve had a sense from the Lord that the time was now. He speaks the word in the name of Jesus. I call you out. All of a sudden, you could imagine it, the way the Bible describes it, something changes in her countenance. Whatever that was in her, whatever that spirit that had been there, the things that she had been exposed, pushed into, and used for, all of a sudden was gone. Now, she was a different person.

The people who own her immediately recognize that this person who’s been able to function as a fortune teller and make them a lot of money, is not the same person. From a purely business standpoint, in their mind, who are these guys who have just taken our profit away? They called Paul now. Watch what happens next. They call and it gets ugly fast. We tend to downplay it. We are told, “but when the owner saw that their hope of gain was gone. They seized Paul and Silas. Dragged them into the marketplace, before the rulers in the forum. There would have been a judgment seat. It’s called the bimah. The magistrates who represented the city would have been brought. Paul and Silas were brought before the bimah. Thrown before them and a case was made. “When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, these men are Jews.” That was the first thing that they said about them. They’re basically outsiders. Even then there was an element of this that existed. “These men are Jews and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans,” which wasn’t true “to accept or practice.” Instead of saying what the real reason was, they start calling them people who are preaching weird doctrines, trying to undermine our Roman law.

All of a sudden. we’re told there’s a mob breaking out in the middle of the marketplace. A mob breaks out, the crowd joins in. Everybody starts jeering. The mob started attacking them. We are told the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. When they rip their clothes off, they say beat them, they beat them. They drag them up. Paul and Barnabas are probably trying to say we’re Roman citizens too. You can’t do this to us. They’re being dragged into a cell. Not only are they brought to the prison, but we’re told they’re put into the inner prison. Those prisons would have been bad enough. Rat-infested water, damp, dark, awful, with no air. Then to be put in the inner prison, it would have been horrific.

That’s the picture we’re given. I think we downplay the severity and humiliation of what happened. They were bleeding and in pain. They were humiliated. Paul was a Roman citizen. This was unlawful to happen to a Roman citizen. The crowd had gotten so out of hand, ginned up by this group who were angry, that the woman had been changed by these men. Basically, they just flew into a rage. By the time it was done, they’re a bloody mess, humiliated, stripped-down, thrown into a prison cell, and then we’re told that they were locked into stocks. It’s stunning. I’m reminded of how fast things turned for the apostles. They came to Philippi because the Lord led them there. There was the man from Macedonia in the vision, next, to see the remarkable opening with Lydia. God is in this. In a matter of days, this is what had happened. It was awful. The whole thing exploded into chaos. Let’s look at verse 24 to see what happens next.

“Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison. He fastened their feet in the stocks and it was about midnight.” They’re thrown in an inner cell and locked into the stocks. The stocks would have had clamps for their feet. That’s the picture we’re given here. It says, “they were put into the inner prison, fastened their feet in the stocks, and then about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns, psalms to God. The prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was this great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself. If one prisoner escaped, he would be held accountable. He assumed that a whole group of them had left.” The guard felt as if he was already a dead man and was about to take his own life. We’re told he draws his sword. He’s about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But “Paul cried with a loud voice, do not harm yourself for, we are all here.”

Miraculously, the doors did not seem to have allowed them all to go. They were still there. Paul cried with a loud voice and the jailer called for the lights. The guard rushed in and trembled with fear. He fell down before Paul and Silas, brought them out, and said, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul and Silas said, “believe in The Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, and your household will be saved.” We’re told, “They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. The guard took them that same hour of the night. He washed their wounds. He himself and all his family were baptized at once. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. He rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. It was a miraculous change.

This got me thinking deeply about this. I love the passage. It’s intense, powerful, and colorful. Here’s one thing we cannot miss, people are listening to our lives. When it comes to sustainment, people are listening to our lives. Never let us forget this. There was something about that 25th verse that moved me. When I was looking at it, I thought, okay, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns. But that phrase; ‘the prisoners were listening to them.’ I thought, ‘wow. They were listening to them.’ 

Family members, friends, and people we work with who know we have some affection for Jesus are listening to our lives. We go to church. We’re a committed follower of Jesus. They listened to our lives. People listen to how people who claim to love Him walk through things. They listen to how we walk through unfair, hard, painful things, anxious and angry places. They listen when we’re unfairly treated. God help us to sing songs in the darkness, help us to sing songs in the dungeon. Paul and Silas were doubly confined. Not only were they in prison, they were in stocks, but in their suffering, they could still sing. I try to imagine that moment. What does that moment like? We just read it. They get beat up.

All Paul did was try to stop that darkness from dominating the message. They were trying to prevent it and a confrontation occurred. She was set free. The next thing he knows, they’re beaten to a pulp. Paul and Silas are humiliated. They’re trying to tell them we’re Roman citizens, you can’t do this to us. It doesn’t matter. The group is so angry, they stripped them down and beat them to a pulp. Their backs are bloody. They get thrown into the inner prison. Their feet are locked down, they’re bleeding. They can’t move. I tried to imagine the conversation a little bit. “You think Barnabas regrets you coming with me, Silas? Oh, why? Why, why would God do this? I didn’t hear that. Oh, my back hurts so bad. Silas, I think we should pray.” They start praying, the next thing you know, they start singing. I don’t know what they sang. I find it so powerful. If you were in pain, in lockdown, and can’t move, then say. “Oh, let’s pray, Lord.”

They started praying. It was around midnight. ‘Oh, God. How good you are.’ It’s powerful. ‘Ah, your love for us, Lord.’ They start singing and people listen. They hear the song echoing. They’re singing away. Do you know what a powerful dynamic that is? In the place of suffering when we are hurting, when they’re disappointed, we feel like I’m humiliated, I’m angry, to be able to start to praise God. Praise is powerful. It is, it really is. There is a power of praise, power in praise. There is a power of praise.

There is a power of praise in a painful place. Now that’s a tongue twister, a power of praise in a painful place. Power of praise in a painful place. It’s these places we find ourselves in. In a life where we’re hurting. I’ll tell you some of the most profound moments of breakthrough in my own heart have come in a painful place. In the painful place where it doesn’t make sense when I’m hurting or I’m hurt. God is there.

Let me say, Lord. I don’t, I praise you. I pray. I choose to praise you God. Oh God, my God how good you are to me. Your love God is like a healing stream. We praise you in this hour God, we bless your name. Sing to you for your goodness. Just praise him. You see what I’m talking about. The most powerful moments in our lives will come in painful places. When we choose to sing to the Lord in our suffering. I sing to you of your goodness, God. I love you, Lord. I love you, Lord. I love you, Lord. Bless your name. Oh, my soul. I bless your name. The power of praise in a painful place. You know what comes, earthquakes come. Things are shaken when we praise Him in the painful place. Reality gets altered in a painful place.

When we praise Him, when I sing my song of gratitude today, when I have been humiliated, and my back is bloody and I can’t even move, I will praise you, God. There is power right there. Deep work in the soul right there. That’s where it goes right down. That sets you free. You can be in chains and free, very free. Here’s one more thing to throw out there, there is a power in combined praise and a blessing in having another person to sing the songs with. Part of what I love about this is that it wasn’t just Paul singing on his own. It was brother, what do you think? Let’s sing. Two are better than one. That’s what we always talk about; the value of community. Don’t be an outsider, be an insider. Get involved, be part of a community, a small group, serve on a ministry team, build friendships, sing songs together in the suffering places, and watch God do amazing things. He sends earthquakes. That’s the value.

The last thing I’ll say is that God often uses our painful places to welcome others into His amazing grace. I love this. I hope you see it. God often uses our painful places to welcome others into his amazing grace, the painful place to welcome others into his amazing grace. Out of that whole thing, is a whole house. The jailer said, who are you guys? I’m open to Jesus. The prisoners probably are as well, more than a few. What is this? His whole house, my whole house. Come into my house, I’m open. I’ll be baptized now. Yes, it’s powerful. We are church. We exist, we talk about our mission statement all the time to live, yes in San Francisco. Wherever we can go, our purpose is to live out our faith. We talk about our mission to live out our faith in Jesus and invite others into life with him. This is what we’re talking about. We live a life, not perfect, but authentic, genuine, and showing up at His finest. When it’s hardest is where the real growth happens. When it costs me something to praise, do you know what that’s called in the Psalms, that’s the sacrifice of praise.

I praise you in my brokenness. I praise you. Even now I praise you. I praise you Lord Jesus for your goodness to me. When we do this, we praise Him in the painful place. We become extensions of His amazing grace. It should not surprise us when other people are affected. By the reality of Jesus, they see imperfect people like you and me. Irresistibly drawn to His grace, the amazing grace that flows when we praise Him in the painful place.

Let’s pray. Lord, we ask you to bless our time that we’ve just had. Sometimes some of us are in the painful place and it might have to do with relationship, a hurt, a wound, or something we face. I don’t know. Wherever our hurt is God, a loss or a dream. God, everything we lay at your feet. Lord, suffering we’re walking through, we want to lay it at your feet. Others of us may not be there, but inevitably in life, if we live long enough, we will have these places where it will be so easy, Lord, to say, where are you, God? We’re doing your work and this is what I get. Instead, to choose to praise you there, to embrace you. Your love defends me, Jesus, your love defends us. I ask that we open up our hearts just like Lydia did. Lydia opened up her heart to you and you did amazing things. Keep our hearts tender and open. I thank you, Lord. Yes, even for the hard times, because it’s often there where my heart opens up. It’s the easiest to open it up, right there. Bless our time as we close this service with our songs and time of giving. I ask for your blessing over it, in Jesus’ name. Amen.