Following Paul’s nighttime vision whereby the group of Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke concluded that God had called them to go into Philippi to preach the gospel, the men sailed from Troas to Neapolis, stopping for one night at Samothrace on the way. From Neapolis, they walked westward to Philippi, which was distinctively Roman. There, these men labored in their missions work for some time.
On the Sabbath day, the missionaries went outside the city looking for a place of prayer (perhaps a synagogue). Luke records that they spoke with some women who gathered there. One of these women, Lydia, originally from Thyatira, and a merchant in the costly goods of purple fabric, was a God-fearing woman. But she was still outside the kingdom. The Lord sovereignly opened the door of her heart, and she heard, understood, and obeyed the call to the gospel, professing Jesus as Lord. She and her household were then baptized. What a wonderful reassurance to Paul that the Lord Jesus was continuing to guide His mission and Paul’s ministry! Lydia then invited the missionaries to stay at her house, and they eventually accepted her kind offer of hospitality.
The missionaries then encountered a demon-possessed girl who possessed powers of divination. But because of this “skill” she possessed, others had enslaved her and used her fortune-telling to bring in a substantial profit to themselves. This poor girl followed Paul and his team around everywhere they went, screaming aloud that they were slaves of the Most High God, proclaiming the way of salvation. After she kept doing this for many days, Paul became grieved in his heart: troubled at this poor girl’s condition, at the source of the message (evil spirit … and ultimately, Satan), at potential for misunderstanding of the message and conflation of the missionaries’ work with demonic activity, and at the sheer disruption it was causing to their gospel ministry efforts. He turned to face her and commanded the evil spirit to depart from her in the name and power of Jesus the Christ, giving clarity to the identity of the Most High God. The evil spirit obeyed and immediately left her.
The slave girl’s owners were infuriated and dragged Paul and Silas down to the town square before the magistrates of Philippi. There, they avoided explaining the real reason they were angry, instead demonstrating racial prejudice of Paul and Silas by appealing to their perceived Roman superiority over the Jews. They also accused Paul and Silas of disturbing the way of Roman peace and of trying to force Jewish customs upon the Romans. The gathered crowd became incited by these accusations and joined in on attacking these 2 men. The magistrates didn’t bother to investigate these charges, but immediately moved forward to have Paul and Silas beaten with rods, a horrifically bad experience that sometimes left the person whipped dead.
After Paul and Silas endured many blows from these rods, the magistrates ordered the prison warden to securely incarcerate them. Understanding the severity and strictness of his charge, the jailer put Paul and Silas into the inner prison … and fastened their feet in the stocks. The Macedonian Mission could hardly be going according to what these men expected after they eagerly agreed that God had called them to Macedonia through Paul’s vision. But Paul had been also called to suffer much for the sake of Jesus’ name. How will he and Silas respond to such humiliating treatment, having been abused and mistreated just as their Lord had been?
You can listen to this teaching on Acts 16:11-24 by clicking on the following link: Mayhem In Macedonia
