Acts 16:22-40 Arrest, Jail, and broken chains

Acts 16:22-24 Paul and Silas are beaten and imprisoned. The crowds were evidently incited by the owners of the slave girl. The judges went along with the crowd, as evidently due process was not a consideration in those days. Paul and Silas were beaten with rods and then thrown in prison; the jailer fastened their feet in stocks in response to directions from the magistrates. And all this in response to a supernatural deliverance of a slave girl from an evil spirit through the power of the Holy Spirit. But the civil authorities had no concept of the futility of opposing God, as Gamaliel had. (Acts 5:34-39)

Acts 16:25-26 An earthquake frees them from their chains. Under the circumstances, singing praises to God seems rather a stretch. Perhaps it was panache, but more likely they were so empowered by the Holy Spirit that their circumstances seemed unimportant. Usually when we worship God in song we find ourselves uplifted, but seldom do we see physical manifestations of God's power. But in this case Paul and Silas did. All the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. This closely parallel's Peter's deliverance, except that no earthquake was reported in that case. (Acts 12:7-10) And another difference, Paul and Silas did not immediately leave when their chains were broken. Under the circumstances, that also seems counter-cultural, but perhaps the Holy Spirit had spoken to them and told them that God's glory would be revealed if they stayed. We don't know how many other prisoners' chains were also broken.

          Metaphorically, this is exactly the way the God works in the lives of people today. That is, His servants endure great hardship and are mistreated, and yet, trusting in Him their chains are broken. Slavery to sin possibly has a greater impact on our lives than physical chains. The power of God to free His people from sin is just as great, even though the chains are invisible. But the results of God's deliverance are usually evident in the physical realm.

Acts 16:27-34 The Philippian jailer and his whole household are saved. The reaction of the jailer is that he would rather die at his own hand than face Roman punishment for allowing prisoners to escape. Most likely it would be less painful. Paul obviously knew this was the likely response, hence his words to the jailer. The jailer, at least, recognized the fingerprints of God, and fell down at Paul's feet. Paul would have refused to accept worship, but did exactly what he went on the trip to do, presented the gospel. In this case a very abbreviated form of the gospel. The jailer and his whole household were immediately baptized (in the middle of the night, apparently).

Acts 16:35-40 The city officials have egg on their face and ask Paul and Silas to leave. The magistrates send the police to tell the jailer to release the prisoners. Paul now trades on his Roman citizenship to make a point. Or perhaps he is trying to buy some protection for those who turned to Christ and would be remaining in Philippi, by establishing a legal precedent that Christians could not be persecuted with impunity. He manipulated the circumstances to this end. The local officials, the DA's, judges, and police, realized that their failure to follow Roman protocol had been exposed as having been inflicted on a Roman citizen, which could have caused them great difficulties with higher authorities. Fortunately for their sakes, Paul was willing to leave. Perhaps this was an early form of deterrence; an understanding between rivals that they needed to behave within certain limits to avoid mutual annihilation. That wasn't actually the case, as Paul was holding the God-card, but in human terms this may have been Paul's strategy.

          One hopes that Paul would have connected the jailer's household to Lydia's household before leaving town. The text only says that he and Silas returned to Lydia's house and encouraged them before leaving town. Having seen Paul arrested, beaten, and imprisoned, it would have been unnatural if Lydia and her household had not been a little afraid. So Paul went to encourage them that God was sovereign and He could take care of His children, even in adverse circumstances. 

Acts 16:16-21 A spirit of fortune-telling

Acts 16:16-21 Some time later, as Paul and his companions were traveling back to the place of prayer from Lydia's house, they ran into a fortune-telling slave girl. In Jewish culture, a medium was not to be tolerated (Lev 20:27, Deut 18:10-11) The spirit of divination had free run in gentile culture, which lacked such prohibition. That this girl began to cry out the truth is a testimony to the power of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the demon of divination was attempting to conceal its true nature, or perhaps it could not help itself, in crying out that Paul and his comrades had come from the most high God to proclaim the way of salvation. Paul was not fooled. The annoying way in which she continuously cried out the same things may have been a clue. Perhaps it was the slave girl's only means of crying out for deliverance, since she was under its (the demon's) control. In any event, Paul used the authority of Christ to cast out the demon. No details on what happened; how long did it take for the slave-girl's owners to realize that she had lost her familiar spirit? Time is not that big a deal in this case, as much as the fact that once the fortune-telling spirit was gone, they had Paul and Silas arrested and charged with disturbing the peace.

          It is curious that the owners made no mention of Jesus, but instead accused Paul and Silas of being Jews (which they were) but missed the whole point of the matter. The deliverance of the slave girl did not take place according to Jewish law or custom, but according to God's supernatural power through Christ.  This must have been what really disturbed those who considered themselves Roman.

          What is the difference between the predictions of a medium or fortune-teller and the prophetic words that are spoken by a person in the power of the Holy Spirit? This can be looked at from at least two perspectives. One aspect is the motives and desires of the person seeking to receive a "word". Anyone patronizing a fortune-teller is not looking for God. They are either looking for knowledge about the future apart from God's plan and sovereignty, or they are looking for supernatural knowledge for the sake of proving that God is not the ultimate and sovereign Lord of all creation (both natural and supernatural). The one who receives a prophecy from the Holy Spirit is primarily seeking to hear what God is saying to him or her. In many cases, it is simply a confirmation of what the Holy Spirit is revealing to them directly, not trusting their own discernment of spirits, but looking for a trusted and independent confirmation. It is not usually knowledge about what will happen in the future, but of what God thinks about the persons and situations involved. The emphasis is on hearing from God.

          The second dimension of differences is the source itself. Supernatural revelation that is not from God is not necessarily true. It may be supernatural, but lying spirits deceive. God, on the other hand, does not deceive, but often His revelation is uncomfortable. Although He speaks from a nature and character of perfectly holy love, His words into our lives run counter to the ways and desires of both the world and the flesh. And so we can discern whether a word is from God or not on this basis alone. If a word from supposedly supernatural source caters to our desire, either of the flesh or for worldly glory or achievement, then there is a strong possibility it is not from God.  

Acts 16:11-15 Philippi

Acts 16:11-12 They sail to Macedonia and travel to Philippi. Luke gives the waypoints on this ocean voyage, which takes them Asia Minor to Greece; Samothrace, Neapolis, Philippi. They evidently spent little time in the first two locations. Neapolis being a seaport, they traveled overland to Philippi, about 15 km inland, where Luke notes they stayed for some days. This was the first venture of the gospel into Europe. Perhaps this was the first place in some time that the Holy Spirit gave them rest to be, rather than impelling them to continue to move on. If so, would this imply or confirm that He had led them there?

Acts 16:13-15 Paul preaches to some women, and Lydia believes. It is not clear why Paul and his companions thought that the riverside outside the gate would be a place of prayer. They were in a Greek city with its attendant pagan idolatry; perhaps the riverside would be a place where people who feared God but did not want to be involved in the idolatrous worship could come to pray? Women assembled there, but no men are mentioned. Perhaps the idolatry was so tied to temple prostitution that men were pretty much slaves to their carnal addictions, but women were not, and sought a place for spiritual contemplation. Lydia was from Thyatira, far from Philippi, actually in Asia Minor, and also mentioned in Revelation 2:18-29, in which Jesus sends a letter to the church located there.

          Lydia worshipped God, and listened to Paul. Since her profession is mentioned, it suggests she was not married, and ran her own business. Purple garments usually represented royalty, so perhaps this was a lucrative profession. Paul's message here is not recorded, nor Lydia's affirmation of faith. She and her household were baptized. She invited them to stay with her, if they deemed her faithful to The Lord.

          It is a sad commentary on the human condition that only women seemed to be gathered at a place suitable for prayer and worship of God. At times in the church, there have been a predominate participation by women compared to men. This was not the case in the early church until this point, and in fact this was not the church, this was women eschewing pagan idolatry, seeking the true God but doing so without men. The question of men's role in the church vs. women's role in the church has been hotly debated, but that is not really the point here. In this pagan Greek culture, worship of the true God was evidently not a manly option. Either men were in the army, or else they were in the temple patronizing the temple prostitutes. A masculine leadership role for seeking the one true God can certainly be envisioned, but was lacking here. When the worship of the one true God, of Jesus the Messiah, is eviscerated to the point of being effeminate, it becomes ineffective in being received by men. Lydia had clung to some pagan form of worship, with enough truth in it to recognize the truth of the gospel when presented by Paul. It did not remain the sole province of women in Philippi for long.

Acts 16:6-10 Forbidden to speak the Word!

Acts 16:6-10 Paul and Silas continue traveling through Asia Minor but the Holy Spirit does not allow them to minister. This overland journey took them through several regions beyond the cities that Paul had visited on his first journey, traveling roughly west northwest from Iconium. Mysia is a province west of Galatia, Bithynia is north of Galatia, and Troas is a city on the extreme western tip of Asia Minor.  The Holy Spirit forbidding them to speak the word in Asia sounds odd, as in many other places Paul said that he tried to reach all men. But here God overrode Paul's plan and said no. And then Paul was guided by a vision seen in a dream, rather than the Holy Spirit.

          When we are trying to serve God and it seems like things don't work out, our most common response is to blame it on the opposition. The devil is trying to prevent us from doing God's work. But in this case, Paul did not draw that conclusion.  Perhaps he had a view of God's sovereignty that precluded the devil from having such power. But how are we to discern when spiritual direction is coming from the Holy Spirit, from cases when spiritual opposition is hindering us? Although the Bible gives various thoughts on this topic, there is no simple three-step process to discerning God's will. It is sufficient to say that there are almost always more than one possible source or cause of spiritual effects and we should not be hasty in ascribing them to one or the other, without spending some time considering what it might be. Perhaps we should persevere in the face of demonic opposition, or perhaps we should submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit. In this case, Paul abstained from preaching the word under the leading of the Holy Spirit. God then confirmed his direction through the vision in a dream, which Paul immediately responded to.

          An interesting fact is that the voice changes from third person plural to first person plural in this passage. Somewhere along this leg of the journey, Luke evidently joined Paul and his traveling party, because at Troas when Paul had the vision, Luke comments that 'God had called us'. No autobiographical information is given; how Luke became a Christian, or how he was called by God to join Paul. Luke is mentioned in Colossians 4:14, 2 Timothy 4:11, and Philemon verse 24, in all cases as being a companion of Paul. In one case he is mentioned as being the beloved physician, in another case as a fellow worker, and in one case as being the only companion then present with Paul. Luke never records any specific actions that he took, but we infer that he must have been an eyewitness to many of many of the subsequent events recorded in the book of Acts.

Acts 16:1-5 The circumcision of Timothy

Acts 16:1-5 Paul, in Lystra, adds Timothy to his party. Paul's return to the churches in Galatia that he had visited on his first missionary trip had the primary purpose of encouraging them in the faith, and delivering the official decree from the Jerusalem council. In Lystra, he met Timothy, the son of a devout woman who was himself also well spoken of. In his letters to Timothy written some years later, Paul refers to him as his true child in the faith (I Tim 1:2) and his beloved son (2 Tim 1:2). He also recalls the sincere faith that his grandmother and mother had, and his conviction that Timothy had the same quality of faith (2 Tim 1:5).

          The puzzling thing about this passage is that Paul circumcised Timothy because of the Jews in that region, because everyone knew his father was Greek. In view of the recent decree of the Jerusalem council, it is difficult to understand why Paul would have done this. The text suggests that he wanted the Jews in that region to accept Timothy, which implies that his mother must have been Jewish (or else the whole issue would have been moot). But it still seems to run counter to the whole flow of what the Holy Spirit had been doing through the Jerusalem council, in freeing Christianity from its cultural captivity to the Jewish faith. In Galatians 5:6 and 6:16, Paul tells the very people in this region that circumcision and uncircumcision are nothing, but what matters is obeying the commandments of God, and faith working through love. This all leads one (this author) to wonder if Paul slipped on this point and rationalized an act that he later came to recognize as in error. He noted in Galatians 2:3 that Titus was not required to be circumcised, and in Galatians that he did not yield in subjection to the Judaizers at all, in the context of the Jerusalem council. But here, it almost seems like he did.

          From John Piper, March 7, 1983, three differences between Titus and Timothy cases:

1) Titus was a pure Greek (Galatians 2:3). Timothy was born of a Greek father and a Jewish mother. According to 2 Timothy 3:15, from childhood Timothy had been taught the Old Testament scriptures. In other words, his Jewish mother brought him up as a Jew. But his Greek father had not allowed the circumcision. For Titus the pressure was to become Jewish. Timothy was already very Jewish by race and by training. For him to be circumcised would not have had the implication of moving from Gentile status to Jew status.

2) The people Paul resisted in Galatians 2:3-5 were false brothers. The Jews to whom he catered in Acts 16:3 were not even Christians. The pressure in Galatians 2:3-5 was from professing believers upon another believer to perform a work of law in order to be accepted. But Acts 16:2 says Timothy was “well spoken of by all the brethren at Lystra and Iconium.” No Christians were pushing for Timothy’s circumcision. Rather it was “because of the Jews that were in those places” (16:3) that Paul had Timothy circumcised. “Jews” is used over 85 times in Acts and almost without exception refers to non-Christians. And here they appear to be distinct from “brethren.” So it appears that Timothy’s circumcision was not motivated by “Christian” pressure from within but by a missionary strategy from without.

3) Titus was a “test case” in Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1), but Timothy was to be a constant travel companion (Acts 16:3). Therefore, in Titus’ case a clear theological issue was at stake. But in Timothy’s case, what was at stake was how unbelieving Jews might best be won to Christ. So just as Christian freedom caused Paul to resist Titus’ circumcision, this same freedom allowed him to remove the stumbling block of Timothy’s lack of circumcision. Paul applied his principle from 1 Corinthians 9:20, “To the Jews I became a Jew in order to win the Jews.”

Acts 15:36-41 Paul and Barnabas separate

Acts 15:36-41 Paul and Barnabas begin another missionary trip. There is no indication how long elapsed before Paul felt the stirring of the Holy Spirit to return to the mission field. However, he and Barnabas had a dispute about taking John Mark along with them, since Paul felt he had deserted them the first time. Perhaps Barnabas felt a family loyalty to Mark since they were cousins (Col 4:10). And so Paul and Barnabas split up. Barnabas took Mark and went back to Cyprus. Paul took Silas and began by traveling locally throughout Syria and Cilicia to visit and encourage the churches. Thus they began to make their way overland to the area Paul and Barnabas had visited previously in Galatia, passing through Cilicia, and along the way going near Tarsus before they got to Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Psidian Antioch. Derbe had been the easternmost point in Galatia on Paul's first trip. There is no record that they visited Tarsus.

          There is no further mention of either Barnabas or John Mark in the book of Acts. However, their names are mentioned frequently in Paul's letters.  Given the role Barnabas played early on in bringing Paul to the Apostles, and then traveling with him on his first missionary trip, it would be sad if his role in the early church came to an end at this point. There is little Biblical information on where he went after Cyprus or what he did. Mark is mentioned in Colossians 4:10 as being evidently with Paul in Colossae at the time this letter was written. In 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul asks Timothy to bring Mark with him when he comes to see Paul. Philemon 1:24 also indicates that Mark was with Paul. Hence we can conclude that at some point Paul and Mark reconciled.  I Corinthians 9:6 makes reference to Barnabas, in Paul asking a hypothetical question. Since Paul had not yet been to Corinth when he and Barnabas parted company in Acts 15, this suggests that they had continuing contact after that, that the Corinthians knew Barnabas, and that he was still an active missionary. Galatians 2:1 & 9 makes reference to the events of Acts 15:1-35, and Barnabas' role in the Jerusalem council. Galatians 2:13 refers to some events in Antioch, in which Paul confronted Peter over legalism in his lifestyle and falling into factionalism, in which Barnabas was also involved, but these events are not mentioned in Acts. 

Acts 15:22-35 The Council decision is documented and released

Acts 15:22-29 The council writes a letter. Since this was obviously a persistent issue for the early church, the leadership in Jerusalem decided to write up the decision to ensure that it would be accurately transmitted and preserved. And to ensure that no one would think that it was just Paul and Barnabas bringing this message, they also sent two men from the church in Jerusalem to confirm by word of mouth the letter and the things that Paul and Barnabas were saying.

Acts 15:30-35 The letter is delivered to Antioch (on the Orontes). Judas and Silas from Jerusalem encouraged the congregation with a lengthy message. Whether this was a sermon or a lengthy prophetic utterance is not obvious. After this, they were released, but Silas chose to stay in Antioch. So Paul and Barnabas, and presumably Silas, continued to teach the congregation in Antioch.