ACTS CHAPTER 16:8-40, “The
Vision Of The Man From
By
Jim Bomkamp
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at the accounts of how this second missionary journey began amiss.
1.1.1.
We saw that it was after a
great success in ministry and coming down off of the mountain top experience,
having his ministry vindicated by the mother church in Jerusalem, that Paul
thought that it would be a ‘good idea’ to go and to visit all of the churches
that they had planted on their first missionary journey.
1.1.1.1.We saw that this was so different from how the first missionary journey
had began, because before that journey the church in Jerusalem had not been
planning any grand schemes of world evangelization, but had been spending time
ministering to the Lord in worship, prayer, and fasting.
1.1.1.2.We saw how so many times what we initially think is a ‘good idea’ turns
out not to be so at all.
1.1.1.3.We saw that we all need to be in the place that the church was in
before the first missionary journey, worshipping, praying, etc., and then the
Holy Spirit will lead us and we will be successful in ministry
1.1.2.
We saw that Paul and
Barnabas had a huge blow-out when Barnabas wanted to bring along John Mark who
had abandoned them on the first missionary journey, and Paul thought that they
should not rely upon a man who had abandoned the work.
1.1.2.1.Both Paul and Barnabas were in the flesh during this argument, and
Barnabas ended up leaving with John Mark, and then Paul took Silas and departed
with the church’s blessing, and two missionary journeys ensued.
1.1.2.2.We learned many lessons on how to deal with conflict from this
incident.
1.1.3.
Then, we saw that as Paul
and Silas went out on this missionary journey that nothing seemed to go right,
and that the Holy Spirit was always blocking them from going and ministering in
certain places.
1.1.4.
It is also accurate to say
that the very things that Paul desired to do when considering this missionary
journey, he did not accomplish.
1.1.5.
Well, we saw that Paul
picked up Timothy at Lystra, where he had previously been stoned and left for
dead, and now Paul will personally disciple this young man as he traveled with
them on this missionary journey, and from this point on Timothy will be as
faithful in service to Paul as any man could ever be, and Timothy will go on to
be a successful pastor of his own right.
1.2.
In today’s study, we will
see that now on this second missionary journey the Holy Spirit begins to use
Paul in a mighty way after he has a vision of a man from
1.2.1.
Successful ministry now
finally begins in
1.2.2.
One of the things that is
always discussed concerning this chapter is, ‘Who is the man from
1.2.2.1.Some believe that Luke (the author of Acts) is that man since his
presence is noted with the party beginning from verse 10 of this chapter
through the end of the book, as from that point on he writes of what ‘we’ did,
not what ‘they did’.
1.2.2.2.Others believe that it is the Philippian jailer himself, who in this
chapter is converted along with his family.
1.2.3.
‘Flexibility’ is the key to
Paul’s being led to effective ministry on this missionary journey.
1.2.3.1.Many times our own preconceptions of how God plans to use us keep us
from being used in a mighty way by Him, and thus we must be flexible in order
for us to find how God might be wanting to use us next.
1.2.3.2.Pastor Chuck Smith has a little saying that often reminds us of, it
goes like this, “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken.”
2.
VS 16:8-10 - “8
and passing by Mysia, they came down to
2.1.
Our time frame for the events occurring in these verses is approximately
five years after Paul was stoned in Lystra and left for dead on the first
missionary journey.
2.2.
Finally,
after experiencing much frustration on the mission field as door after door had
been closed to their preaching by the Holy Spirit, the Lord seemed to have
declared a clear leading to Paul and his company through this vision he had in
the night. Paul did not in any way
question this vision, but believed that it was the Lord leading him to this
area.
2.2.1.
As I
mentioned last week, prayer is such a key to finding God’s leading for us, and
Paul must have begun to ‘pray hard’, seeing that things had not gone well at
all yet on this missionary journey.
2.2.2.
I have a hint
also that perhaps Paul had started to let the Lord deal with him concerning the
big fall out that he had with Barnabas when they were getting ready to head out
on this missionary journey (as we studied about last week).
2.3.
The man whom
Paul saw in the vision was ‘standing and appealing to him’ to ‘come over to
2.4.
There are
multitudes of people in the world who are hurting and need the Lord in their
life. Nothing in this world brings real
lasting satisfaction, and nothing else will meet the real needs that people
have in their lives except the Lord.
People’s hearts are crying out, whether or not they realize it or
not.
2.4.1.
We often see
on television or read in the newspaper many bazaar and ugly things that people
do to others, things which reveal how much pain they truly are in. All of the recent school shootings in our
nation have revealed how many kids these days are living lives of horrible
desperation.
2.4.1.1.I received an email the other day which contained
congressional testimony from one of the fathers of one of the boys killed at
the Columbine shooting in Colorado a couple of years ago, and when the man was
asked what he thought was causing these school shootings, he said in effect
that the problem was not because of the NRA (National Rife Association) nor
because hand guns are so readily available.
Gun control would not solve this problem, the problem is much deeper
than that, for the problem is within the kids.
The problem is that they are spiritually dead and empty inside and that
they needed to have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He said that those very legislators before
him were responsible to a degree because they had taken prayer out of the
schools, and not allowed kids to be able to have Bible studies on campus.
2.4.1.1.1.People need Jesus, for life lived apart from God is
very difficult and frustrating.
2.4.2.
Often times
these desperate things that people do indicate that they are really searching
for something in their lives, and they don’t even realize that it is the Lord
that they are searching for.
2.4.3. This call of the man of Macedonia should be the call
to all Christians to bring the gospel in their day to all people of this world
who are crying out for help, whether they realize it or not.
2.5.
Here in these
verses we see that the Lord guided Paul to
2.5.1.
Many men and
women however have been called into fulltime ministry or missions who have not
had a specific vision directing them to go, the Lord has just placed it upon
their hearts to go, and this was the desire of their heart.
2.5.2.
When I was a
young Christian, I had a couple of dreams that I knew were inspired by the Holy
Spirit because of their content and because when I woke up I felt the Holy
Spirit filling me or baptizing me in a powerful and special way, and these
dreams were visionary.
2.5.2.1.In one dream Jesus walked in through the door of my
college dorm room and placed His hand on my head as I lay in bed, and then He
left the room and I woke up.
2.5.2.2.In another inspired dream, I was standing before a
bunch of people and I began speaking to them and my voice was as the sound of
many waters when I spoke, and I said to them, “I’ve been called here to tell
people about God”. Later, I read in the
scripture about the Lord speaking and His voice being as the sound of many
waters.
2.5.2.3.But, I have found that over time the Lord has not
really given me many prophetic visions or dreams, and there have been few times
in number that the Lord has given me a prophetic word about something that He
was going to do. Oswald Sanders in his
book, “Spiritual Leadership”, said that he felt that as a person grew more and
more in his relationship with God that the Lord caused him to rely in faith
upon what He had already taught him and spoken to him about doing, and that
those times of the prophetic visions, dreams, etc. seemed to actually occur
less and less over time. Yet, the Lord
seemed to use him in an ever greater way.
I think then that the main thing is that we must be careful not to rely
upon our emotions, but trust upon the Word of God and what God has spoken to us
about.
2.5.2.4.When God gives us the vision or the dream, that is
great, but otherwise we must walk in faith upon what He has shown us already.
2.5.2.5.Before coming to Helena, MT to plant the Calvary
Chapel there I waited until the Lord gave me a scripture that seemed to speak to
my heart about going, and then when times got rough during our church plant
years there I would recall that promise and be encouraged that God had called
me to be there and thus I must remain faithful to that calling. Before coming to Green Bay, the Lord gave me
a scripture from Rev. 3:8, “…Behold I have put before you an open
door which no man can shut…”, and
not to long after receiving that word I was praying on a Friday morning with
the leaders at Calvary Fellowship in Seattle and asked them to pray for us as
we felt called to move to Green Bay to plant a Calvary Chapel. One of the elders there said, ‘I have a
scripture that I believe is from the Lord for you’, and he quoted Rev. 3:8 to
me. This just confirmed that God had
spoken to me in that verse, and now today I am holding onto that verse when
times get tough because I know that God spoke to me to lead me to
2.6.
Note that
Luke, the physician, the one who wrote the gospel of Luke is from this point on
part of Paul’s company, as he from verse 10 of this chapter on in the book of Acts Luke writes of things that ‘we’ did, not
what they did.
2.6.1.
It could be
that the Holy Spirit didn’t allow Paul to go to Asia to preach, and that this
was revealed to Paul because when he headed towards Asia he began to get very
ill (as we know that in Galatians he revealed that he had previously been ill
when he got to the area of the Galatias), and then perhaps it was his illness
that led him to Luke, the man who was known as a ‘physician’.
3.
VS 16:11-12 - “11
Therefore putting out to sea from Troas, we ran a straight course to
Samothrace, and on the day following to Neapolis; 12 and from there to
Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia, a Roman colony;
and we were staying in this city for some days.” - Paul and Silas and the group sailed to
Philippi via Troas,
3.1.
Luke recounts
the story of how it was that Paul and his company got to the city of
3.2.
Luke records
that they were in
3.3.
Paul and his
companions arrived in Philippi about 20 years after the church had been founded
in
4.
VS 16:13 - “13
And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to a riverside, where we were
supposing that there would be a place of prayer; and we sat down and began
speaking to the women who had assembled.” -
On the Sabbath, Paul and the group went down to a river and were able to
preach the gospel to some women
4.1.
There was a
small group of Jews who lived in
4.2.
If a city had
ten or more Jewish men they would erect a synagogue, otherwise the Jews in a
city would meet on the Sabbath for prayer.
So, evidently the only Jews in
4.3.
The ones who
had gathered there were women, yet Paul as a Pharisee despised women and had no
involvement with them since they were inferior, however as a Christian he
preached the gospel and ministered to them.
5.
VS 16:14-15 - “14
And a certain woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple
fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to
respond to the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household had
been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to
the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.” - Paul led a woman named
5.1.
We have in
this verse the account of the first convert in Europe, this woman, Lydia, who
was a shrewd business woman, a merchant who sold ‘purple fabrics’. It says that she was ‘a worshipper of God’,
which seems to imply that she was a Jewish proselyte.
5.2.
Luke records
about her conversion here that ‘the Lord opened her heart to respond to the
things spoken by Paul’, for when we share the gospel with someone our words
will just fall flat on the ground unless the Lord opens the ears of the person
whom we are sharing with to first understand the message, and then places a
conviction upon their heart to respond to the message.
5.2.1.
Whenever we
are sharing the gospel with someone, we ought to pray inbetween our words for
the Lord’s leading for us and for that person to understand the gospel and come
to conviction to be saved, and if we are ever in a place where someone else is
sharing the gospel, you need to pray for that person’s sharing and for the
person being shared with to understand the message and come to conviction to be
saved.
5.3.
We Christians
often pray that the Lord will open the heart of a non-believer to respond to
the gospel, and yet it seems that most people never have their hard heart
softened enough to respond to the gospel, however this story should encourage
us to persevere in praying for non-believers hearts, seeing that the Lord can
indeed open someone’s heart to respond to the gospel.
5.4.
5.5.
5.5.1.
We Christians
also ought to learn from the example of
6.
VS 16:16-18 - “16
And it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain
slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters
much profit by fortunetelling. 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 And she continued doing this for
many days. 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.” - A slave girl
who was possessed by a demon and used for divination kept following after Paul
and the group and announcing what their message consisted of
6.1.
There in
6.2.
In this time
in history, the Gentiles had a funny notion about people who were mentally ill
or acted in an insane manner, and they would think that perhaps this person was
actually in touch with the gods, and thus they would sometimes seek out their
counsel thinking that the gods would bless them.
6.3.
This girl was
‘following after’ Paul and his companions, and proclaiming that they were
‘bond-servants of the Most High God’, all of which is true. However Satan was prompting her to do this
and not the Lord. She herself was not of
the truth, and yet she was proclaiming the truth. At first, it might have seemed advantageous
to have a native of that land proclaiming this message, but the Lord finally
gave Paul discernment about how the devil was actually thwarting his witness
through her.
6.3.1.
When Paul
realized what was going on, he cast the demon out of the girl, talking directly
to the demon that possessed her, and the spirit ‘came out at that very moment’.
6.3.2.
The slave-girl’s
ability to perform divination ended immediately when the demon left her.
6.4.
The devil can
deceive people so easily, however we all need to learn from this incident that
those who practice any sort of divination, be it “fortune-telling”, “palm reading”,
“tarot card reading”, “crystal ball gazing”, etc., are all under the influence
of the devil and his minions.
6.4.1.
The people
who perform these divinations say they are Christians, they may seem real
spiritual, and they may have supernatural knowledge, and even perform
supernatural works, however the devil is simply deceiving people into believing
that any good is being accomplished by these people, for in reality these
people are simply being controlled by demons who are out to cause every
gullible person on earth to perish for eternity in hell.
6.4.2.
The Bible
teaches in many verses that those who practice ‘divination’ will end up in
hell. Duet. 18:10-12 says, “10
“There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter
pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft,
or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who casts a spell, or a
medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12 “For whoever does
these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things
the Lord your God will drive them out before you”.
6.5.
Paul didn’t want Satan doing the advertising for him and his ministry,
and thus he cast the demon out of this slave girl.
6.5.1.
G.
Campbell Morgan writes, “A
grave error in the history of the Christian Church has been that she has been
content, again and again, to admit the testimony of evil men, because the
testimony in itself is true. God will
have no testimony of truth which is not spoken by those who are true, for
behind the method there is a motive, and the motive is not that of helpfulness
but of destruction. Admit the devil into
the fellowship of this propaganda of the Gospel, and before long he will twist
his fingers round the Gospel and distort it, until it becomes a deadly and
damnable heresy”.
6.5.2.
The church
must never settle for mere patronage of Christ, it must have submission to
Him. Those who minister and administer
in the church must be those who live and walk in the light of the truth of
God’s word. They must be rejected if
they only affirm the truth about Jesus and do not walk in the truth.
6.5.3.
Sadly
however, I see often in the church today that they hire worldly marketing
people to come in and teach them worldly marketing techniques for marketing the
church, and this is doing the same thing that this demon led slave girl doing
divination was doing, it is relying upon the worldly wisdom of this world which
is dominated by Satan to promote God’s work.
6.6.
There are two
methods by which the devil seeks to thwart the activity of God in the
church: alliance and antagonism. We have both in this story of the church
being established in
6.6.1.
The
slave-girl is a tool to thwart the church through feigning “alliance” with the
truth
6.6.2.
The chief
magistrates are a tool of the devil for antagonism, as they jail and beat with
rods Paul and Silas.
7.
VS 16:19-21 - “19
But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul
and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities, 20 and
when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, “These men are
throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, 21 and are proclaiming customs
which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.””
- The masters of the slave girl drag
Paul and Silas before the authorities for stirring up trouble in the city
7.1.
The men who
were gaining a profit through this slave-girl who practiced divination, show
their greed and hypocrisy by seizing Paul and Silas and dragging ‘them into the
market place before the authorities’ and accusing them of ‘proclaiming customs’
unlawful for them ‘to accept or to observe, being Romans’.
7.1.1.
Their only
concern in reality was their loss of profit.
8.
VS 16:22-24 - “22
And the crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore
their robes off them, and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. 23
And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison,
commanding the jailer to guard them securely; 24 and he, having received such a
command, threw them into the inner prison, and fastened their feet in the
stocks.” - The crowd rose up and
began to beat Paul and Silas with rods
8.1.
One would
think that this incident of being ‘beaten with rods’ and having received ‘many
blows upon them’, and then being thrown into a horrible prison, would probably
have been the last straw for Paul in this second missionary journey.
8.1.1.
Paul had
probably thought when he had the vision of the man in
8.2.
Christians
often encounter great difficulties after being led into a missions work that
they felt that they had great assurance of the Lord’s leading before they
went. We need to be encouraged to
persevere like the apostle Paul and Silas, and rejoice in the Lord and sing His
praises in the midst of all of our tribulations.
8.2.1.
Paul and
Silas refused to be discouraged by this beating since they were learning to
give thanks in all things and to rejoice in the Lord and praise Him in their
tribulations.
8.2.2.
When we Christians
are called upon to suffer unjustly this then becomes an opportunity for our
testimony to shine it’s brightest, that is, if we can forgive our persecutors
and rejoice in the Lord as Paul and Silas rejoiced.
8.3.
We see the
hardness of the jailer in that he placed Paul and Silas’ feet in stocks even
though their wounds were bleeding, and then he went to sleep until awakened by
the earthquake.
9.
VS 16:25-30 - “25
But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to
God, and the prisoners were listening to them; 26 and suddenly there came a
great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and
immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s chains were unfastened.
27 And when the jailer had been roused out of sleep and had seen the prison
doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that
the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Do
yourself no harm, for we are all here!” 29 And he called for lights and rushed
in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 and after
he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”” - A great earthquake occurs and the prisoner’s
chains are all loosed
9.1.
Racked with
pain and their sore backs still bleeding, Paul and Silas began at midnight to
pray prayers of thanksgiving and sing ‘hymns of praise to God’, to the dismay
of the other prisoners.
9.1.1.
The last
thing that anyone in that prison thought that they might hear was someone singing
songs of praise to the Lord and praying with thankfulness, especially from
someone who had just been beaten by the authorities.
9.1.2.
In the Greek
it says that the prisoners were listening “intently” to the singing of Paul and
Silas.
9.1.3.
One man has
said that if we Christians would praise the Lord and give Him thanks more in
the midst of our trials, we would have more miraculous deliverances by the Lord
in our lives.
9.2.
The Lord
heard the prayers and songs of praise which Paul and Silas were singing, and He
caused a great earthquake which opened all of the prison doors and unfastened
every person’s chains. When the jailer
saw and heard what had happened, he knew that since he was responsible for the
lives of those prisoners he would be put to death for their escape, therefore
he drew his sword as he had decided to take his own life rather than let the
Romans take it for him.
9.2.1.
Paul
intervened before the jailer could take his life as he persuaded him not to do
so since none of the prisoners had gone anywhere.
9.3.
The Philippian
jailer ‘called for lights and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down
before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must
I do to be saved?”’
9.4.
The jailer
was under such intense conviction of his sin and fear of God, that he asked
them how that he might be saved from the wrath of God. This reminds me of when Jonathan Edwards, who
preached the sermon about hell called, “Sinners In the Hand Of An Angry God”,
and great conviction of sin fell upon the place such that people feeling they
were ready to slide right down into hell fell down on their knees and cried out
to God to save them. A revival across
9.4.1.
Perhaps now
Paul realized who the man from
9.5.
The real
question that the unsaved person should be asking is, ‘How must I be
saved?’ I said earlier in this chapter
that the real need that people have is to know Christ, however if people do not
know Christ before they pass out of this life, then they will spend eternity in
hell! Therefore, the need that people
have in their life is for “eternal salvation”.
This life in reality is very short and soon passes, however eternity
will go on forever, and if a person wastes his or her opportunity to receive
the salvation that Christ offers to them, they will go and spend all of
eternity separated from God in the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his
angels. Rev. 20:15 says, “15 And
if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into
the lake of fire”.
10.
VS 16:31-34 - “31
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your
household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who
were in his house. 33 And he took them that very hour of the night and washed
their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. 34 And
he brought them into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly,
having believed in God with his whole household.” - The Philippian jailer is saved along with his
whole household
10.1.
Paul does not
tell the Philippian jailer that he must do anything in order to be saved but
just to ‘believe in the Lord Jesus’, plus nothing, for the church
leaders had declared that there was nothing requisite to receiving eternal life
in Christ other than to believe upon Him for salvation.
10.1.1.This is the simplest explanation of the gospel
message, it is simply belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
10.1.2.That believe however is not mere intellectual assent,
rather it is a commitment of one’s entire life to the Lord, and it involves
repentance.
10.1.3.It does say that Paul went on to speak ‘the word of
the Lord to him together with all who were in his house’. So, it does appear that Paul expounded some
upon this simple explanation of the gospel message.
10.2.
Paul tells
the jailer that his entire household might be saved in the same fashion, by
simply believing in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We see immediate fruit in the jailer’s life,
as he immediately takes Paul and Silas and ‘washed their wounds’, and then he
‘was baptized, he and all his household’. Then, ‘he brought them into his house and set
food before them’.
10.2.1.Some have tried to make these verses teach that every
time a Christian gets saved that God intends to save his whole household,
however that is going beyond what the scripture is teaching in this story. Also, this goes against the experiences that
most believers have, for even Paul appears to have had unbelievers in his
family, even at this point in his life.
10.3.
The blessing
of salvation is seen in the jailer’s life in that he ‘rejoiced greatly’.
11.
VS
16:35-39 - “35 Now
when day came, the chief magistrates sent their policemen, saying, “Release
those men.” 36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The chief
magistrates have sent to release you. Now therefore, come out and go in peace.”
37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us in public without trial, men who
are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they sending us away
secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.” 38 And the
policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates. And they were afraid
when they heard that they were Romans, 39 and they came and appealed to them,
and when they had brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city.” - The chief
magistrates and the policemen try to release Paul and Silas the next day as if
they had not unlawfully beaten them, then Paul reminds them that he is a Roman
citizen
11.1.
What the
chief magistrates had done with Paul and Silas by jailing them and having them
beaten was totally illegal to do to Roman citizens. The city magistrates realized that they had
no legal reason to detain Paul and Silas and therefore sent policemen to
release them from the jail.
11.1.1.However, Paul did not want these chief magistrates to
feel that they would get away with having treated him so inhumanely and with
such indignity.
11.1.2.Paul was not thinking of himself in forcing the chief
magistrates to come publicly to the jail and publicly apologize for the
terrible wrong which they had done to him, rather he was thinking of the church
and the citizens of Philippi itself, and he was being civic-minded, bringing
public shame and accountability to these leaders who were doing a poor job of
administration of the city.
11.1.3.His actions were intended to stem further violation of
human rights and of law by these leaders.
Therefore, Paul told the policemen who came to release him that he
refused to leave with them since they had their rights as Roman citizens
violated, and that the chief magistrates must come themselves to release
them. The policemen reported these
things to the chief magistrates, who became fearful since they had broken Roman
law, and they came to the jail and ‘appealed to them’ and begged ‘them to leave
the city’.
11.2.
Although we
Christians are called at times to forebear people, we are not called to
constantly be a door mat, and let all people walk all over us and abuse us as
punching bags however they may wish. We
must be led by the Holy Spirit in all that we do, including how we allow people
take advantage of us.
11.3.
There is a
calling for Christians to make a difference in their cities and nations as we
see from the example of Paul and Silas.
We Christians need to be open to the leading of the Lord as far as He
might want us to be politically involved in making a difference through the use
of the legal system of our country.
12.
VS
16:40 - “40 And they went out of the prison
and entered the house of
12.1.
Paul and
Silas knew that their church planting in
12.2.
Paul and
Silas spent a short period of time at