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July 04, 2010
“Is Freedom the Most Important Thing?”
Acts 16: 16-34
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Today is the Fourth of July, Independence Day! It is the day when all citizens of the USA celebrate our independence and our freedoms. But as we celebrate and Worship almighty God, I would like to look at some of the people in this passage and see if they were free, and if not, if they were OK anyway.
The first person we meet in this Scripture Passage is a servant girl. She was possessed by an evil spirit which caused her to make odd utterances which were taken as portents of the future. Luke tells us that her owners used her abilities as a fortune teller to make money. She was a valuable source of income for them.
From our point of view she was to be pitied on two accounts. First of all, for those of us who love the Freedoms we have by living in the USA, this girl was to be pitied because she was not free. She was owned by others. They took all the income she was able to get.
And for those of us who place a great value on Mental health and the abilities of our minds, this girl was to be pitied because she was not able to control her own thoughts. Even her mind was possessed by another, an evil spirit.
This unfortunate girl seems to have attached herself to Paul. She seems to have first met him when he was on his way to the place of Prayer. (Philippi did not have many Jews so instead of having a synagogue, there was a place of prayer where Jews would gather. This place of prayer would be outside the city walls near a river or stream).
Because of the evil spirit within her this servant girl readily identified Paul and his companions as servants of God and she proclaimed long and loud who they were and that they would tell people a way of Salvation. She seems to have kept this up for several days, and Paul decided that her proclamations were detrimental to his ministry. Or maybe he just got sick and tired of her shouting. He drove out the evil spirit and she stopped shouting and telling the future.
I do not think that this story casts the apostle Paul in a very flattering light. He does not seem to have realized right away that this girl was possessed by an evil spirit. Or he did not care until she became a nuisance. But what I want you to notice, is that this girl had no freedom and she did not even posess her own mind. Paul did not have the power to make her free, but he did help her with her mind, he cast out the evil spirit.
A few years ago, our then president encouraged us to think of our nation as an exporter of freedom and democracy. That quest does not seem to have been as successful as we might have hoped. Many of us realize that the political servitudes of many in this world are beyond our abilities to help. But like the girl whom Paul helped, they may have other problems we can help with. We can pray for their salvation, for their health and for their release from persecution and oppression. We can also speak out for them in the world. When we hear of people being mistreated in other countries we can ask our elected national leaders to speak out on their behalf on the world stage.
And we can send to them messengers of the good news about Jesus. Some of those messengers can also be people who have skills to heal their bodies and their minds. We used to call such messengers Missionaries. Certain political realities do not always allow them to have that title any more, but they must still be sent and we must still help to send them.
Paul got into trouble for casting the demon out of the servant girl. Her owners could no longer make money from her fortune telling abilities. They were angry and brought Paul and Silas before the town magistrates and made interesting accusations against them.
First of all, they accused them of being Jews, which reveals them as racists. They obviously found something objectionable about being Jewish. In fact, of the 4 people we know to have been in Paul’s Missionary group, only he and Silas were obviously Jews, wearing the Jewish-style robes and tassels. Timothy was half Jewish and probably dressed more like a gentile. Luke was not Jewish at all. Only the Jewish looking missionaries were brought before the magistrates.
Other than being Jews, they were also accused of “disturbing the city” and “advocating customs that are not lawful for us Romans to adopt or observe.” Mighty high sounding accusations, but Luke told the real reason the accusers were upset. They had lost a valuable asset when the fortune telling spirit was driven out of their servant girl. I am reminded of an old saying “When someone says ‘Its not the money, it’s the principle of the thing’ it’s usually the money.”
The magistrates ordered Paul and Silas to be beaten and jailed overnight. The Jailor took them after they were beaten and put them in the inner jail and fastened their feet in stocks (see colonial Williamsburg for “stocks”.)
At midnight, Paul and Silas were singing and praying. On this 4th of July, we might have expected then to bemoan their loss of freedom, but they didn’t. They were rejoicing in their salvation and their ability to serve the Lord. They were not free, but they had something much more important than freedom. They had the knowledge that God had saved them and the assurance that God was pleased about how they were serving Him.
While they were singing and praying in the dark, an earthquake occurred. The chains fell from their anchor places in the walls. The doors opened. But before anyone could escape, the jailor ran into the vestibule of the inner jail and saw that the doors were open and the chains were no longer anchored to the walls. He assumed the worst, that the prisoners had escaped. He was about to commit suicide over his failure to keep his prisoners locked up, when Paul said, “Don’t do that, we are all here.” The jailor rushed into the inner jail and asked how he could be saved. Paul and Silas told him to believe in Jesus. He did, and was baptized.
Now before he met Paul and Silas, that Jailor was free. He was a freeman, a man with an important position, but he still needed something that was way more important than his freedom. He needed to believe in God and experience God’s Salvation.
Today and this weekend as we celebrate the independence of our nation, we need to be thankful for our freedoms. But as we do that we need to remember that there is something more important than freedom.
There are some people in our world like the demon possessed servant girl who will never be free in this life. But we can still help them in some way. We can send missionaries and doctors to help them and tell them about Jesus so that they can be free forever in God’s kingdom.
There are some people in our world like Paul in Silas as they were in that jail. Some have been beaten and tortured. They have lost their freedoms because of the service they have rendered to God. We need to remember them, and to encourage them when we can. We need to pray for their release and that they will be free. But we need to remember that what they have is way more important that what they lack. And we need to thank God for their service of God and for the salvation they have received from God.
As we celebrate our freedoms. we need to remember that there are with us many people like the jailor before he met Paul and Silas. He was free, but he did not know God or God’s salvation. He was doing very well by worldly standards, but he was not saved. We need to pray for many of our fellow citizens who are free but not yet a part of God’s eternal kingdom. We need to remember that no matter how successful they are, no matter how happy they are, what they do not yet have is way more important than all that they do have. Pray for them and ask God how you can help them find what they really need.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at July 4, 2010 05:49 PM