Acts 16

Acts 16:1-11

The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 15:1-41 - Acts 16:1-11 Acts 15:1-35 This has sometimes been called the story of the first council of the Christian Church. To that description of the gathering in Jerusalem Farrar in his “Life and Work of St. Paul” objected, for excellent reasons. He showed that the council in Jerusalem was not a convention of delegates, but a meeting of the Church at Jerusalem, to receive a deputation from the Church at Antioch, and to consider a subject of grave importance in the matter of missionary enterprise. He pointed out moreover, that this gathering in Jerusalem was for purposes of consultation, and not for final and dogmatic decision. Yet it may be good to retain the name of council, if we would understand what a council should be, and see wherein the grave errors of many subsequent councils have consisted.

Almost all councils subsequent to the first have attempted to fix some habit of ritual, or to give final form to the expression of some great truth. Neither of these things was attempted in the gathering in Jerusalem. The true function of a council as herein revealed, is that of considering an immediate subject, and finding an immediate application of principle. Nevertheless such consideration and such finding must necessarily have a most important bearing on future development. When the council met in Jerusalem, it gathered to consider a problem that was immediate, which was created at Antioch, the new centre of missionary enterprise; a problem created by the arrival there of men of Judaea, who were charging these new Gentile converts,-mark this most particularly,-not that they should be circumcized; but that unless they were circumcized they could not be saved. The council met to consider this matter, to hear the report of those who were sent by the Church at Antioch; not in order to learn what the Church at Jerusalem had to say authoritatively and finally, in order that it should be obeyed; but for purposes of conference, and that the larger fellowship of Christian people might be taken into account when facing so grave a situation.

Luke’s picture must be interpreted by Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Without suggesting that either account is untrue, it is quite certain that if they be read together we shall catch a different tone. There is a touch in Paul’s account of the story, which reveals how keenly he felt certain attitudes taken up toward him, even on the part of the apostolic band. We cannot read Paul’s account of the council, and of its findings, without seeing that had they been other than they were, he would not have obeyed them. He was not seeking the authority of the Church at Jerusalem. He was not asking for an expression of truth by James or by Peter, ex cathedra.

He was there for purposes of consultation; and had the finding been one that put the Gentiles into bondage, he would have broken with Jerusalem, and all the apostles, in the interests of truth. There are evidences in his account of the story, of the fact that there was a good deal of dissension, and difference, and argument, before finality was reached.

But when the history is read as Luke has recorded it, then we discover not so much the details of difference, as the ultimate harmony of decision. The story becomes the more interesting when we recognize these two things; when we see that in the first assembly, and in subsequent discussions, there were very many differences, and some touch perhaps of bitterness. Yet at last, there came a great and holy and wonderful moment, when that assembly of Christian believers, with different opinions, after discussion, based upon a master-principle, were able to say, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us.”

Let us first observe the story of the council, and then attempt an application of its findings to our own day.

It is well that we should first enquire what the difference of opinion was, that gave rise to the council. When we have discovered it, we may consider the discussion that ensued, and finally look briefly at the decision arrived at. To get back into the atmosphere is to understand the naturalness of the difficulty. To the Jew, Christianity was the fulfillment and continuity of the old economy. Therein he was distinguished entirely in his mental attitude from the mental attitude of the new converts in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and throughout that district. The religion of Jesus Christ to the mind of the Hebrew believing into Him, was not a religion that destroyed the religion of his fathers, but fulfilled it.

The religion of Jesus Christ had grown out of the religion of his fathers, was the continuity of one Divine movement. Paul’s address in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia dealt with the great doctrines of the unity of God in order to capture the mind of the Greek; but he spoke also of the whole Hebrew movement, and saw its fulfillment in Christ and in His evangel.

But the new movement in Antioch of Syria was a movement not influenced by that tradition. Indeed, the movement at Antioch had not even an apostolic tradition behind it; it began with Christ, and the men of Antioch therefore were quite careless as to the things preceding, and had no interest in them.

Mark these differences. The Christian Jew, looking upon his Christianity as the direct outcome, continuity, and fulfillment, of the august religion of his fathers, came to Antioch and into all these cities; and found Greek Christians, who had no relation with the Hebrew religion or tradition; whose Christianity began in their knowledge of Christ. Immediately we see the naturalness of the difficulty. These men, many of them perfectly sincere, said that these Greek Christians could not be saved by beginning in the middle of a process; that it was not enough that they began with Christ. They must also be brought to everything that prepared the way for the Christ. They must conform to the law of Moses, and the ritual of Moses.

This difficulty was serious, for it was one which would be repeated in new centres. It would accentuate within the Christian fact, a conflict between Hebraism and Hellenism, which had been so profound and bitter in the years prior to that fact. When Saul of Tarsus was apprehended by Jesus Christ for a special purpose, it was the apprehension of a man in whom the two ideals of Hebraism and Hellenism met, in whom they had been at conflict until Christ found him, but in whom they were now merged into one great Christian mental attitude. He was Hebrew of Hebrews, but he was Saul of Tarsus. The idea of bondage and denial and sacrifice, was the idea of Hebraism; the idea of liberty and culture and the fulfillment of life, was the idea of Hellenism. In Christ he had found that through bondage men come into liberty; that through death men come into life; that through all that Hebraism stood for, men realize all that Hellenism suggests.

That was the victory won in Saul of Tarsus. Now if through these new Churches in the midst of Hellenism, Hebraism was to reassert certain of its old rites, there would be cleavage in the Christian movement. That was the peril of the situation. If these teachers from Judaea had been victorious, then through those earliest years, lasting until now, there would have been division between the Hebrew Church of Christ, and the Gentile Church of Christ; and the bitterness caused by such division would have been mutually destructive, and the testimony of Christ to the world would have been lost. So that it was not merely a dispute about a rite or ceremony, but something far profounder that gave rise to this council in Jerusalem.

Before passing from this contemplation of the difficulty, having touched upon its naturalness and its seriousness, there is yet another element to be noticed in the danger that threatened the Church. Circumcision in the original purpose of God was ordained for the cure of self-righteousness. It was an outward and visible sign or symbol of the fact that this people was separated to God, and dependent upon God; that all they were, and were able to do in the world, arose from the activity and the government of God. At once we see wherein the Hebrew people in the process of the ages had entirely missed the meaning of the rite, for which they were now prepared to fight. Circumcision was now being made the instrument of self-righteousness. That which was intended to mark its destruction, or to indicate its absence, had become the sign and the cause of its possession.

Circumcision, and all the rites and ceremonials of Hebrew observance, had become evasions of the true purpose of God; opiates by the use of which men drugged their souls to the clamant cry of righteousness. That is always the danger of ritualism. The religion of the most high God had been made subservient to the observance of external rites. Paul saw the peril of grafting a ritual on to the Christian Church, putting a rite or a ceremony in the place of essential spiritual life and communion. That was the inspiration of his anger and passion; and presently, of his strong and stern denunciation of Peter, when subsequently to the council, Peter went down to Antioch and dissembled. These were not small matters.

They were fundamental matters. This was a difference involving the very genius of religion, as to the profoundest things of Christianity.

Concerning the discussion, the two passages, this fifteenth chapter of the Acts, and Paul’s story in Galatians, are mutually interpretive. Evidently Paul and Barnabas were graciously received by the Church. Evidently also there was a private conference between Paul and Barnabas and the elders. That is admitted in the sixth verse of this fifteenth chapter, “And the apostles and elders were gathered together to consider of this matter.” It is quite briefly stated by Luke. What happened in that conference we are not told, but it was a quiet and private conference. The deputation from Antioch in Syria consisted of Paul, Barnabas, and Titus, and perchance two or three others.

The story of their reception is told in verse four: They “were received of the church and the apostles and the elders, and they rehearsed " in Jerusalem what they had been doing all the way. They told how they had left Antioch rejoicing in the triumphs won; they told the story of Perga and Attalia. Arrived in Jerusalem, they simply rehearsed the triumphs of the Gospel, they did not raise the difficulty.

In the Galatian letter Paul is careful to state what happened at this point. In the second chapter and second verse he says, “I went up by revelation; and I laid before them the Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately before them who were of repute, lest by any means I should be running, or had run, in vain.” That is Paul’s account of what happened when the apostles and the elders were gathered together with the deputation, the church not being present. Paul laid before them, not the story of his triumphs, but his Gospel. At the first reception he rehearsed the story of all God had been doing in the district; but to that smaller select company, he rehearsed the Gospel, he told what he had been preaching, he went over the ground of the truth he had been proclaiming.

Having discussed his Gospel with the apostles, and having, as we learn in Galatians, won the approval of Peter, James, and John, the church assembled again; and there followed the discussion in the council. In this there are three things to notice: first, the address of Peter; secondly, the address of Barnabas and Paul (which was the speaker it is impossible to say, for the speech is not reported); and finally, the address of James.

Peter contributed two things to the discussion: a fact, and a deduction. The speech of Peter is not that of the theologian. He was not arguing about a doctrine. He was not entering into the delicate and difficult discussion as to rites and ceremonies. Peter, bold, blunt, and magnificent, said in effect, Here is a fact, and here is a deduction. The fact was that God had sent him to the Gentiles, and gave to the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius the Spirit of God, “making no distinction.” The deduction he made was that they should not tempt God.

On the sin of tempting God there is light in the history of the Old Testament; there is light in Hebrews and in Corinthians; and supremely there is light in the temptation of our Lord in the wilderness. To tempt God is to refuse to follow His guidance. Said the tempter to Jesus, “If Thou art the Son of God, cast Thyself down”; and Jesus said, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”; that is, thou shalt not refuse to wait for His guidance and direction, thou shalt not initiate adventures in order to see whether or not He will help in circumstances which are not of His will. Said Peter, Here is the fact, God has already given the Gentile all grace without ceremony, ritual, rite, and observance. Here is the deduction: do not be afraid to follow God, even though He seems to be breaking through things dear to our heart; do not tempt God, by refusing His guidance.

Paul and Barnabas simply rehearsed, saying in effect that Peter’s fact had been multiplied by facts throughout all these cities. They had been sent by that Church in Antioch, upon which some men now would superimpose a bondage and a yoke, through Seleucia, and Cyprus, from Salamis to Paphos, from Perga in Pamphylia into the new Antioch in Pisidia, away on through Iconium and Lystra, to Derbe; and everywhere facts had been multiplied, God had given the gifts of grace, and the gift of the Spirit, without rite and without ceremony.

The final speaker was James. He first referred to Peter’s fact, admitting it, reemphasizing its importance and value. “Symeon hath rehearsed.” He then showed how Peter’s fact, and the facts of Paul and Barnabas were in perfect harmony with prophetic foretelling. He quoted the great word from the prophecy of Amos, in which it is predicted that through the triumph and restoration of Israel the Gentiles also should receive blessing;-a prophecy not perfectly fulfilled even until this hour; to be fulfilled undoubtedly, in the economy of God; -a prophecy fulfilled in principle on the day of Pentecost when that little Hebrew community became the true Israel of God; and immediately following, when the prophetic promise was fulfilled in the experience of the Gentiles. Then James said, “Wherefore my judgment is, that we trouble not them.” Before proceeding to consider the judgment, note the particular emphasis of that word. To translate quite literally, James said, “Wherefore I decide,” or “I think”; and we must interpret the word decide by the word think. Much has been based upon that “I decide” of James.

It has been said that he was the bishop of Jerusalem, that he was in authority over the Church in Jerusalem; but there is not a vestige of proof in the narrative itself, and for the traditions that have gathered round the story, I am bound to say I have no respect. It has been pointed out that the pronoun “I,” “decide” is emphatic in the Greek.

An emphatic pronoun depends after all upon the tone and emphasis. The emphatic I must be interpreted in harmony with the rest of the New Testament and the Bible. Jt is absurd to believe that James at this moment gave his personal opinion as the final word, from which there could be no appeal. He, the practical man, the writer of the epistle, the brother of the Lord, spoke last; and in his speaking gave with due reserve, and with a consciousness of the importance of the views of others, his strong opinion. The very emphasis on the I shows that he was only expressing a personal conviction. Nevertheless with that opinion the Church agreed. The decision to which they came was not the decision of a man, It was such a decision that when they registered it and wrote it and sent it to Antioch, they did not say, After consultation, James, the bishop, speaking ex cathedra, has decided, They said something far more full of dignity, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.”

The decision was first of all characterized by unanimity. It was the expression of the conviction of the apostles and the elders and the Church; and the secret of the unanimity was that of the presidency of the Holy Spirit in the assembly, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.”

The terms of the decision may be stated in other language, because this record is so much the language of that particular time. The decision immediately was that they would not trouble the Greek Christians any further, but that they charged them concerning things they were not to do. The decision for all time was first, that no ceremony is needed to make men Christ’s; and secondly, that observances are necessary on the part of men who are Christ’s. They would not trouble them further, would not harass them, crowd them, jostle them, press them, put them into difficulty, with habits and observances which were not essential to salvation,-the things of ritual, Nevertheless they charged them that being Christ’s men, they must observe the attitudes and habits of loyalty to His moral standards; they must abstain from the pollution of idols, from fornication, from things strangled, and from blood. Such were the decisions.

What then were the results? They may thus be summarized: rest in Antioch; and a period of preparation for future work. This council came between the first and second missionary journeys of the apostle, and constituted a necessary pause, the passing of a difficulty that had risen, its settlement once and forever, so that whenever Judaizing teachers in days to come should pass through that district and teach these doctrines, they would be known as not having apostolic or Christian authority. It was an important decision, one that affects the whole history of the Church from that moment unto this.

In conclusion, what are the applications of this story to ourselves? There is something we do well to consider in the method of the findings. The supreme word flames with light upon this page: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” It marks a progression or development from a centre to something external. Communion with Christ by the Holy Spirit lies at the very root of that word. The second thing is the outcome of the first; that of the unity of the Church by the Spirit. The final thing is that of the unanimity of the Spirit and the Church. There will never be unanimity unless it be based on unity. There never will be the realization of unity save in response to a fundamental union; a union between the members of the Church and the living Lord by the Holy Spirit.

This picture of the council in Jerusalem is that of a company of men and women, sharing the life of Christ, desiring only to know the mind of the Lord, having no selfish views for which to contend. These are the conditions upon which it is possible for any such assembly to say, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” The Church does not seem to be able to say it today, either a local church, or the great councils of the Church. We must freely admit we very seldom hear this language. We do read that a matter was carried by an overwhelming majority, but that is a very different thing. An overwhelming majority often leaves behind it a minority disaffected and dangerous. We shall come to unanimity when we are prepared to discuss freely, frankly, our absolute differences, on the basis of a common desire to know the mind of the Lord.

If we come to a meeting of diaconate Or Church, a Christian council, having made our minds up that so it must be, then we hinder the Holy Spirit, and make it impossible for Him to make known His mind and will. But if we come, perfectly sure in our minds, but wanting to know what the Lord’s mind is, then ere the council ends, to-day as yesterday, the moment will come when we shall be able to say with a fine dignity and a splendid force, It seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us.

If that be the lesson of the method of the findings, what is the message of the findings? What has this council of the long ago to say to us to-day? Its first lesson is that the Christian man and the Christian Church is free from the bondage of Hebraism. There is a sense in which we are not influenced by Hebraism. There is a sense in which Judaism makes no appeal to us. Therefore to state the principle in other words: nothing is necessary to salvation, other than faith in Christ, and consequent life m the Spirit; neither baptism, nor the Lord’s Supper, nor the observance of any ordinance, or ceremony. Let us decide as did this council, that we will trouble men no further, that we will no more insist upon this rite or that ceremony in order to salvation.

The second lesson is that of the necessity for bondage to the law of the Spirit of life. There must be, on the part of all Christian souls, abstention from the haunts and the habits of idolatry; abstention from many practices, not in themselves unlawful, in order to a testimony of separation; and the observance of the laws of humanity. These Gentiles must abstain from things strangled, and from blood. That was not Hebraism. That was not the law of Moses. It was said long before Moses.

In the covenant of God with Noah, when humanity started out again upon a new movement, the law was given. So for these Judaizing teachers, James’ quotation was one full of wisdom. He stepped outside the Hebrew economy, and referred to the laws that regulated human life, apart from Hebraism, and said these people were to observe the human law.

So the findings of the council which have perpetual application are those of freedom from rites and ceremonies as means of salvation; observance of all habits that mark us as separate from idolatry, and from the practices of idolatry; and devotion to the Divine ideal of human life, and to the keeping of the laws for the wellbeing of human life.

Acts 15:36 - Acts 16:10 It is quite evident that there is a gap in the history between verses thirty-five and thirty-six. The last words in the previous paragraph declared that “Paul and Barnabas tarried in Antioch, teaching and preaching the Word of the Lord, with many others also.” That gap is supplied by a brief paragraph in the Galatian letter (Galatian 2:11-21). Peter visited Antioch, and when he came, acted in the true spirit of the findings of the council, in that he sat at meat with the Gentiles, making, to use his own words, “no distinction.” Evidently a little later on there came down from Jerusalem men influenced by the Judaizers. When they came, they were not told of the dispute, but Peter-to use Paul’s very strong word-“dissimulated,” in that, in the presence of these men he ceased to eat with the Gentiles. Against that activity, in which Barnabas evidently sympathized for the moment, Paul made the vigorous protest recorded in the Galatian passage. The ending, however, was evidently one of peace. Rebuked by Paul, the dissimulation of Peter ended, and no bitterness remained in the heart of either.

When the difficulty was settled, and the future line of action was clearly defined, Paul began to prepare immediately for further journeyings, and work. The subject of supreme interest in the second missionary journey of Paul is that of the invasion of Europe. Once again the circle widens, and we see the apostle crossing the boundary line into Europe. The call of the man of Macedonia was answered, and the evangel carried yet further afield.

In this paragraph we finally reach Troas, full of historic interest; Troas on the coast line, washed by that sea which, at its other extremity, touches the Continent beyond; Troy, the historic battleground between Europe and Asia. The story of those battles we have read in Homer and in Virgil. It was to that point the great apostle came at the end of the present paragraph.

That invasion of Europe was not in the mind of Paul, but it was evidently in the mind of the Spirit. He did not start from Antioch on this second journey with any intention of going to Europe. The closing words of the paragraph read thus: “And when he had seen the vision, straightway we sought to go forth into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the Gospel unto them.” That little word “concluding” is full of interest and value. It marks the ultimate result of processes. Paul began the journey by desiring to revisit churches already founded. He ended at Troas with a vision, a surprise, a new call, an open door, and vast expanses stretching out before his eyes, of the possibility of new work, and with the conviction that this was the mind of the Lord.

The period of time covered by this paragraph (Acts 15:36-41 thru Acts 16:1-10) must have been considerable; but in reading the condensed narrative of Luke, it is evident that everything leading up to the vision was tentative, preliminary, and that some greater movement was ahead. The “conclusion " referred to in the final words was the result of all the preceding incidents.

An analysis of the passage brings into prominence certain separated incidents of personal experience. There is the story first, of contention and of the separation between Paul and Barnabas. Then follows the account of how Paul started on his journey in the comradeship of Silas, and found Timothy at Lystra. Then we have the record of a further movement, on to Troas, and we see Paul and the man of Macedonia. The supreme value of the paragraph, however, is to be found in synthesis, rather than analysis. When we look at these separated incidents in the light of certain declarations concerning the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we shall see the strange and contradictory and troublesome events merging into a mosaic, until the pattern stands clear and beautiful upon the page, of the Divine overruling and the Divine government.

Let us therefore consider the paragraph in these two ways, glancing at the incidents of human experience, and endeavouring particularly to observe the unifying Divine guidance. This is the great value of this paragraph. There is something full of conflict here. The smooth and rhythmic movement of the earlier part of the book for a moment seems to end. Here are cross-currents, and difficulties, dissension between two men whose union had been one full of value, and force. Then purposes were frustrated, intentions thwarted; Paul wanted to revisit those cities to which he had already been with Barnabas; but he never reached them on this journey.

He did visit cities where the Gospel had been preached, but not the cities where he had founded churches. Instead of following a course through Perga and Pamphylia, he was driven through Syria and Cilicia. When presently, that work being accomplished, he crossed through the Taurus ranges, and came to Derbe and Lystra, then he fain would have moved in a certain direction, but the Spirit hindered him, and drove him yet another way. When again his face was set toward the northern country of Bithynia, and he would have evangelized there, the Spirit again drove him in another direction. The sweep of the river is troubled, but it moves forward in the counsel of God. The spiritual value of the paragraph is evidently that of its revelation of the guidance of the Spirit of God, by the hindrances of the people of God.

To glance at the incidents first. It was Paul’s purpose to return to the cities already visited, to see how they fared. Concern for his children was in his heart, but infinitely more than that. He had concern for those churches because they were centres from which the Gospel was to be sent yet further afield. It was an eminent teacher who once said that he would rather perfect one saint to the work of ministering, than call hundreds of people to the beginnings of Christian life. This man also felt the enormous importance of making the Church what it ought to be in any given centre, in order that the Church might fulfill its true function in that centre.

The underlying passion of the apostle was not merely to see his brethren, but to see how the churches fared, because of his conception of the importance of their work. As they were about to start, there occurred the contention between Paul and Barnabas; and we must not smooth this down and say that it was a quiet discussion.

The Greek word translated “contention” is the word from which we derive our word paroxysm. I am greatly comforted whenever I read this. I am thankful for the revelation of the humanity of these men. If I had never read that Paul withstood Peter to the face, and that Paul and Barnabas had a contention, I should have been afraid. These men were not angels, they were men. It is very interesting to study the differing opinions as to who was to blame. There are most eloquent defences of Paul and of Barnabas, as to who was right, and who was wrong. Amid differing opinions, a man may have one of his own.

My own sympathy is entirely with Barnabas, notwithstanding the fact that the Church at Antioch sent Paul and Silas out by the grace of God; and the account does not say that they gave a benediction to Barnabas and Mark. Perhaps they were both right. Paul was severe, because Mark had failed them once, and he felt that no man could go to this work, who having put his hand to the plough had looked back. Mark had gone away from them when their faces were set toward the difficulties of Perga and Pamphylia. He had not gone with them to the work. Barnabas felt that Mark should have another chance. Perhaps there is a sense in which Paul and Barnabas were both right. Mark profited by the actions of both.

Mark sailed away to Cyprus with Barnabas, and they pass out of the story in the Acts of the Apostles. We do know something more of Mark. When he had been with Barnabas some time, he was restored to Paul’s fellowship; for when Paul wrote to the Colossian Church, he spoke of him as his “fellow-worker,” commended him to the Church; and in his last hours, besought that Timothy would bring him with him. The last thing we know about Mark, the “servant of Jesus,” whom Paul for a time would not trust, but to whom Barnabas gave a second chance, is that it was he who wrote the Gospel of the perfect Servant. Perhaps his moral courage was stiffened by Paul’s severity, and confirmed by the tenderness of Barnabas.

Paul now went forward to the churches of Syria and Cilicia. We have had no account of the planting of any churches in Cilicia. Tarsus was the chief city of Cilicia. Paul may have planted them in those years before Barnabas found him. At any rate he went there now, confirming the churches of Cilicia.

So we reach the second incident. It is evident that Paul moved away from Cilicia, from Tarsus, through those Taurus ranges, and went to Derbe. It is difficult to measure the journeys by time limits, but it was probably five years since he was at Derbe, the place of peaceful evangelism, at the end of a troublesome campaign. No details are given.

At last Paul came to Lystra, the place of the stones, the scars of which were still upon his body; the memories of the day when they beat fast and furiously upon him were still with him. At Lystra he found Timothy. How often God’s servants return, after years of absence, to some rough and rugged place of battle, and of blood, and of agony, and find the fruitage. When did Timothy become a disciple? The question cannot be answered dogmatically, but the probability is that he became a disciple in those days of Paul’s previous visit. Paul had once been a young man, and had watched the stoning of a saint called Stephen, minding the clothes of such as stoned him.

He had heard the dying prayer, and the vision of the face of Stephen had fastened like goads in his heart and life. At Lystra he had gone through Stephen’s experience; and perchance another man had seen the stones hurled. Now he went back to find Timothy in the place of stones, and from that moment there was formed that rare and beautiful friendship, the friendship of an old man for a young man.

Timothy was the son of a Jewess. His father was a Greek, We have seen how in all this movement, the ideals of Hebraism and Hellenism were merged and fulfilled in the teaching of Jesus. Paul had now found a man in whose very blood the two fires mingled, in whose mental calibre the two ideas were found, a man by nature at once Hebrew and Greek; and by grace he was well reported of by the brethren. From that moment a companion was found for Paul; and he was found at Lystra, the place of the stones.

We know certain facts concerning his service. Two of Paul’s letters were addressed to him. Six of Paul’s letters have this man associated with him in the superscription, those of the second epistle to the Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, the first and second letters to the Thessalonians, and Philemon. Timothy was with him on this second missionary journey. Timothy was at Ephesus with him in the days of strife. Timothy accompanied him on his last journey to Jerusalem. Timothy was with him in his first imprisonment. For Timothy he sent, in the loneliness of the second imprisonment. He became his son, his child, his comrade in the fight, and so the stoning of years ago now blossomed into this great benediction of a new comrade in the work that lay before him.

So they passed on. Here we might dwell upon the apparently strange act of Paul in taking this man Timothy, and submitting him to the rite of circumcision. Notice carefully what immediately followed. After the rite Timothy and Silas went with him through the churches, taking the decrees of the council at Jerusalem, which provided that the Gentiles were not to be compelled to submit to circumcision as necessary to salvation. This is surely an illustration of the wonderful adaptability of this man. Paul has been criticized for this action, but I do not believe that such criticism is justified.

This was a case of expediency, in order to the fulfillment of ministry. Paul knew that the Jew would criticize. Very well then, not for his sake, but for the sake of his becoming all things to all men, if by any chance he may win some, let this man who had been brought up in the Hebrew religion, submit to the rite of the Jew, and so create his opportunity for speaking to the Jew also.

So we come to the last incident, and to the things immediately preceding it. Paul was prevented from preaching by the action of the Holy Spirit. He would have preached in proconsular Asia, one of the provinces, and he was prevented. The Holy Spirit forbade him. He therefore turned in the other direction, and went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia. That was the beginning of the work in Galatia.

In the Galatian letter, in chapter four, we have the account of how he first came to preach in Galatia: “Ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the Gospel unto you the first time.” Luke says the Holy Spirit forbade him preaching in Asia, and he preached in Galatia. Paul says because of an infirmity of the flesh he came first to Galatia. In this letter we have that which was local and incidental. In Luke’s account there is the recognition of the government and driving of the Spirit. It is not necessary for us to imagine that Paul heard the voice of the Holy Spirit forbidding him. That was not the method of the Divine government or guidance.

The local and the incidental fact was some affliction, some illness, which made it impossible for him to travel through proconsular Asia, and which turned him aside, perchance for rest and quietness, with the issue that he preached in Galatia.

Then presently they again moved forward, and their hearts were set on Bithynia, where they fain would have preached. Then the phrasing alters, not that they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit, but by the Spirit of Jesus. This was not another Spirit. It is but another way of referring to the Holy Spirit. The truth declared is that these men, in fellowship with Christ, simply could not go to Bithynia. They were driven on.

There are many who will understand this story from their own experience. Paul wanted to preach in Bithynia, but somehow he could not. The Spirit of Jesus drove him on. There seemed no value in this long journey, striking west. The north was luring him. Bithynia with its scattered tribes, was there.

He would fain preach, but he could not. So he was driven west, until he came to Troy. There was given to him the vision of a man of Macedonia, and at Troy Luke joined him, for there the language of the narrative passes from the singular to the plural. Paul saw the vision, and straightway hastened toward Macedonia. I sometimes wonder whether Luke was not the man of Macedonia, whether he did not come to call him, and ask that he would join him. I do not deny the vision.

Peter saw a vision, and then saw the real man. Perchance the vision of the night was granted to this man at Troy, and then came Luke the actual man. Now the whole journey was explained. The new door was opened. Such are the incidents.

I think we shall miss the value of the story entirely if we commence with the declarations of the guidance of the Spirit. When Luke wrote the book he put in those declarations, and he was quite right; but if we get back into the actual atmosphere of this paragraph we shall surely see Paul strangely puzzled. Quarrelling with Barnabas, parting from him, he wanted to preach the Gospel; and so he passed through Syria and Cilicia, and came to Derbe and Lystra, and there he met Timothy. Then he fain would go on to proconsular Asia, and he could not do it; he was sick, he was ill, an infirmity of the flesh was upon him; and he could not go on. It was necessary that he should take another direction, and he went into Galatia, and preached there. Then he turned back again.

There was no reason that he could understand. It is a picture of cross currents, of difficulty, perplexity, and darkness. Then he felt the lure of Bithynia, and he would go there. No, he must go west, and on he went, perplexed. Then came the vision of the man of Macedonia; and when he talked it over with Luke in other days, and Luke would write the story, he told that which at the moment he did not know. The Spirit forbade him preaching in Asia.

The Spirit of Jesus drove him ever and ever on toward Troas. Thus upon the paragraph there is stamped first the fact of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The fact for us is demonstrated by all that follows Philippi, Thessalonica, Bercea, Athens, Corinth. All these resulted. If this man had preached in proconsular Asia, had gone up to Bithynia, what of Philippi, what of Thessalonica, what of Bercea, what of Athens, and what of Corinth? The guidance of the Spirit was subsequently recognized by these men.

Notice too, that the declarations concerning the driving of the Spirit, and the guidance of the Spirit, are put in at the points of supreme difficulty, where the guidance of the Spirit conflicted with their own intentions. Here is a wonderful outlook on life. A man can look back and say: There was the point where I desired to go a certain way, and circumstances prevented. But these men say the Holy Spirit prevented. Here was a moment when I was moved to a service that drew me north, and I could not go; something forbade me. But these men say, the Spirit of Jesus drove me against my own inclination.

The supreme value of this story is its revelation of the fact of the guidance of the Spirit, when there is no revelation of the method of that guidance. In our attempt to interpret what seems to be the supreme value, our only peril is lest we try and explain the method, whereas as a matter of fact the method is hidden.

How far can we see the method? Only so far as to know no method is revealed. The Spirit overruled the separation between Paul and Barnabas. With what issues? The separation gave two missionaries for work, for their revisiting of the churches, and the regions beyond. The Spirit guided through Paul’s illness, which necessitated his taking another direction.

The Spirit guided by the consciousness of this man’s fellowship with Jesus, so that he was driven in that fellowship in a westerly course. The Spirit guided by the vision of the man of Macedonia. Here is the revelation of the fact that the Spirit guides, not by flaming visions always, not by words articulate in human ears; but by circumstances, by commonplace things, by difficult things, by dark things, by disappointing things. The Spirit guides and moulds and fashions all the pathway.

The important thing, however, is that the man whom the Spirit will guide is the man who is in the attitude in which it is possible for the Spirit to guide him. So we look again at this man, and we find an attitude of life revealed. It is that of loyalty to the Lord, faith in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and constant watchfulness. There is where we too often fail. It is when a man is in fellowship with the Lord that he sees that the disappointment and the difficulty are also under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is the watcher for the Lord who sees the Lord.

If we make up our minds that the way of guidance is the way of flaming vision, and rolling thunder, and an articulate voice, and a lifting to a height of ecstasy, then we may never be guided. But if we are watching for Him, we shall find Him guiding us in the day of difficulty and the day of disappointment, and the day of darkness; when it seems as though the rhythmic and majestic flow of the river has ceased, and we are in cross currents, and are tempest-tossed. The Holy Spirit forbade proconsular Asia, by permitting the apostle to be so sick, that he had to travel another way. What we need then, is confidence in the guidance of the Spirit in the hours when no voice is heard, and no vision is seen. If we will follow then, the hour of vindication will come, there will come the vision, there will come the man of Macedonia. His voice will be distinctly heard, and then we shall conclude that God would have us go into Macedonia.

Then we shall understand the strange experiences. Why does He drive us west when we would go north? I do not know. At the limit of the west so far as land is concerned, a man of Macedonia came to him. Then he understood the denial, the pressure, and the disappointment, and why he could not go to Bithynia.

The beauty of this paragraph for us is that it presents conditions with which we are most familiar. It shows how the Holy Spirit guides still in the line of the Divine purpose, even when we see no supernatural sign. Faber sang a song of truth that he is the greatest of victors who knows that God is on the field when He is most invisible.

Whether it be that the individual life is filled with sorrows, or whether the perplexity of life is overwhelming, or whether the strife of national crisis is about us, God’s in His heaven, and He is overruling and guiding, and out of the chaos He is bringing the cosmos. The Spirit leads men and women who look and watch and wait and follow. It was a time of groping and uncertainty. Ways which they desired were shut against them. It was a time of direction and a time of certainty. The route was marked in the economy of God to Troas, to Macedonia, Philippi, Thessalonica, Bercea, Athens, Corinth.

If Paul had gone to Bithynia he might have stayed there. Oh, to go, not where I may choose, even by my love of the Lord, but where I am driven by the Lord’s command. Circumstances of difficulty are opportunities for faith, and the measure of our perplexity in service and in Christian life is the measure of our opportunity. Let us follow the gleam, though the darkness threaten to envelop. Let us be true to the inward monitor, and if in being true, suddenly illness prevent, and we cannot follow, then rest in the Lord in the darkness, and know that God’s shortest way to Troas may be athwart our inclinations and purposes. It is better to go to Troas with God, than anywhere else without Him.

Acts 16:12-40

The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 16:11-40 Acts 16:11-24 This paragraph constitutes the first page in the history of all that resulted from the strange method of the Spirit in preventing and hindering, and so guiding Paul. Immediately following the vision of the man of Macedonia, Luke says: “Setting sail therefore from Troas, we made a straight course to Samothrace.” “A straight course” is a nautical phrase, meaning quite literally, sailing before the wind. The voyage occupied two days only, because the wind was with them. A little later on, we shall find that this same voyage occupied five days, against a contrary wind. Sometimes upon the King’s business, the wind is with us, and sometimes it is against us.

Beginning with this statement, we find that the contrast to everything in the last study is remarkable. We have seen this man hindered, perplexed, driven, buffeted, and the first word now is that “we sailed before the wind.” Thus the wind blowing ever where it listeth, cooperated with that Spirit of Whom it is the symbol, in driving the missionaries on. The change in method and experience is marked, but it is the same Spirit Who perplexed and hindered him, and so gave opportunity for the activity of faith, Who is now seen cooperating, even in the direction of the wind, as it drives these men along the pathway of the Divine appointment.

This consciousness that the very forces of Nature were helping the purposes of grace, must have illuminated for these men the mystery of those strange days in which they were so thwarted and hindered. So they came to Samothrace, an island of the AEgean, and so they came to Neapolis, the port of Philippi. From thence they passed to Philippi itself, a journey of about eight miles, full of historic associations, and at that time remarkably suggestive of the new atmosphere into which Paul was coming with this Gospel of Jesus Christ. There at Philippi were evidences, some of them remaining even until this hour, but then most patent, of that great, decisive epoch-marking, historic-making battle between Brutus and Cassius on the one side, and Mark Antony and Augustus on the other; the battle in which Augustus had defeated Brutus, and had planted in Philippi a colony. Luke, in dwelling upon these details, refers to them suggestively when he says Philippi was the first city of Macedonia, and a colony. We are not to understand that Philippi was a colony in our sense of the term.

A Roman colony was founded by colonists sent immediately from Rome; who marched in and took possession. Having arrived, they reproduced Rome in miniature, that is, so far as its government and habits of life were concerned. A colony protected Rome on the frontiers of the empire. It was in perpetual and close touch with Rome, because its magistrates were appointed, not from among its citizens, but immediately from Rome.

Thus Paul found himself nearer than ever before to the great centre of earthly government. This man was himself a Roman citizen, and looked with longing eyes toward the capital, desiring to reach it and possess it. He said, “I must see Rome also”; and his desire to see Rome was not the desire of the tourist, it was the passion of the missionary. It is noticeable how in his missionary journeys, he perpetually settled at strategic centres, places from which the roads ran out into far distances. That was his reason for desiring to reach Rome. He knew that from Rome the great highways ran throughout the whole known earth; and this dreamer of dreams, seer of visions, this man who by nature was a maker of empire, saw the importance of capturing great centres for Christ, not merely that they themselves might be Christianized, but because from such centres, the pioneers, the missionaries, the messengers of Jesus, might reach wider areas.

Paul arrived in Philippi about twenty years after the foundation of the Church at Jerusalem, after the Pentecostal effusion. How little the world knows of the Divine movements. Rome had small idea that day, that the van of the army of its ultimate Conqueror, had taken possession of one of its frontal defences. On the day when Paul hurried from Neapolis, over the eight miles up to Philippi, and came into the city, and made arrangements for his own lodging, and with the quiet dignity and restfulness that always characterizes the great worker, was content to spend a few days doing nothing, the flag was planted in a frontier colony of Rome, which eventually was to make necessary the lowering of her flag, and the change of the world’s history. That is what happened when Paul, with Luke, and Timothy, and perchance Silas and a few others, arrived that day in Philippi. If Rome and the world did not know, to put the whole truth bluntly, the Lord knew, and the devil knew, and the present study reveals the respective results of these two facts.

The story centres round two women, Lydia of Thyatira, and the maid of divination. It is one of two remarkable victories won by the forces of Jesus Christ, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in the interests of the Kingdom of God. The first victory was the capture of a vantage ground, the open heart of one woman. The second victory was the vanquishing of Satan along two lines of attack. His first method was that of an attempt at alliance with the forces of Jesus; and he was overcome. His second method was that of direct and brutal hostility to the soldiers of Jesus; and again he was overcome. These are the only two methods of which the devil is capable; first an attempt at alliance, and then antagonism.

First then, as to this capture of the vantage ground. The occasion was the Sabbath day. Before that, Paul and his companions had tarried certain days. There is great force in the word “tarrying.” It means that they rested, quietly observing, and doing nothing else. With the dawn of the Sabbath they sought for the place of prayer, turning, as Paul always did, to seek for his brethren after the flesh. In this statement we have an important revelation of the condition of Philippi.

There was no strong Hebrew element in the city. The “place of prayer” is a technical phrase. Jewish places of prayer were found throughout all these cities, where no synagogues were built. They were almost invariably placed by the side of a river; sometimes they consisted of a circle enclosed by some kind of wall, and yet under the open sky; sometimes without any outward sign of enclosure. That was “the place of prayer,” and there, in cities where no synagogue was built, the Hebrews gathered on Sabbath for prayer. That is the great significance of the opening verse of the one hundred and thirty-seventh Psalms (Psalms 137:1-9):

“By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept.” That is the picture of the exiled Jews gathering to the place of prayer. We discover clearly the position of the Hebrew people in Philippi, in the fact that Paul found only women at the appointed place. There were not even ten Hebrews of eminence, or there would have been a synagogue. There was, however, a little group of women, recognizing their relation to God, gathered to the place of prayer in Philippi, the centre of idolatry, under Roman rule. There the apostle of Jesus Christ sought and found vantage ground for the carrying on of his campaign.

The woman whose heart was opened was a woman of Thyatira, which was one of the cities that he was compelled to omit as he passed on to Troas. The first convert which Paul made in Europe was a woman of Asia, a Jewish proselyte perhaps, or a woman of true Jewish blood, who had been born in Thyatira. She was a business woman in Philippi. If we had desired to open up missionary operations in a Roman colony, should we have found such vantage ground as that? God is always surprising us when He is about to do some great and wonderful work.

In that assembly of women Paul spake, and that again is an arresting fact. Paul was a Pharisee, who through the long years of his early life had daily repeated such words as these, “O God, I thank Thee that I am neither Gentile, nor slave, nor woman.” The man who presently wrote, “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female,” thus contradicted the false view of the thanksgiving that had passed his lips for years. He now abandoned the Jewish and Pharisaic contempt for a woman. The apostle of Jesus Christ found no man in the place of prayer, but the old contempt had gone, and to the women assembled, he spoke. He dared to do so because the Gospel had changed his intellectual conception, and entirely transformed him. Then we read that the Lord opened the heart of Lydia, constraining her to attention.

He touched the emotional nature of this woman, and Lydia listened and obeyed. She thus became the Lord’s vantage ground in Philippi, the point from which He could proceed with His campaign. The opened heart of one woman in a great city is foothold for God, and if it but be yielded wholly to Him, from that vantage ground, from that base of operations, He can proceed to wonderful victories.

Lydia constrained the apostle and his company to accept her hospitality, and the word “constrained” is peculiarly Luke’s word. It only occurs in one other place in the New Testament, and that is in his Gospel, in that matchless story of the last chapter, of the two who walked to Emmaus; they constrained Jesus to stay with them. They said, The day is far spent, come in, and abide with us. They offered Him hospitality, saying to Him in effect, Here is an open house for thee, O stranger, abide with us, the day is far spent, the road stretching beyond is one infested by robbers, let us take care of thee till morning. This is the same word, suggesting hospitality offered. So a house was opened to Jesus in Philippi.

Christ needs vantage ground in Philippi, on which He can stand, and proclaim His evangel, from which He can send His messengers forth to capture the city, and all the region beyond, for Himself. He finds a woman’s heart, and a woman’s home. The victory may not seem a very great one. But turn to the Philippian letter, and note two or three verses:

“I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all making my supplication with joy, for your fellowship in furtherance of the Gospel from the first day until now” (Philippians 1:3). What was that first day? The day when Lydia’s heart was opened.

“Ye yourselves also know, ye Philippians, that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church had fellowship with me in the matter of giving and receiving, but ye only; for even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my need” (Philippians 4:15). What happened then? There was gathered in Philippi a fellowship of souls, that Paul always seems to have looked upon as the chief joy and crown of his ministry. The church in Philippi was evidently most dear to him. Thus in Philippi there was a growing fellowship of faithful souls, a base of operation widening and broadening, ever helping this man with his work. This began when Lydia’s heart was opened, and she opened her home for Jesus Christ. Do not miss the naturalness of these stories, the homeliness of these records, for in these things the infinite value of them is found.

We are told sometimes to-day that the Church is full of women, that there are no men going to church. I contradict the statement whenever I hear it made. But the measure in which it is true, is the condemnation of men; and let the men who are becoming Christless and Churchless lament if the hour should ever come when their women cease to worship. The women whose hearts are opened, whose homes are open, are ever Christ’s vantage ground. That was the first victory in Philippi.

Immediately following, we have the account of the victory over Satan, in the deliverance of the damsel possessed with the spirit of divination. Her will was possessed by an evil spirit, and therefore she was possessed by mercenary men who were making use of her for their own enrichment. Following Paul, this maiden cried out: “These men are servants of the Most High God, which proclaim unto you the way of salvation.” Now what she said was absolutely true. Paul, Luke, Timotheus, Silas, perchance a few others, had arrived in the city. They had proclaimed the evangel to a handful of Jewish women in the place of prayer. One woman, and perhaps a few others, had obeyed.

Suddenly this girl, possessed with the spirit of divination, soothsaying, and sorcery, began to follow, and what she said in the hearing of the crowd would necessarily impress the crowd. The devil was then using the one weapon that is really dangerous against the Church of God.

When the devil tells the truth about the Church a peril is created; and it is, that she may accept his testimony, and hope to win victories thereby. What a chance there seemed to be in this for Philippi. It was a little commonplace to have to go to the river-side, and talk to a handful of women. Here was a girl with a spirit of divination, who had been soothsaying, and men by crowds had listened to her. She was telling the truth now. Why not let her continue? Truth must win, whoever utters it. That is the master lie that has cursed the Church of God for nineteen centuries.

The apostle refused this testimony. A strong word, a word throbbing with agony is used here: He was “sore troubled,” and his trouble was caused because the girl was telling the truth, and because the same Spirit of Jesus Who drove him toward Troas, was with him still. In the Gospel narratives-by Mark at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, and by Luke at a later stage-it is recorded how demons told the truth about Him. “Thou art the Son of God” said the demon, when all men were denying it. On each occasion Jesus commanded the demon to silence, ordering him out of the man; exorcising the evil spirit; refusing the testimony when uttered by a demon. Paul was now in fellowship with Jesus, and he knew Philippi well, and recognized that this was the devil’s method of alliance. If the devil can once be permitted to cooperate, he will tell the truth.

But the apostle, and the Lord of the apostle, will not accept the testimony of evil, even though its words be the words of truth. 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 was 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 ere long he will twist his fingers round the Gospel and distort it, until it becomes a deadly and damnable heresy. Has he not done so? Is not that the story of all that has cursed the Church, and hindered her progress in the ages? It requires a man strong in fellowship with Jesus Christ, to decline the testimony of truth, simply because it is uttered by the spirit of evil. It is possible to hear the mutterings of demons in London.

One can consult them, sometimes in places set apart for the business. Do not make the foolish mistake of imagining that there is nothing in spiritualism.

Do not say that there is no message from the unseen and hidden world. There are such messages, but they are the messages of hell; and even though they be the messages of truth concerning Jesus, they are not to be listened to. We are to refuse the patronage of hell, when it attempts to tell the truth about our Christ. Alliance with evil is the most subtle peril that confronts the Church at any time. The hour of gravest peril for the Gospel in Philippi was not the hour when they put Paul in prison; it was the hour when the damsel with the spirit of divination told the truth. In fellowship with the Lord, he immediately exorcised the evil spirit.

Then immediately the devil adopted the method of antagonism, and passed out of sight, but he was still there. He was now active behind the world, and the great secret is blazed upon the holy pages of inspiration, “the hope of their gain was gone.” Immediately these men, when the hope of their gain was gone, because the damsel was free from the evil spirit, and could no more be a soothsayer, became hostile. They did not come out into the open, and say, You have robbed us of money. They said, “These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city.” They did not care for the law. They only cared because the hope of their gain was gone. Satan, defeated in his attempt to form an unholy alliance with the apostles in order ultimately to weaken them, hid himself behind the law, and breathed through the spirit of law.

Again the devil was defeated. The devil is always defeated when he imprisons a Christian man. That is the hour of his defeat. The place of the cross is the place of the crown, to a servant of Christ. When the devil and the world combine to persecute a Christly soul, they put him on the throne of power. We shall see more of that when we return to this story of Philippi. Put Paul and Silas in the prison; let the lictors lay the stripes upon them until they are bleeding and bruised and brutally treated; give them to an inhuman jailer, who will heap upon them indignity, until he puts them into the inner prison, and puts their feet in the stocks! Then what?

Listen, do you hear the singing? Or presently, when Paul reached Rome, as a prisoner, what did he do? He hired a house, and preached the Kingdom of God in the centre of Rome’s imperial magnificence. Or bring him back to Rome a second time, and put him in the prison, down in the deep dungeon. Deny him the privilege of the hired house, and what will he do? He will write letters, the thunder and the force of which will reverberate through centuries, and make an empire mightier than the empires of earth. Or put John Bunyan in prison, and he will see visions, and write of celestial truths, and celestial glories, which will abide with the Church, messages second only to the messages of the Bible. What a fool the devil is!

How slow he is to learn the lesson. He does learn it every now and then, and goes back to the only way in which he can ever hope to be successful, that of alliance. That is his successful method to-day. The devil of the middle ages was a being with horns and hoofs and flaming fire, at which we smile to-day. But he is not dead, he has not gone out of business. He is not imprisoning us now. He does not imprison men where the light of the Gospel is shining. His business here is that of alliance, and the supreme trouble with the Church of God is that it is not quite strong enough to say to the devil: Hands off, we will have no testimony that patronizes Christ.

We want no patronage of Christ, but submission to Him.

Looking again at the paragraph as a whole, we notice the small beginnings of great movements. A woman’s heart opened, and how wonderful the victories which followed. Do not let us be looking for the highway of God in the conspicuous places. While men are building their monuments to Brutus defeated, and singing over the glory of Augustus, the Christian apostle is making his way up to Philippi. He will have to pay for his lodging for two or three days, and presently one woman will have her heart opened, and will believe his message. This is the place where God is acting.

Where is God acting to-day? I do not know, and I am not going to attempt to find out, but God helping me, I will try and be a man at His disposal. It may be from something I say that some woman’s heart will be opened, that she will presently be the prophet for whom we are waiting, the pioneer for the further campaigns of the army of the King. Do not let us be enslaved by statistics. We know nothing. One woman’s heart in Philippi, and Rome was doomed to lower its flag, that the banner of the Cross might be supreme.

The devil’s methods of opposition are those of alliance and antagonism, and the only serious one is the first. Let us beware of it. Do not let us imagine that we can take into our fellowship and enlist under one banner, men who simply affirm truth about Jesus, unless in their own lives there is an absolute loyalty to the Lord Christ. Antagonism is the creation of force for the Kingdom of God. Put a man in prison for Christ’s sake, and the earthquake will surely follow, and the work will spread.

Acts 16:25-40 In this paragraph we have an account of Paul’s first work in Europe. He and Silas were fulfilling that ultimate command of Jesus, “Ye shall be My witnesses.” We are tracing a great movement, and therefore are not merely interested in that which is local. There are three matters of interest in this new beginning; first, the witnesses and God; secondly, the witnesses and the jailer; and finally, the witnesses and the magistrates.

The three pictures merge into each other. In the first we see these two men in prison, worshipping and praising, that is, the witnesses in their relation to God. Then immediately we watch them in their method with the jailer and in the issues following that method. Finally we see them in their dealing with the magistrates in Philippi.

They were in the inner prison, their feet fast in the stocks. They had been publicly whipped, and were bruised and lacerated. It is only as in sympathetic imagination we see these men as they were, that we can at all understand this story.

With that background in mind, we are immediately arrested by their occupation. They were praying and singing hymns. The translation here may mislead us. There is no suggestion of petition in the word here translated “praying.” It is the word which indicates the attitude of adoration and of worship. We are not warranted in believing that these men were asking for anything at this moment, for the word “praying” is immediately qualified by the word “hymning,” which we have rendered “singing” hymns. These were exercises of spiritual joy.

Again remember the surroundings. They were in the inner prison, dark and deadly and dismal; their feet were fast in the stocks, so that there would be no physical comfort through the hours of darkness; the smart and pain and agony of the rods of the lictors were still with them. Yet they were worshipping in the singing of hymns; engaged in the exercises of spiritual joy.

The other prisoners were listening. The sound of the singing had reached others than themselves. The Revised Version helps us here. It does not say, as the Authorized Version did, that “they prayed and sang” as though they did so once. They were praying and singing; it was a continuous activity, and the prisoners were listening. The word “listening” here is the strongest possible. They were attentively listening.

What hymns were these men singing? We cannot tell. Perhaps some new hymn of the Church, perhaps some ancient psalms. Whatever the songs were, the prisoners listened attentively, marvelling surely that prisoners in an inner prison, with feet fast in the stocks could sing at all.

Then immediately came the earthquake, the opening of prison doors, and the events following.

The revelation of supreme value to us in the story is that first of the power of Christ to overcome the bitterness of difficult circumstances. It was not a song of deliverance that these men were singing, but the song of perfect content in bondage. That is the supreme marvel of the Christian consciousness and the Christian triumph. Any man can sing when the prison doors are open, and he is set free. The Christian soul sings in prison. I think that Paul would probably have sung a solo, had I been Silas; but I nevertheless see the glory and grandeur of the spirit that rises superior to all the things of difficulty and limitation. Madame GuVon spent ten years of her life in French prisons, from 1695 to 1705. Here is a song she wrote in prison:

“A little bird am I Shut from the fields of air; And in my cage I sit and sing To Him Who placed me there; Well pleased a prisoner to be Because, my God, it pleaseth Thee.

“Nought have I else to do; I sing the whole day long; And He Whom most I love to please, Doth listen to my song; He caught and bound my wandering wing, But still He bends to hear me sing.

“Thou hast an ear to hear; A heart to love and bless; And, though my notes were e’er so rude,; Thou wouldst not hear the less; Because Thou knowest, as they fall, That same, sweet Love, inspires them all.

“My cage confines me round; Abroad I cannot fly; But though my wing is closely bound, My heart’s at liberty. My prison walls cannot control The flight, the freedom of the soul.

“Oh, it is good to soar These bolts and bars above, To Him Whose purpose I adore, Whose providence I love; And in Thy mighty will to find The joy, the freedom of the mind.” I think that is the kind of song they sang in the prison at Philippi; not a song of deliverance, but a song of content. Content with perfect, unfettered, and unbroken fellowship with God. “They prayed and sang hymns unto God,” and they knew, as Madame Guyon knew later, that He listened, and that the song was music in His ears. That is the supreme triumph of Christian experience. We cannot shut a Christian man or woman out from fellowship with God; and therefore when such an one as Paul goes back again to prison presently, no longer in Philippi, but in Rome, and back again to the Roman prison a second time; in all his letters referring to his imprisonments, he never spoke of himself as a prisoner of Rome, or of Nero, or of an emperor. He was always the prisoner of Jesus Christ. It is this consciousness of fellowship with God, which creates the song.

The story not only reveals the power of Christ to overcome the bitterness of difficult circumstances, but also the power of Christ to deliver, where such action will tend to the accomplishment of His purpose. The earthquake whether caused by the touch of His hand upon the earth, shaking it, until the staples left the walls, and the chains hung loose, and the doors were opened; or whether merely in His overruling, coincident with their need of liberty, matters nothing; was the means of their being set free. The prison fails to imprison. When presently this man was imprisoned again in Rome, he did the mightiest work of his whole life. Not even his missionary journeyings are to be compared with the marvellous influence resulting from the writing of his letters, and the finest and the most wonderful of them were letters written in prison.

So down the centuries the story is always the same. When Satan attempts alliance with Christianity he puts Christianity in grave danger; and there the Church needs to be most on her watch-tower; but where Satan is antagonistic, he puts the Church under a debt to him, for he but helps her,

“ Like Moses’ bush she mounts the higher, To flourish unconsumed by fire.” We turn, however, from this matter of the witnesses in their relationship to God, triumphing over difficulties, to glance at the witnesses in their dealing with the jailer. He appears before us as a man brutalized, quite careless of their wounds, when they were delivered to his charge. Plunging them into the inner prison, he added quite unnecessary brutality in making their feet fast in the stocks; and all this without one touch of emotion, without one thought of them, without any care for their suffering; for mark this, he went to sleep, and it required an earthquake to waken him. The picture is graphic enough; it is that of a man so brutalized that prisoners smarting from the Roman rods can be handed over to him, and he will not minister to their need, but will thrust them into the inner, deadly, dark prison, and fasten them in the stocks, and chain and lock and bolt doors, and then himself go to sleep.

The earthquake followed, and then we have this man’s panic and his plea. There was a certain amount of brutal heroism about him, heroism in keeping with the atmosphere of the day in which he lived. When he awoke, hardly knowing what had happened, seeing the opened prison doors, and fearing that the prisoners had all escaped, he attempted suicide. With the brutal, animal heroism that marked the age, he would take his life, and escape the penalty from others.

Then it was that a voice sounded out of the darkness, “Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.” It was the quiet voice of the man who a little while ago was singing, The jailer had not heard the song. He was asleep. Now what did he say? He said “Lords,”-“Sirs” is our translation but it is exactly the same word that Paul used a little later when he said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus."-It was the supreme term of respect, and he was conscious of the fact that he was in the presence of his superiors. “Lords, what must I do to be delivered?” There was no evangelical faith in this. He did not mean, What must I do to be eternally saved? He had not got nearly as far as that.

It was fear, panic; and his own solution of his difficulty was suicide; but the voice of the apostle said, “Do thyself no harm, for we are all here”; the prisoners have not escaped as you imagine. Then filled with fear, he went into the presence of the men, one of whom could so speak to him, and bowing down, he said, “Lords, what must I do to be delivered?” He was simply a man stricken with panic, and wondering what was the next thing. The evangelical values were coming, but they did not come out of that poor panic-stricken heart. They came in answer to its cry, from the great apostle: “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.” All the evangelical values are in that. The infinite music of the Gospel is thrilling through it like an anthem. This man did not understand it, not even then; but it was an answer to be explained.

You have called us lords; believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Lord of human life. You have asked what you shall do to be saved, and your feeling is one born of fear, and desire to be saved from this hour of difficulty. Believe on this Lord, and you shall be saved from this hour, and from all hours of difficulty.

Then “they spake the word of the Lord unto him, with all that were in his house.” Here was a man arrested, and the great apostle is seen taking time to teach him. It was Voltaire who said, speaking of philosophers, “We have never cared to enlighten cobblers and maidservants. That is the work of apostles.”

Thank God it is! There is the supreme difference between all philosophy apart from Christ, and the Christian evangel. Paul, just between midnight and the first flush of dawn upon the sky, took time to teach that brutalized jailer, the man who came in an unworthy panic, saying, “Lords, what must I do to be saved?” The answer came quick and sharp; and vibrant with music that the listening man knew not of: “Believe on the one Lord Christ.” Then he got this man, with all his house, and he taught them, he told them the story, and revealed its meaning, and made its application. It is a picture for all time. Philosophers do not care to enlighten cobblers and maidservants; but apostles never speak of cobblers and maidservants. They speak of men and women in the image and likeness of God; and it is always worth while to spend time with them, to explain to them the mightiest things of the universe.

That is the picture of Christianity. There is the beginning of the Christian movement in Europe, so far as Paul was concerned. He was an apostle, with a mind mightier than that of Voltaire, and while his back was still bleeding and bruised and unwashed, he took time to teach that man.

Was it all worth while? Read the story to the end, and look at the man. See what he did. He washed their stripes, he took them up into his own house, the place where he lived over the prison. The marginal reading here is a little more accurate, if a little more blunt: “he spread a table before them.” That reminds us of what God does, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” This brutalized Philippian jailer is doing what God does. He washed their stripes and spread a table before them.

That is the one, final, unanswerable argument for Christianity. That is the Christian miracle. I see the jailer in Philippi, washing their stripes, who but last night had plunged them into the inner prison, caring nothing for bleeding wounds, and who went to sleep till the earthquake woke him. It was not the earthquake that produced this result. It was that patient teaching, and the consequent belief into Jesus Christ, so that the very life of God possessed his soul, and he began the activities of God, the activities of the eternal compassion.

But the apostle had not yet finished his work. There was further instruction given to the whole household, and there was the sacred and initial rite of baptism administered to the whole household. Then they rejoiced, having believed in God.

Concerning the action of the magistrates the next morning, there is nothing in the story to tell us the reason of what they did. It may be that the rumour of the earthquake and the open prison doors had reached them, although that is hardly probable. It may be that they had come to the consciousness during the night that they had overstepped the mark in beating these men; for it is wonderful what an effect a night will have upon a man, and how differently in the dawning of the morning the action of the day before will appear. We do not know, but this we do know, that with a touch of contempt they sent a message, “Let those men go.” The phrase “those men” seems to indicate contempt. It appeared an easy way out of the difficulty; when law had been violated, and righteousness wronged, just to send the men away.

Will this Christian apostle go? Will he say that his citizenship is in heaven, and that he has no interest in the State? Will he say that it is not his business to resist evil, and go out quietly? Nay, he had not so learned Christ. Mark the consecration of his Roman citizenship by his Christian citizenship. He refused to allow the magistrates who had violated law an easy way of escape. “They have whipped us publicly, uncondemned, being Romans.” That was the sharp, clean-cut, incisive declaration of wrong committed by the civic authorities.

Every phrase was an indictment: “whipped us publicly; uncondemned; men that are Romans.” We are not to be lightly set free. Let them come themselves, and bring us forth. Let their apology be as public as was the wrong they inflicted. I do not believe that Paul was standing on his own dignity, or seeking the vindication of his personal rights. He might have done that long before. When the whips were falling upon him, he might have said, I am a Roman citizen, but he did not use his rights to save himself.

Now for the sake of the Christian citizens in Philippi, for the sake of the little community of believers there, he drew attention to the wrong done, and insisted upon it that magistrates shall not violate law with impunity. It was the assertion of the fact that if the Christian needs to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; then Caesar must render to the Christian citizen the things that are of right and of truth. There was a fine dignity in this attitude of the apostle, the dignity of service to the Christian community, and to the city itself; the refusal to stand in the presence of violated law, without solemn protest.

Mark well the sequel. The magistrates came and besought them to come out, and to leave the city. But they did not immediately leave the city. They were quite willing to cooperate with the powers that be, in quelling disturbance. And so, with leisure, and at their pleasure, they left the city, after they had visited the house of Lydia, and comforted the brethren. By the form of the narrative it is evident that Paul left Luke behind him here, for from this point Luke in his story speaks of the company as “They” until in the twentieth chapter we find that he had rejoined them.

Thus Paul’s work in Europe was commenced. These witnesses were men with messages to deliver to Lydia and a handful of women, and also to a brutalized jailer, with whom philosophers will take no time. Theirs was the great experience of joy that triumphs over prison, and sings at midnight. The Christian campaign was that of delivering the messages, and conserving the victories. The Christian conscience inspired the correction of the magistrates when they violated law, and created conditions in which it was possible that there should be perfect freedom for the worship of God.

Look at Europe to-day in spite of all its desolation. Think incidentally of her architecture. Blot out the temples erected to the worship of Christ, and what remains? Go into her picture galleries, and destroy the paintings inspired by the Christian fact, and what will be left? Go into her halls of music, and destroy all that is inspired by the story of the Messiah, and how much is left that is worth while? Examine her literature, and destroy all that has been made possible, and inspired by the Christian movement, and what will abide?

Those are all incidental things. Essentially the measure of Europe’s freedom is the measure in which she has obeyed the principles of Christianity. The measure of her purity is the measure in which she has obeyed the word to the jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and . . . be saved.” The chains and wrongs that abide remain because she has been disobedient to the heavenly vision. The work is not accomplished, but it is the same great work, and we have the same evangel. We can only carry it as we have the same consciousness, and as we realize that when the day is darkest, and the prison bars are firmest, then is the day for song, for God cannot be overcome ultimately by the things of evil.