Acts 16:16-40

You don’t look very threatening, but you are. You look nice and safe, but you are dangerous people. You talk nice, you treat people nice, you are nice, but you are a threat to the very core of society. You carry something inside you that intimidates people. It scares them, and when people are scared, they fight back. They push you away, they avoid you like the plague. They don’t want to come within a thousand feet of you. You’re dangerous. There’s no telling what you will do.

You are threatening, because you are a Christian. You are dangerous, because Jesus lives inside you. And for people who don’t love Jesus, for people are doing anything and everything to avoid the Lord, there’s not telling what Jesus will do. When people see you, when they see you being Christ-like, they don’t always like what they see. And they will run.

We’ve been seeing what effect the resurrection of Jesus has on those who believe. We’ve seen Peter and John walking boldly into the temple, with no fear, only with eagerness to bring the gospel of Jesus, to talk about what they’ve seen, a dead man alive again. And we’ve seen a man, crippled from birth, walking and jumping and praising God. And we’ve seen a group of believers fearlessly speaking the message that had been spoken for thousands of years, a message of redemption and restoration, a message that cannot be stopped. We have seen victory and power, the power of the gospel.

Do you have a good hold of that power and victory? Do you know that the gospel can’t be stopped? Do you feel the strength of the Holy Spirit, making you able to talk about Jesus’ death and resurrection clearly and boldly? Hang on to that, because it’s about to get tough. While we experience victory, while we are made strong, there will be suffering, there will be pain, there may even be death. Because the world gets scared when Christians get too close.

And in Acts 16, Christians got too close. Verse 16:

Sound familiar? Once again, followers of Jesus notice suffering people on their way to pray. For Peter and John, it had been the man who was crippled. For Luke and Timothy and Paul and Silas, it’s a girl, a possessed, owned and controlled by a demon.

She is also possessed, she is also owned and controlled by men, her owners, who used her to make money by telling people’s fortunes. The mumbling, the rambling words she spoke under the influence of the demon made people around her think she was telling the future. And people would pay a lot of money to hear her babble.

But in the middle of the babbling and gibberish, suddenly the girl speaks very clearly. And what she says is true. Verse 17:

Which would have been fine if it had been sincere. But this was coming from a demon, who had no desire for people to be saved. And this demon, controlling this girl, started to harass Paul and the others. Verse 18:

In the name of Jesus Christ. In the power of the resurrection, one more person is free.

But the power got too close. Jesus, in these disciples, is too scary. And now, the world fights back. Luke and Timothy avoid what happens next, but Paul and Silas feel the anger of the world when the gospel gets too close. They’re dragged into the marketplace and mobbed by the crowd. The judges order them to be stripped, and then they were beaten, beaten with sticks, rods of hard wood. And after the mobbing, the humiliation, and the beating, they’re placed in jail. Verse 24:

And there they sat. They had delivered a girl from demon possession. They had preached the gospel. They had told people how they could be saved. They did exactly what they were supposed to do. They did exactly what we are supposed to do. They obeyed. And in return, they were mobbed, humiliated, beaten and locked up. And there they sat, legs in stocks. Stocks make you have to sit, without a backrest. Your legs may be forced apart, and you can’t move them to get more comfortable. Of course, they wouldn’t want to lean their backs against anything, with all the bruises and tears from their beating.

The writer of Acts, Luke, the same man that wrote the gospel, Luke wants us to understand something. When we have experienced the resurrection of Jesus, and when we let that experience show, when we talk about the gospel to people who don’t know, we will suffer. Suffering for the gospel is not the exception. Suffering for the gospel is the norm. It’s what usually happens. In fact, if we are not suffering for the gospel, something might be wrong. It is possible that God spares His people from suffering, and if He does, we are very thankful. But it’s not likely that we will be spared. Paul and Silas, beaten and bruised, locked up in jail, awaiting trial, that sounds just about right for a believer. With Jesus inside us, the world will hate us.

But, with Jesus inside us, that’s okay. In spite of the pain, though they can’t get comfortable, verse 25:

It’s pretty late, but it’s not like Paul and Silas are going to sleep anyway. But instead of complaining about their sore bodies, instead of trying to figure out their escape, instead of worrying about what might happen the next day, they’re singing. They’re praying. They’re worshipping. They’re directing their attention to God, out loud, and the other prisoners were listening. A disciple of Jesus just can’t help but point unsaved people to their Lord.

And then, the Lord steps in. Verse 26:

Sound familiar? Like last week, when the believers prayed, and the building shook? It seems like when believers pray, especially through suffering, God shakes things up. This time, it’s a prison that is shook, and the doors fly open, and everyone can leave.

Only, everyone stays. Paul and Silas have no need to run for it. They’re fine wherever God wants to put them. And everyone else is so affected by the faith of Paul and Silas, the gospel has so affected these two disciples, that the rest of the prisoners just stick around, too.

And the jailer has seen enough. With two hurting men singing, add to that an earthquake, and then all of the prisoners not running, but staying in prison voluntarily, it’s clear to the jailer that something amazing is happening. This man, this Roman soldier, this tough, unfeeling prison warden, verse 29:

Look at the effect of the resurrection, even on the toughest guy. And it wasn’t just wonder and amazement that was going through the jailer. Verse 30:

Paul and Silas went to his house, and that night, everybody in his household came to know Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

And they wouldn’t have, if Paul and Silas hadn’t been willing to suffer. To be a Christian is to suffer, but the suffering has a purpose. To have Jesus inside us is to experience the same rejection as Jesus. If this is not our idea of the Christian life, we’re either going to be terribly shocked when we do suffer, or we’re going to be invisible enough that no one notices that we are Christians, and while we won’t be suffering, we also won’t be bringing the gospel, either. Let’s be very sure, we can expect to suffer, if Jesus lives inside of us.

But we can also expect the hope and the joy and the strength that comes with Jesus inside us. The same hope and joy and strength that made Paul and Silas able to sing in a prison, and then not run away when they had the opportunity. We will have the courage to talk about Jesus, and we have the joy that keeps us singing through the suffering.

And when people see that, they’ll know something’s up. You’re being a Christian when it’s not easy to be a Christian. And that will have an effect. People will want to give their lives to Jesus, when they see the hope and strength and joy that Jesus has given to you.

Even Christians will be encouraged. Verse 40:

With Jesus in you, you will suffer. With Jesus in you, you will threaten people. With Jesus in you, you help people who are lost, you know joy and hope and strength that is unshakeable, even when the world is shaking. With Jesus in you, others will see Jesus.