SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/23/2018
9:57 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 Intro to Acts 16:19-40
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
16:19-40
Message
of the verses: “19 But when her
masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and
dragged them into the market place before the authorities, 20 and when they had
brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, "These men are throwing
our city into confusion, being
Jews, 21 and are proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to
accept or to observe, being Romans." 22 The crowd rose up together against
them, and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to
order them to be beaten with rods. 23 When they had struck them with many
blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them
securely; 24 and he, having received such a command, threw them into the inner
prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were
praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; 26 and
suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison
house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s
chains were unfastened. 27 When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors
opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the
prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying,
"Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!" 29 And he called for
lights and rushed in, and
trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, 30 and after he
brought them out, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31
They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your
household." 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with
all who were in his house. 33 And he took them that very hour of the night and
washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.
34 And he brought them
into his house and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, having
believed in God with his whole household.
35 Now when day came, the chief magistrates
sent their policemen, saying, "Release those men." 36 And the jailer
reported these words to Paul, saying, "The chief magistrates have sent to
release you. Therefore come out now and go in peace." 37 But Paul said to
them, "They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans,
and have thrown us into prison; and now are they sending us away secretly? No
indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out." 38 The policemen
reported these words to the chief magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, 39 and
they came and appealed to them, and when they had brought them out, they kept
begging them to leave the city. 40 They went out of the prison and entered the
house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and
departed.”
We have been looking at some verses that show that God
truly does bring about good things to those who seemingly have gone through
some very difficult times. We talked
about Joseph and how his brothers sold him into slavery, but God used Joseph to
save his family from starving as it was God’s will that they come to
Egypt. We also talked about the Lord
Jesus Christ, as His example is the best found in all of Scripture. Jesus died a horrible death, and yet God used
it to save all the people that He had chosen before the foundation of the
world, save them from the horrors of hell, and will bring all of them into
heaven to be with Him forever.
We will look again at the killing of Stephen which was a
terrible thing to have happen, and yet after that killing and the persecution
that went on the church began to expand and to grow “19 So then those who were
scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen
made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one
except to Jews alone. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene,
who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord
Jesus. 21 And the hand of
the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.”
We bring all of these thing up because in this 16th
chapter of Acts we something similar that happened. As I have read over this section of Scripture
many, many times I am still in awe of how Paul and Silas preached and sang
praises to the Lord after being severely beaten in an unlawful manner.
Remember that Paul and his missionary team were led by
the Lord through a vision to come into Europe and the very first person saved
in Europe was a woman named Lydia, the liberated woman, and then we talked
about the demon-possessed woman who Paul cast the demon out, and as a result of
him doing this her “owners” were going to lose a lot money and the result of
that was Paul and Silas being beaten and put into prison. Philippi became the first “beachhead” in
Europe for the gospel to move forward.
As I look at Europe today along with our own country I see that we need
more beachheads for the gospel to be brought up by the Spirit of God.
John MacArthur concludes his introductory comments:
“Satan was quick to react,
first attempting to infiltrate the young fellowship with a demon-possessed
medium. When Paul’s miraculous power
thwarted that attempt, Satan tried to destroy the church through
persecution. Those are always his two
avenues of attack: infiltration-attacking the church from within; and
persecution, attacking it from without.
Verses 19-40 record the failure of Satan’s attack through persecution,
marvelous turning of persecution into triumph unfolds in five sequential
stages: persecution, praise, preaching,
provision and protection.”
So we see our outline in these five ways, and Lord
willing, we will begin to look at the persecution in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: “28 And we know
that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God
and are called according to his purpose for them.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that the Lord will give us grace to
determine how we are to take care of my wife’s father in the days to come.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Miriam” (Exodus 15:20).
Today’s Bible
question: “Which book contains the
record of legislation given at Sinai that was not set forth in the laws and
regulations found in Exodus?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/23/2018 10:29 AM
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