Download Acts 16 - Sun River Church

Acts 16 - Notes and Insights
Context: The Jerusalem Council on Gentile Conversion and Continued Spiritual Growth Guidelines
Paul and Silas begin to make a return trip to visit the churches from the 1st Missionary Journey
Acts 16:1-5 - Catch You on the Rebound!
. Timothy – his mother was Jewish, father was a Gentile - lived in the city of Lystra where Paul
was stoned and given up for dead on the first missionary journey.
. v. 3 -" had Timothy circumcised" - this would provide a practical solution to the confusion regarding
Timothy's ethnic and social status. This was most likely done as a concession on grounds of
contextualizing the gospel, not as a grounds of personal salvation (the point of chapter 15 council)
. v. 5 - summary verse: the churches were built up by the relating of the decision of the council
in Jerusalem. It gave them validation, affirmation, and the motivation to continue to grow
in both quality of faith, and quality of outreach = numbers of new believers.
. The missionary team is now Paul, Silas, and Timothy
Acts 16:6-10 - Redirected
. 2 times the text indicates that the Holy Spirit did not allow them to continue on the way they were
originally heading, probably following the Via Sebaste Roman road to Colossae and Ephesus – but
they are redirected north through Mysia and eventually Troas - and thus never make it
to those cities on this trip.
. v.10 – Paul’s vision is one supernatural piece of the decision making to redirect. It sounds like there
was also a combination of factors that led them this direction over a period of possibly several
months: the closed doors in other directions, discussion of the vision (“we” concluded ), possibly
prayer, etc. The word concluded is the word sumbibazo – and carries the idea of “bringing together”
or connecting the dots on a variety of different data points that went into the decision.
Acts 16:11-15 – My Big Fat Greek Mission
. Philippi: was a Roman colony – settled with military veterans from Rome’s foreign legions. It seems
that there was a synagogue (v. 16 “place of prayer is literally “synagogue”) that was most likely
outside the city limits and usually held in some kind of building (a house?) that was near a river.
It is likely that a place of prayer connected with the synagogue was available to people and that often
the women would go there to talk, pray, and wash clothing, etc.
. v. 14 – Lydia “was hearing” (imperfect tense in Greek) and Paul “was being spoken” (impf. tense
also) – the imperfect tenses indicate that this was likely iterative – an ongoing regular occurrence
over a period of time that could have lasted several sessions/ weeks.
. Lydia was a Gentile businesswoman. She was not Jewish, but was a God-worshipper; one who
believes and acts like a Jew and she was “following closely” – the Greek term denotes being “lockedin” on what Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke were saying. Lydia was most likely a freedwoman of some
kind and seems to have been a woman of some financial means as an independent business owner.
Acts 16:16-18 - A Spiritist Stalker
. v. 17 – “the Most High God” – is an ambiguous term and often used of the Greek gods as well as the
Jewish God.
. v. 17 – “a way, not the way of salvation” – the term “way” here is anarthrous – it does NOT have the
direct article that would make the way of salvation specific. Not only was this spiritist slave girl
connected with the occult, but her message is inaccurate as well. This goes on for “man” days (v. 18).
. Paul is “annoyed” – the Greek here is diaponeomai – to be troubled, disturbed, sometimes even
grieved.
. Paul calls the spirit to come out of her. The spirit “exits” (Greek is exelthon – same word is used of
her handlers /owners realization of what has happened to their financial opportunity when the spirit
is exorcised. It golden goose has been “exorcised” as well.
Acts 16:19-24 - Beaten and Jailed
. the accusations of the slave girl’s owners is pretty serious – though it is deftly spun by them.
. the beating administered is pretty severe; “many blows” – inflicted in such a degree that wounds
were inflicted that would need to be cleaned (v. 33).
. their imprisonment is no walk in the park either: they are in the inner prison, reserved for the most
severe offenders, and also in stocks. This is very uncomfortable, especially if you’ve just sustained
some nasty injuries.
Acts 16:25-40 - Supernatural Release
. instead of cursing men, Paul and Silas are blessing God – praying and singing hymns of praise to God.
Note: the other prisoners are listening too.
. the jailer is all ears – especially when he realizes that Paul and Silas have somehow prevented
the other prisoners from escaping after the earthquake.
. most likely that the jailer and his family who respond to the message of Jesus are baptized from either
bowl/ pail of water, or by a small fountain or well within the jail itself. It is pretty unlikely they
would have been baptized by full immersion.
. the jailer breaks all prison protocol in caring for Paul and Silas after the prison is made secure again.
Jailers were not allowed to fraternize with prisoners at all, not allowed to relax the conditions of their
confinement, were forbidden to feed prisoners (that was the responsibility of family and friends to
bring food), or to interact with the inmates. BTW – the jailer’s personal quarters and residence was
most likely attached to the prison itself or might actually be within the prison’s walls.
. Roman law on criminal treatment of citizens: This was called lex julia – “the Roman citizen may not
be bound or beaten by a magistrate adversus provacationem or by any other person in any
circumstances” – let alone citizens who were untried and un-condemned. This is a serious breach of
legal ethics.
. It is interesting that Paul is not above using his natural rights and advantages to leverage his capacity
to spread the message of Jesus . He wants their release to be public as well as personally done by the
magistrates themselves – with a public apology that would repair the damaged reputation done to
the church and to the movement , would exonerate the jailer, and also allow them to go free and to
encourage the fledgling church there before leaving the city.