PT-2 "Persecution" (Acts 16:19-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2018 8:59 AM

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  PT-2 “Persecution”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 16:19-24

            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.”

            As we begin this SD we see the charges that were brought against Paul and Silas “"These men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews.”  What I notice in this section is the highlighted part “being Jews.”  I remember that when we began this section of Paul and his missionary team going into Philippi that there were not enough Jewish men in that city to form a Synagogue, and this kind of makes me wonder if the Jews were really not welcomed there.  At any rate what we see here is Anti-Semitism.  John MacArthur writes that this “was not a modern phenomenon but has its orgins in antiquity.  At about this time, Emperor Claudius issued an order expelling the Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2).  This anti-Semitism may explain why only Paul and Silas were apprehended, since Luke was a Gentile and Timothy a half-Gentile.”

            The charges that were brought against Paul and Silas were technically true, “proclaiming customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans.’”  The law being discussed, although rarely enforced, was that Romans could not practice any religion that was not sanctioned by the state.  That may be the charge, and it may be technically true, but the real reason for the charges had to do with money, and the men who were taking advantage of this demon-possessed woman must have had friends in high places to get done what we see happening here.  One thing for sure is that Paul and Silas and the rest of the missionary team were not causing mass confusion in the city of Philippi.  Like I said it is all about the money, and so even though the charges of causing mass confusion were false the reaction stirred up the crowd and they mindlessly “rose up together against” these two missionaries.

            We know what a mob can do to a weak leader as Pilate was a weak leader, who caused the crowd to sway what he really wanted and should have done in the case of Jesus, and so it was the same with Paul and Silas as the next thing we see is they were stripped and beaten with rods.  Two things caused this money and hatred for the Jews.  The magistrates had the “policemen” beat Paul and Silas with rods that they carried, which ironically were the symbol of Roman law and justice.  According to 2 Corinthians 11:25 Paul had been beaten with rods three times and this was probably the first time, however I am not positive as not everyone is mentioned in Scripture.

            We see that they were beaten many blows, and then they were thrown into prison after this merciless unlawful beating, as they were both Roman citizens which we will talk about later.  After being beaten and thrown into prison we can be sure that the one in charge of the prison was not going to take any chance to have them escape, and so he put them into the safest place, in the inner prison and fastened their feet in stocks.  They were as safe as they could be as far as not getting out on their own.  However the authorities at Philippi were soon to learn that no prison can hold those whom God wants released.

            We have mentioned that this was a satanic inspired persecution, and this persecution did not affect Paul and Silas as they thought it would, as we will see in our next section which will be called Praise.  When Paul wrote to the Philippians later on the theme of the letter was joy.  I mentioned that our Pastor is just beginning a series on this letter to the Philippians and his definition, as he calls it is an ongoing definition as later on in the series there may be things added to it, but so far this is what he has come up with in his description of joy:  “Joy is a positive emotion that is rooted in our confidence that our good God is in sovereign control of the circumstances of our lives for our good and His glory, enabling us to praise Him!”  We will see that Paul and Silas certainly had this kind of joy as they were beaten and unlawfully put into prison.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to have the kind of joy that Paul and Silas had during this period of time in his life.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to listen to the series on Joy from our Pastor in order to learn more about joy so that I can be better at living it out in my life each day.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Timbrel” (Exodus 15:20).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who reported the Corinthian contentions to Paul?”

Answer in our next SD.

4/25/2018 10:00 AM