Countries around the world use “ambassadors” to be their spokesmen and spokeswomen in countries where they as a country have a presence. The same would be true at the United Nations. These ambassadors might or might not be part of the ruling part. I recall one of the previous Democratic Alliance’s leaders, Tony Leon, being an ambassador for the African National Congress’ Government. In Christianity it is different. God only uses His people to speak for Him! Take what Paul says as an example:
2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
God only uses those of the new creation to be His ambassadors to declare and advertise His Gospel calling men and women to repentance and faith in Jesus. Now we pick up our reading from yesterday:
Ac 16:17 This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her. 19 When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” 22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.
1) The slave girl was demon possessed. Satan used her as a tool to bring discredit upon the Gospel. She had previously mouthed all sorts of stories demons instructed her to speak … which would have been in opposition to God’s will … now she declares who these missionaries are and what their mission is. God could not allow this and this is the reason Paul exorcised the demons from her. He needed to teach young Timothy the following:
1Ti 1:3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith.
Whether people like it or not, we who are God’s people are the only ones qualified and licensed by the Holy Spirit to speak the Truth about Him whose is the Truth.
2) The result of the exorcism was salvation. Certainly our text does not say this, but when demons are expelled from a lost soul, God’s Spirit takes their place. Once the tyranny of deadness, darkness and evil sinisterism (psychedelia inspired by the demons) are removed because of the Gospel … such as what Paul did with this girl, the Holy Spirit is able to take full residence, saving her soul.
3) Reacting to losing their source of income.
Ac 16:19 When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” 22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas.
In this evil domain, the slave girl’s owners saw her as their sacred property. She was their cash cow being able to enrich them … now she had lost her ability to tell fortunes … and more, her owners lost their lucrative income! This resulted in their wicked anger and wrath expressed in arresting Paul and Silas most violently. There were two concerns here.
(1) They lost their property rights as Roman Citizens. No longer could they do business, sustain a viable life and pay taxes to Rome.
(2) To them, Paul and Silas were not Roman Citizens or even Greeks. All they were, were roaming Jews spreading a religious message. These issues were the type of complaint presented to the magistrate against these missionary leaders. Philippi was a Roman colony with its municipal administration in the hands of two collegiate (well-studied and credible lawyers) magistrates. The slave girl’s owners presented their case, stating:
Ac 16:21 “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”
Although the accusations were false, the crowd supported the accusers because they too lost out on having their fortunes told.
4) The court action taken. Notice that accusations are made with the crowd support but the accused (missionaries) were not given an opportunity to respond or defend themselves.
Ac 16:22 the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.
Although proselytization was not forbidden amongst Roman citizens, it was strongly disapproved of. This might have been included in the magistrates decision to have Paul and Silas “stripped and beaten” and then thrown into jail to await trial. Note the words “severely flogged”. Those doing the beating were known as lictors. They were called rod-carriers because they carried rods used to beat those given corporal punishment. The result was wounds to the back. At no stage did the missionaries complain or seek to voice their opinion. The Holy Spirit enabled them to endure because this was part of God’s plan for them. The beating was followed by imprisonment. The word “thrown” needs to be understood as literal. On purpose, at this stage no one knew who Paul and Silas really were, so their treatment was of the harshest! Tomorrow more shall unfold, but for today we need to remember that as followers of the Lord Jesus we need to be like Paul and Silas. Sadly we tend to be very quick to defend ourselves when we ought to allow God the space He needs to act for us and defend us. Each time we suffer or are harassed because we serve the Lord Jesus, we need to remember God has a greater plan and He shall avenge His beloved children.
Our Father, thank You that our life is in Jesus and that we look for the Day when You shall take us into Your glorious paradise to be with You forever. Help us whilst we are on this planet to be Your agents whether we are blessed or cursed for Jesus. Amen.