Missed Miracles

 Gtcotr/ws101321

 

This evening we are going to read from a familiar passage in the New Testament, specifically in the book of Acts, chapter 16. Acts 16 gives us the accounts of so many miracles which took place in the lives of the Apostle Paul and those to whom he ministered over the course of a few days. Paul saw a man in a vision saying come over to Macedonia and help us.

 

Perhaps the man in the vision was an angel who was preparing hearts to receive Christ and only needed someone authorized to come and tell them the Good News. God prepares the fields into which He sends His laborers.

 

Acts 16 also records the salvation of Lydia and her whole household. Then there is the story of the Paul and Silas being stripped naked and beaten with rods in public before being thrown into the dungeon of a prison. As well, the miraculous account of Paul and Silas praying and singing praises at midnight and God sending an earthquake to open the prison doors and set the captives free. Chains fell off of all the prisoners.

 

After that continues the miracle account of the Roman jailer and all of his household being saved and baptized. Finally the chapter concludes with Paul and Silas being let out of prison and politely being asked to leave town. After they went back to Lydia’s house and collected their things and said their goodbyes, they departed for Thessalonica. 

 

This coming June, 82 of us in the Church are scheduled to make that same journey together from Philippi to Thessalonica as we follow the Steps of Paul. We will visit the Biblical sites and study each account along the way. I know the Bible will come alive on this trip of a lifetime. The spaces for this trip are currently filled but please don’t let that keep you from signing up if you’d like to go with us. At times occasion demands someone postpone their trip and those who have signed up and are on the waiting list move up into one of those 82 spaces. At any rate … let’s get back to the message for this evening … we are talking about missed miracles. Which miracle do you think is most often missed in the reading, study, or preaching of Acts 16? Let’s see …

 

Acts 16 NKJV

16 ¶  Now it happened, as we (Paul, Silas, Luke, and others probably including Lydia and her household) went to (the place of) prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed (inhabited; empowered; controlled) with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters (owners) much profit (she must have been made to work a lot of hours) by fortune-telling.

17  This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” (Evidently this was known to her by the spirit in her)

18  And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.

19  But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.

20  And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city;

21  “and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.”

22  Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods.

23  And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.

24  Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

 

·      What is this story about?

o   There are so many stories in Acts 16 that it is easy to quickly pass from one miracle to another.

o   This story is evidently about deliverance.

§  Deliverance from demonic possession

§  Deliverance from mean masters

§  Deliverance from prison and chains

§  Deliverance from fear

§  Deliverance from sin and even death

o   It’s an account of being delivered by the name of Jesus

·      Who is this story about?

o   We read it as though it is about Paul and Silas, but it is not …

o   This story is about Lydia and her household, the jailer and his household, the prisoners, and this precious woman who was bound by satan in a situation she could not change …

·      We often pass right by the story of the slave girl and imagine her to be evil, if we ever consider her at all. We never wonder how she felt.

o   Bless her heart … she was a slave, and possessed, and no doubt abused and worked hard and long with no just compensation. Yet perhaps she saw some reason to hope.

o   This slave girl knew the way to salvation but was possessed and by a demon and owned and used by men.

o   She was set free because Paul finally got annoyed … what was Paul annoyed about?

o   Certainly Paul was not annoyed by the truth or the advertisement. It had to be about the girl bound by the devil.

·      I think this girl was perhaps crying out for help the best she knew.

·      Paul turned and spoke to the demon spirit … not to the girl.

·      Paul had compassion on the girl, it wasn’t about him, it was her.

·      But we often forget about the girl … we pass over this deliverance … we miss the miracle of this moment … I bet that girl never forgot it!

 

There are so many accounts in the Word of God about people receiving a miracle and then immediately other events of life come into play and the drama of life overshadows the miracle which was just done.

·      Jesus healed a blind man and the religious leaders got so upset. Rather than celebrating the miracle they wanted to know who did it. The man told them … I was blind and now I see!

·      Every morning for the rest of his life that man woke up seeing … I doubt he cared anything about the politics of his miracle but only the results. I imagine his miracle was not picked up by the news media.

·      Peter and John prayed for a lame man to be healed … and he was! Acts 2 & 3. Then politics and hateful mobs took the forefront and God’s wonderful people started going to jail and getting threatened and beaten. Whatever happened to the man who was healed?

·      His parents were questioned and even the man himself was accused of lying … however – every morning after when that man got up and walked to the bathroom or the kitchen, I bet he remembered what that miracle moment was all about.

·      It certainly wasn’t about the politics of the moment … Politicians and leaders, kings, and bosses, they come, and they go … Jesus and the miracle we receive from Him in His name is what life is all about.

·      There is no doubt that this woman, just like the demoniac of Gadarenes, wanted to be free. She followed Paul and cried out …

 

We cannot just pass over the miracle of deliverance and salvation that must have come to that girl that day … I bet that girl never forgot …

 

This reminds me of the account found in Luke 10 where Jesus corrected the thinking of His disciples concerning the most important part of the ministry. The disciples had gotten all caught up in the drama and power.

 

Luke 10 NKJV

17 ¶  Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”

18  And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

19  “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

20  “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

 

Whatever is going on around us, from politics to power, should never cause us to lose sight of what Jesus is doing in the individual lives of those in need. The most important thing is not how it affects us but about those to whom we are sent. we should never forget what life is all about.

 

Life is about the deliverance and salvation of souls for Jesus.

·      Deliverance from demonic oppression, depression, and possession.

·      Deliverance from the cruel masters of this life who care nothing for the person they are abusing but only for themselves.

·      Deliverance from the sad estate of those who see a better way but who are trapped in sin and cannot help themselves.

·      Deliverance from sin, sickness, poverty, worry, fear, death, and defeat which comes when we call on the name of Jesus.

 

Speak the name of Jesus … Speak to the spirits who have enslaved and torment others who are in sin… and don’t forget what Jesus is all about … the person who gets delivered won’t! Don’t miss the miracle!