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Acts 16

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Context
Paul and Barnabas have completed the 1st missionary journey
Upon their return, they find dissension in the Antioch church on the issue of circumcision
They take this issue to the Jerusalem church, and the Apostolic Council provided guidelines, which did not include the requirement to be circumcised to be a Christian

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Context
Following their return to Antioch, they intended to make a 2nd Missionary Journey to the same locations as the 1st Missionary Journey to strengthen the believers
However, a dispute between Paul and Barnabas resulted in going separate ways
Early in this lesson, Paul began his 2nd Missionary Journey with Silas, but God closed off going to Asia, and instead redirected them

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Context
Instead of going east to Asia, God redirected them to Philippi in Macedonia, a part of present day Greece, which is part of Europe
As the events unfold in Philippi, Acts 16 presents many lessons, but perhaps the most important lesson deals with WITNESSING – how to witness to others God’s way

5. Context Illustration of Grocer
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Context
Illustration of Grocer

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Today’s lesson focuses on witnessing to two types of people
Those who are seeking Christ
Those who actively oppose us

7. On to Europe Those who are seeking Christ
Let’s call this group, people who are “religious”
Today we see all kinds of religious people, those committed to their church, those who belong, but are not very committed, and then others who do not go to church at all

8. On to Europe Those who are seeking Christ
Various studies show these statistics about the church
80% of Americans do not regularly attend church
Of that 80%, a vast majority have been to church at some point, as a child, or they may have gone as an adult but drifted away from the church, or have had a bad experience at a church

9. On to Europe Those who are seeking Christ
Of those “formerly churched” people,
58% feel it is time to return to the church
41% say they would go if a friend or acquaintance invited them
35% would return if they knew there were people like them
And, 31% feel God is calling them to attend church

10. On to Europe Those who are seeking Christ
The point of these statistics is that there is a vast number of people out there just waiting to be invited to church
Just like the grocer who learned to sell eggplants to his patrons – sometimes, it is merely a matter of saying the right thing at the right time

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Let’s look at how Paul witnessed to some religious people down by the river side
It was a women’s group – “And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.” (Acts 16:13)
Notice that these were all women

12. On to Europe Those who are seeking Christ
Probably mostly Jewish women, gathered for prayer
Lydia was a Gentile who met with them
Why at the river? Likely because there was no synagogue, which could only be formed when there were 10 or more men
So Paul is witnessing to the women - but he does not appear to be overly successful

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As far as we can tell, only one woman seems to have responded to his teaching – Lydia
This might seem to be fairly disappointing
Paul and Silas, being big time evangelists who travel all the way to Philippi where they find this prayer group willing to listen to them, and only one person is converted?

14. On to Europe Those who are seeking Christ
While Lydia was the only one who seems to have responded, we know that her entire family was later baptized into Christ (Acts 16:15)
But even if she was the only one, God would have considered her conversion a success
In fact, it appears that God sent Paul to this specific city, to this specific prayer meeting, for just this specific woman because she seems to have formed the backbone of the church that was formed there

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Later in Chapter 16, we find that Paul and Silas are imprisoned for preaching Jesus
In Acts 16:40, we are told that after Paul and Silas came out of prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them
The “brothers” means men of the new church

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What did Paul say that won Lydia to Christ?
Not a single word of Paul’s teaching is recorded for us
Why? Because is was not Paul’s words that captured Lydia’s heart – Acts 16:14 states: “The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.”
God had been working on Lydia’s heart – and God opened it

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That was exactly what Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would do – convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:8)
It was God who laid the groundwork for Lydia’s decision – probably long before Paul and Silas ever got to Philippi
God knew that Lydia and others in Philippi were ready to listen to Paul, so God directed Paul to Philippi, to a prayer meeting, to witness

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We are called to be God’s witnesses – not to judge, not to convict non-Christians of their sins
Our job is to witness/testify about what we know about Jesus
It is vital that we include God in our witnessing
If we do our job – God will do His

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This brings us back to what did Paul say to Lydia that changed her heart?
We do not know for sure, but can find a good idea
In Acts 19, Paul encountered some religious people in Ephesus, who only knew of the baptism of John
How did Paul witness? He asked them a question: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

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Paul knew the answer was no, but his objective was to take these religious people and ask them a question they did not know the answer to
And that question led him to be able to teach them something about Jesus they did not understand
And that question led them to be baptized into Christ and become Children of God

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So, if you are going to witness to religious people, you need to realize the critical importance of getting God involved
If we want God to open people’s hearts to us, for God’s Spirit to work inside of folks and convict them of their need,

22. We need to begin praying now
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So, if you are going to witness to religious people, you need to realize the critical importance of getting God involved
If we want God to open people’s hearts to us, for God’s Spirit to work inside of folks and convict them of their need,
We need to begin praying now

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Secondly, if we want to please God by witnessing to others, it would help to come up with a question that will get them to start going to Jesus
It might be “Do you know how to become a Christian?”, or
“Do you ever think about what will happen after you die?”, or
“Do you believe you will go to heaven?” and “Do you want to know for sure?”

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Questions like those will open the door for you to introduce them to Jesus and His Church
And when you ask the questions, we need to know the answers (1 Peter 3:15 – be prepared to give the reason for the hope you have)

25. On to Europe Witnessing to Religious People
Paul shows us two things about witnessing to Religious People
Get God involved
Ask a question, which can lead to you talking about Jesus Christ

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Many of you may find the next group of people difficult, or impossible to witness to
How could you possibly witness to someone who has hurt you? To someone who has gone out of their way to make life miserable for you?

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You may find the next group of people difficult, or impossible to witness to
How could you possibly witness to someone who has actively opposed you? To someone who has gone out of their way to make life miserable for you?
Paul and Silas did it – Let’s see how they did it

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The Bible seems to imply that the Apostles rarely met a jail that could hold them
That is not to say that they escaped every prison that ever held them
It is just that if God did not want them in jail – no jail could hold them

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For example, in Acts 5, the apostles were put in prison, and during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and told the disciples to go to the temple and speak to the people
In Acts 12, we are told that King Herod had Peter thrown into prison, but the night before Peter was to come to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries standing guard at the entrance

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Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, woke Peter, and told him to put on your clothes and sandals and follow him
The angel led Peter out of prison, past the first and second guards, and even through the iron city gate, which opened for them by itself
The point is, no guard or soldier could have held any of the Apostles of Christ

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So – why is it that in this story in Acts 16, Paul and Silas have this opportunity to escape – but they do not
The cell doors were open, the shackles had fallen from their feet – all they had to do to gain their freedom was run for it
Why didn’t they?

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They did not run because God wanted them there
Paul and Silas were in Philippi – in that jail – on that night – because God wanted them there
God did not want them leaving that jail because God wanted them to talk to someone
He wanted them to witness to this jailer and his family

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Do you think this jailer was a friend of Paul and Silas? NO
He did not go and visit them in their cell before the earthquake
He did not go down to their cell to loosen their chains
He did not go down to their cell to bandage up their wounds or put medicine on their cuts

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Notice what Acts 16:24 tells us: “Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in stocks.”
The jailer was not told to put them in the “inner prison” or to put their feet in stocks
Why did he? – because the jailer regarded them as criminals – the entire town had condemned them

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Paul and Silas likely understood this
They knew the man had already prejudged them
They knew that if he got his chance, he would probably make their lives miserable if he could
They knew that they had their clothes stripped from their bodies and were unjustly beaten – for trying to do the will of God

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And the jailer was right there being part of the injustice they suffered
He was just as mean and vindictive as everyone else
He was part of the cause of their misery
Paul and Silas would have had every reason to hate and despise him, but

37. Those who actively oppose you Instead, they witnessed to him
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Those who actively oppose you
Instead, they witnessed to him

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There might come a time when you have the opportunity to witness to someone like that
Someone who does not really like you
Someone who does not want to be around you
Someone who has hurt you or someone you care for
Whatever the reason, you do not like them

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And you would just as soon not witness to them
They are not the kind of people you want in church with you
You do not want to talk to them about Christ because – they do not deserve Christ – maybe you even feel all they deserve is hell!

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Consider what would happen if God did the same thing to you and me
“for all have sinned…” (Romans 3:23)
Before we became Christians, Colossians 1:21 tells us that we were alienated from God and were enemies – objects of His wrath – deserving hell

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Consider what would happen if God did the same thing to you and me
“for all have sinned…” (Romans 3:23)
Before we became Christians, Colossians 1:21 tells us that we were alienated from God and were enemies – objects of His wrath – deserving hell
BUT, God so loved the World….

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Paul knew this, because he had been an enemy of Jesus and had thrown people in jail much like this jailer had
And yet, God had saved him
Now it was Paul’s chance to repay God’s kindness to him – and to witness to this jailer – to offer to this man the salvation God had so freely given to him

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And if we are given an opportunity to witness to people who have actively opposed us, it becomes our chance to repay God for His kindness in saving us as well
To show God that we understand that Jesus died for all mankind – even the ones we do not like

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Paul repaid God by witnessing to someone who did not like him and had mistreated him
If we want to follow in his footsteps in this, how can we accomplish it – when the person we are trying to witness to does not particularly like us

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First, we need to make it obvious who we belong to
Notice – Paul and Silas were thrown into the inner prison and fastened in stocks
But about midnight, what were they doing? Praying and singing hymns
They worshiped God right there in jail
And everyone knew they belonged to Jesus, because even in jail they worshiped Him

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And when they worshiped, they witnessed
People saw how much Jesus meant to them
Every act of worship should be viewed as a witnessing tool – singing, praying, studying our Bibles
We need to proclaim God outside the walls of our church building
We need to be obvious, be bold, be unashamed, and unapologetic

47. Those who actively oppose you Illustration of Children in Restaurant
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Those who actively oppose you
Illustration of Children in Restaurant

48. On to Europe Those who actively oppose you
So the first thing Paul and Silas did – they made it obvious who they belonged to – everybody in the prison knew they loved Jesus and belonged to him
The next thing they did was to make it obvious that they cared for the jailer
Remember this? “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

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When the earthquake shook that jail – it shook the jailer’s world as well
When he saw that all the prison doors were open, he was convinced that his life was over, for if a prisoner escaped, he would pay with his life
And to avoid that, the easiest thing was to take his own life

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Paul sees this, and though many would feel why care, Paul does care and shouts out: “Do not harm yourself! We are all here!” (Acts 16:28)
In situations like this, when a person’s life is falling apart, Jesus taught us to reach out to the hurting and wounded

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Who are the hurting and wounded?
Lost their job
Lost their marriage
Lost their home
Lost a loved one
These are times when people need the message of hope from God – step up when people are down

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We may ask the question, why did the jailer seek out Paul and Silas?
Because God worked behind the scenes to soften the jailer’s heart
Again we see the Spirit at work convicting the jailer of his sin and his need for righteousness
The Spirit is preparing the hearts of those who we can witness to

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So, what do we tell people who ask “What must I do to be saved?”
We tell them the same thing Paul did: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved – you and your household.” (Acts 16:31)

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In summary, before you can tell people about Jesus – especially someone who does not like you – you need to do two things:
Be obvious about who you belong to, and
Make obvious that you care for them as individuals

55. Illustration of Young Factory Worker
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Illustration of Young Factory Worker

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In our lesson, Paul shows us how to witness to two diverse groups
Those who are seeking Christ
People who actively oppose us

57. Will you witness to others in God’s way?
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Will you
witness to others
in God’s way?