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How To Overcome Circumstantial Christianity

Acts 16:16-34
September 23, 2007
Pastor Mike O’Brien

Just as there exist what we would call “fair weather fans,” there are fair weather Christians. They believe in what I call a circumstantial Christianity. As long as their circumstances are acceptable or pleasing to them they praise God. But as soon as things get tough they question God and don’t praise Him as they ought to.

Someone has well said, “Don’t judge God by your circumstances or you might lose your faith!”

But most of us, including me, far too often allow our circumstances to control us. Today I want us to see what can happen in our lives when trust God in all our circumstances.

Now in our text this morning, we begin by looking at the setting in vv. 16-24

Acts 16:16

Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.

And you thought prayer would keep you out of trouble! These men went to prayer and were rudely interrupted by a troubled girl. This girl contacted demons who allegedly could predict the future. This troubled girl was jointly owned by her masters who were exploiting her affliction for their own gain.

Acts 16:17-18

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." 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.

Now why Paul waited many days, I don’t know. God’s timing is perfect, however, I do know that. You say, well maybe Paul hadn’t noticed her till that time. Quite the contrary as you can see he was greatly annoyed by her. I don’t think I could have lasted a few days! Notice that Paul is annoyed with the demon, not the girl.

Now I just want to briefly mention that Paul was not giving us some sort of formula for us to do the same thing. Paul was an apostle and his apostolic authority is what allowed him to do this. In Mark 3:15 we read that when Jesus selected the apostles He endowed them with the power to cast out demons. In 2 Corinthians 12:12 Paul speaks of signs and wonders as being a sign of an apostle. And so we should not think that Paul is giving us some sort of formula for casting out demons here.

Acts 16:19-21

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. And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, "These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city;and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe."

So they are trying to make up enough charges to get the people angry. Instigators like these men are everywhere. If you are a Christian living for the Lord expect to be falsely accused of something.

Acts 16:22

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

Now some of you say pastor, “my life just isn’t fair. In fact my life stinks! This husband or this wife or these kids that God gave me are just making my life terrible. My car isn’t nice enough. My house is too small. I mean pastor my life is just not good.”

Well suck it up and live for the Lord! You say “well that isn’t very compassionate.” I admit on the surface it doesn’t sound that way, but none of us have it as tough as these believers did. (And by the way I am way more compassionate when I counsel with people, but I am stressing a point here!) When is the last time you were stripped naked and beaten in public for your faith? You see my point then. And listen, I am speaking to myself as well. I far too often let small things bother me and impede my spiritual growth. Jesus came to give us an abundant life. Now what does that mean? It doesn’t mean that we are to be healthy and wealthy. So, then what does it mean? It means a full life, spiritually, not physically!

Acts 16:23-24

And when they had laid many stripes on them, (at least 39) they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

So we see that Paul and Silas were in prison on trumped on charges. Their backs have been beaten. They have open wounds on their backs and they are put in a dungeon.

So let me ask you a question? How is your current circumstance compared to theirs? Yeah, this is convicting isn’t it?

They are put in the maximum security prison. I mean they were the worst of the criminals. Now if you think today’s prisons are bad, you should have seen these. They did not have toilets. They did not have a water fountain. They had no water for a shower. These “stocks” were logs with two holes board in them far enough apart to stretch out the legs. I mean the ACLU would have a field day with these prison conditions!

Now what would many Christians be doing? They might curse God. They might question God and say we were just praying this shouldn’t happen to me when I am praying. They might wonder if there is a God. They might begin arguing with each other. Silas might say to Paul, “this was your idea and this is your fault.”

Now it is at this point that I want to say something important: Christian, you need to recognize the difference between a trial that God puts you through for the building up of your faith, and a trial that is self induced. Now James speaks of us “falling into various trials” to perfect our faith. That is a trial that God brings upon us. In other words you are living you life for the Lord and boom, you fall into a trial. The trials that we bring on ourselves are the type that occur when we are not living as we ought to be. In fact, they may even be used by God as chastisement.

My point is this, many Christians mistake trials which they bring upon themselves as the type of trials James speaks of. They then say, “why would God bring this upon me.” Well, He didn’t, He simply let you bring it upon yourself.

So if you are in a trial today, or when you are in one, you better make sure it is not of your own doing. Clearly Paul and Silas are in a James type of trial. And James says that we are “to count it all joy” when we fall into these types of trials. It has been rightly said that, “The door to the room of spiritual growth swings on the hinges of tribulation.”

So what did Paul and Silas do?

Acts 16:25-30

But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here." Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

They were doing exactly what James says that we should do! They were counting it all joy!

I want to call your attention to three key things Paul & Silas did: 1) They proclaimed the gospel; 2) they prayed; 3) they praised God.

1. The proclamation of the gospel

This point is the hardest to see. This man asked “"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

Now why do you suppose he asked this?

He must have heard a proclamation of the gospel at some time before. Perhaps even by Paul and Silas when they were being beaten by this man were proclaiming the gospel to him. Perhaps when this man put them in the dungeon Paul told him that they would not be there for long, but that without Christ he would be in hell for eternity. Perhaps when they put the shackles on Paul and Silas they told the man that though shackled they were free, but Satan has you shackled. Perhaps when he turned the key to lock them in the prison, Paul said Sir, “you can lock us in, but you can’t lock Christ out.” Perhaps they told him that they would be praying to all night long for him. I don’t know when or where this man heard about salvation, but God clearly got the message to this man.

But I believe that it was Paul and Silas who shared with this man. You know why I am convinced of that? Because he came to them with the question. Clearly he had been told something about salvation by them. Let me ask you this: Can you rightly expect someone to come up to you today and ask you this question? Are you telling anyone about Christ? Are you counting it all joy in your life? Can anyone look at your life and say, “hey that is what I need?”

*So they were proclaiming Christ but they were also praying.

2. Prayer:

The prayer meeting which was so rudely interrupted in v. 16 has resumed! Now what were they praying? No doubt they were praying for him. They were praying that he would be saved among others.

*Now not only did they proclaim the gospel, not only did they pray, but they were praising:

3. Praising:

They were praising God through singing. Now they did not have our hymnals! They were probably singing the Psalms.

Now notice who was listening to this: the other prisoners! They didn’t have much else going on. The Greek word for “heard” means that they were listening intently. People were not used to hearing this by people who had just been beaten and thrown in prison.

Acts 16:26

Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed.

Now you don’t think God is in charge of His creation? He causes a great earthquake for his own purposes. Notice that not only are Paul and Silas’ chains removed, but all the prisoners had their chains removed. I mean there are going to be fugitives all around! Somebody better call Tommy Lee Jones!

Acts 16:27-29

And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here." Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

Now this jailor was about to kill himself because he would have been killed anyway by his superiors. (Remember this the next time you fall asleep on the job!) But more than killed, he would have been tortured first. See, in that day if a prisoner escaped on a jailor’s watch he would be killed for it. If a high profile prisoner such as Paul escaped, the jailor would be tortured and killed! So he figured he better do it himself.

v. 28 – All the prisoners were there. No one escaped! That is amazing. I believe that many, if not all, of them became saved. God touched their heart. Not only did the jailor and his family get saved, but many prisoners may have been saved as well. The authorities did not stop the revival they were just used of God to change the location of the revival!

People ask me and say pastor “why don’t we schedule revivals at our church,” and I say because you can’t start or schedule a revival, only God can. And when God does bring revival no one can stop it!

Acts 16:29-30

Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

What irony this is! A man who was part and parcel to beating Paul and Silas is now trembling before them. So he asks the greatest question of all. And again it is because they had already proclaimed the gospel to him.

Now the answer that they give this man is quite simple:

Acts 16:31

So they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household."

Now while this answer is simple, let me caution you not to build a theology off of this one verse. We have seen many times in the book of Acts that repentance is preached. Just because it is not mentioned here does not mean that it is not part of salvation.

Now let me prove this to you. In Acts 3:19 we read: "Therefore repent and be converted, so that your sins may be wiped away . . .” That says nothing about believing, so is Luke teaching that we don’t need to believe to be saved? Of course not. Or what about Acts 17:30 “. . . God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent.” Is God not calling people to believe, but only to repent?

The point I am making is this: Whenever there is true faith, there will be true repentance, and whenever there is true repentance, there will be true faith. You cannot separate them.

Now what comes after salvation? SANCTIFICATION

Acts 16:32

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.

Remember the great commission is more than just the gospel. Now we are not told exactly what they taught him, but they taught him the word of God. They were not trying to make a Baptist out of him, or a Methodist out of him, or a Presbyterian out of him, or an Arminian out of him, or a Calvinist out of him, they were simply teaching him the word of God!

And immediately we see signs of true faith and repentance.

Acts 16:33

And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized.

They helped Paul & Silas and then they were baptized. This shows the importance of baptism for the adult convert. But I want to point something out that amazes me. And I hope this impacts you greatly. I wish everyone in this building could here this. Husband, please tell your wife this if she is not in the sanctuary to hear this, and wife do the same if your husband is not here to hear this.

Here we have a man who had beaten these men. Now he is saved and they are bonding and forming this close relationship. Now how many of us would have hard feelings and not really want anything to do with this man? Many of us would. Now here is the application I want us to make. Many of us get upset with other Christians over small trivial things. It should not be that way! We should be able to get over our hard feelings and overlook things. The Bible says “love covers a multitude of sins.” That is true. We can only do this if we are being controlled by the Holy Spirit. You cannot have hard feelings for a brother or sister in Christ and be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Acts 16:34

Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

This gives us the magnificent result. Many got saved. God indeed works in ways that are mysterious to us, but what a great God we serve.

Conclusion:

Now let me summarize this passage. The result was that the jailor and those in his house believed on Christ and became saved. But I don’t want us to focus on that point—great as it is—as we close. No, I want us to focus on the fact that Paul and Silas were used as instruments of God to bring about that result. But why were they used? Because they properly handled their trial. They did not have a circumstantial Christianity, but rather a Committed Christianity!

Joni Erickson Tada has been in a wheel chair for over 35 years. She was paralyzed in a diving accident. At first she wanted to learn what God wanted her to learn in the hopes that he would then heal her. At first she was bitter as she realized that she was not going to be healed. She finally was broken and accepted her circumstances and said God, “I will do whatever you want me to do.” Her advice on circumstances is this: “Accept your circumstances without demanding an explanation.”