Do Thyself No Harm

Below is an excerpt of the sermon...

If you have your Bibles, let’s open them up, please, to the Book of Acts. Acts chapter 16. Thank you so much for your faithfulness. You have brought a wonderful spirit to church today. You get out of church what you put in it. If some of you haven’t smiled since COVID started, I’m sorry. I’m sorry God died, the Bible is not true, the Holy Spirit left us. Hey, God still alive. And you’ve got a lot to smile about, and if there’s no joy on the inside, it’s not God’s fault. But anyway, Acts chapter 16. I’m going to look at several passages here. This is a wonderful, wonderful passage, and God shared this with me this, week and I’m going to share some of the things He gave me.

Where is this on the timeline? It’s 52 A.D. So, the apostle Paul has now been a Christian for 18 years. This is a man that hated Jesus Christ, I mean hated him. Like Adolf Hitler hated him, hated him. Like Osama Bin Laden hated America. There was hatred welled up inside of the apostle Paul before he got saved. They called him Saul of Tarsus. He arrested Christians. He tortured them until they blasphemed Jesus’ name. He cast him into prison. Very, very cruel man. But it’s amazing God never gives up on anybody. And there he is traveling to Damascus with arrest warrants in his hand to kill more Christians, and a light shines down from Heaven. And God says, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” God never gives up on anybody, as long as they’re breathing, there’s hope for you. And soon we hear him say, “Who art thou, Lord?” “What wilt thou have me to do?” And he got saved. We call it the Damascus Road experience. He gave his heart to Christ. God’s got a big eraser, and God started using him. He begins preaching the Bible, and God said this, “There will be a lot of things you’ll suffer. You hurt my people a lot, you reap what you sow.” He said, “Paul, you’re going to suffer a lot.” And he did.

In this passage, he ends up in jail for preaching the Bible. Let’s notice quickly. If you have a Bible. If not, I’ll just read it. If you can just kind of hang on for a few moments. But here it is in Acts chapter 16. It says, Acts 16:1 “Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek:” So, Timothy’s father was not a Christian. His mother was. She was a Jew, his dad was a Greek. They didn’t believe the same.

And then we see Acts 16:9 “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.” So, Paul sees this vision at night. About the only time I ever have visions is after a pepperoni pizza about 1:00 AM, and I started having visions and things like that. But he had this vision of someone saying, “Come over to our country and help us.” By the way, there are cities all around us saying, “Come over and help us.” Uh there’s families all over. They’re not doing this, but in their hearts they’re saying, “Come over and help us.” There’s teenagers saying, “Come over and help us.” I’m glad that Paul obeyed the heavenly vision and said, “I’m going to go bring some help.” And that’s been the purpose of this church all these years—to answer that Macedonian cry and say, “Help us on the way.” That’s what we’re here for. And so, then we see he preaches in Macedonia. Acts 16:14, “And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.” And it says “and when she was baptized, and her household…” So, the first European convert was a woman. You can basically say she was at the washateria. She’s washing clothes at the river. Paul steps up, has a little sermon for the ladies there, and ends up giving her the good news. She said, “I’d like to receive Jesus.” She got saved, got baptized right there, and all her kids got baptized, too.

So, everywhere Paul is going, he’s just bragging about Jesus Christ. Lives are being changed. Either there’s revival or a riot. Either people got glad and heard the good news, or they got mad when they heard the good news. So, that’s what happened. And then we see this last episode, and here’s the message. We see in Acts16:20-21 “And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, [21] And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. [22] And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.” Hey fellas, you want to be in the ministry? Here it is. “They rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them. [23] And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: [24] Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

And at midnight Paul called his lawyer. He was a victim of crime. No. Acts 16:25. “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.” You know, this guy just had something I don’t know if I have. He has beaten but innocent. He’s bleeding. He’s in stocks. He thinks he’s going to be killed for his faith, and he’s singing. I wonder if he was singing, “I’m so glad I have a Bible.” I don’t know what he was singing. Look at this. He had something. “…and the prisoners heard them [26] And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.”

So the jailer, he heard Paul and Silas singing and praying, but he didn’t want to get saved yet. Not until God picked up the prison and shook it. You know, sometimes God has to get a person’s attention before they ever become a Christian. He’s got to shake things up. Sometimes it’s a death. Sometimes it’s a broken marriage. Sometimes it’s a wayward child. Sometimes it’s an arrest. Sometimes it’s a bankruptcy. Sometimes it’s a doctor’s phone call. Sometimes, it’s a medical exam. And all of a sudden God’s got our attention. You ever been there?