Sugar Land Bible Church

Dr. Andy Woods: I'm going to take the clock literally tonight, at least the start. Let's take our Bibles this evening and open them to the Book of Acts, Chapter 16 and verse 32. The outline for the Book of Acts is in Acts 1:8, and this slide may be a little more helpful to you because we've got the chapter divisions embedded in there.

Jesus said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem," that's Acts 1 through 7, "and in Judea and Samaria," that's chapters 8 through 12, "and then to the remote parts of the earth," that's chapters 13 through 28. So the Book of Acts has a nice three-part structure, and we are in part three.

Part three involves missionary journey number one, Acts 13 and 14. It involves the Jerusalem Council, chapter 15, where they were trying to figure out what to do with all of these Gentiles that are now believers. Do they have to go under the law of Moses to be part of the church? Answer: no. And that leads to missionary journey number two, end of chapter 15, midway through Acts 18. So there's missionary journey two, that's where Paul went.

It begins with a split between Paul and Barnabas that we talked about at the end of chapter 15, and then the focus is on the ministry in Syria and Cilicia. First five verses of chapter 16, the Macedonian man who waved Paul into Europe. And then Paul's first major city that he stops at is Philippi, and so that's where we are in the middle of studying the Philippian ministry, chapter 16, verses 11 through 40.

Some major things have happened. Lydia has been converted, verses 11 through 15. A demonized slave girl has had a demon cast out of her, verses 16 through 18, which upset the owners because the demon inside the slave girl gave her the ability to predict the future. So with the demon removed, her powers were gone, and the owner of the slave girl didn't like that. So they had Paul and Silas cast into prison.

They're beaten with rods, cast into prison, verses 19 through 24, but that was the plan and providence of God because now we're going to have another major conversion in Philippi, the Philippian jailer. So it's midnight, there's an earthquake. The prisoners could all get out because God caused an earthquake, opening the prison doors and releasing the shackles. The jailer's ready to kill himself, verse 27, because if you let prisoners go on your watch, your life was on the line.

Verse 28, Paul says, "Don't kill yourself, we're all here and accounted for." You have the jailer's reaction, verses 29 and 30. He falls into fear, and it's at that point that he asks the most important question a human being can ask: "What must I do to be saved?" And so Paul and Silas give him the gospel, chapter 16, verse 31. You should take that verse and probably commit it to memory.

"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" verse 30. Here comes the presentation of the gospel: "They said, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.'" So you notice that Paul and Silas did not tell the Philippian jailer to tell God you're sorry. They didn't tell the Philippian jailer to repent of all of your sins. They didn't tell the Philippian jailer to invite Jesus into your heart. They did not tell the Philippian jailer to invite Jesus to take over.

They did not tell the Philippian jailer to confess Jesus before man. They did not tell the Philippian jailer to walk an aisle. They did not tell the Philippian jailer to fill out a card. Which ones am I forgetting here? They didn't tell him anything that you typically hear today in modern-day Christendom concerning how the gospel is presented. They didn't give him the ABC method: number one, admit you're a sinner; number two, believe in Jesus; number three, call on the Lord or, some say, confess the Lord.

They didn't tell him anything like that. What they told him to do is the one verb that the lost human being is responsible for fulfilling in order to be made right with God, which is to believe, period. Trust in what Jesus did for you on the cross through his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Trust in that and that alone for the safekeeping of your soul, the forgiveness of sins, eternal life. And if you do that, then you're saved.

Why is it so, and by the way, the Bible tells people to do this 160 times. Why the big struggle then? Why does everybody get confused about this? Well, it relates to the good old-fashioned pride of man that always wants to do something to curry God's favor. This is why the gospel is called an offense, Galatians 5:11. There's absolutely nothing you can do to curry God's favor.

In fact, Isaiah 64:6 tells us that our righteous deeds, notice our righteous deeds, not our unrighteous deeds, our righteous deeds are before him a filthy garment or rag. God is not interested in accepting people before him on the basis of their righteous deeds. And that's an offense to man and his pride because he always wants to do something to earn something from God. Religion says God did 90%, let me do 10%. God, you bought lunch, let me leave the tip. Let me do something.

And God says no. They came to Jesus in John 6, verses 28 and 29, and they said, "What must we do to do the works of God?" In other words, what do we have to do to please God? And Jesus says, "This is the work, that you believe in the one that he has sent." Prideful man doesn't like to hear that because prideful man always wants to take credit for something. And so this is why the gospel is designed to be an attack on human pride.

God designed it this way. This is why first-century Israel, Romans 9, Romans 10, tripped right over Christ. They tried to get to God through self-righteousness, and God does not allow people to come before him through self-righteousness. He allows people to come before him through imputed or transferred righteousness, alien righteousness, righteousness that is not your own, righteousness that is transferred to you as a gift at the point of faith alone in Christ alone.

And if a person doesn't want to come that way, then they can't come, doesn't matter how upset they get. If you don't like it, you can go sit in the corner with Cain who ended up murdering his brother because Cain had sort of a Frank Sinatra approach to religion, I did it my way, and God doesn't allow that. You do it his way, which means he did everything and you receive it as a gift, or you can't come.

So it's just a staggering, stunning thing how something so easy gets so messed up in God's church by so many people that you think would know better. And I'm just trying to give you an explanation as to why this whole issue on the simplicity of the gospel, the clarity of the gospel, is always a tug-of-war once you get into the apologetics of trying to defend the pure gospel. But you have there in verse 31 a beautiful summation of the purity of the gospel.

There's only one verb that has to be met for the lost person to be saved, and that's faith alone in Christ alone. No emotion, no feeling bad about yourself. Now, if you want to feel bad about yourself, you're free to do that, but that's not required. No filling out a card, no raising a hand. I mean, he doesn't even tell him to close his eyes and pray a prayer. "Okay, with every eye closed, if you believe this or that, then pray this prayer, and if you really mean it, I need to see a show of hands. I see that hand back there. I see that hand back there."

Nothing like that here at all. It's just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. So do I have to keep beating this horse? I don't know if I do with you guys, but other people could use a little talking to, but I'll keep my mouth shut best I can. Maybe I shouldn't keep my mouth shut, but you're in a church that's a free-grace church. There are no conditions to be made right with God.

Now, when he calls you into discipleship as a Christian, that's different. That's where the conditions come in, but we're not dealing with that right here. We're dealing with one-on-one evangelism related to what unbelievers have to do, which is to believe. So this is what this Philippian jailer does, and what happens after that is his—well, what does it mean here? "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household." What does that even mean?

Verse 32 tells us. It says they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. So it's not a situation where he believed, so everyone else in his family is automatically a Christian. That's not the context of this. The context of it is he got saved, and then he and they, Paul and Silas, shared the gospel with everyone else in his house. They also believed and got saved. God has no grandchildren, right? You can't get into heaven on the basis of what your parents believed. Everyone has to have their own faith.

So that household evangelism there happens in verse 32, which helps us explain the clause at the end of verse 31, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved, you and your household." And then you go to verses 33 through 34, and you see the results of this salvation. I mean, what was the byproduct of this man, this Philippian jailer, getting saved? We don't teach this concept here that if you're really a Christian, we need to see good works.

A lot of churches teach that. We don't teach that because I could show you in the Bible people that are in heaven with zero good works as far as I can tell. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 15, is a case in point, where a guy stands before the Lord and he's unrewarded, but he is saved as though by fire. He is saved as one escaping through the flames, meaning his entire life was wood, hay, and stubble as a Christian, and he really had no good works at all to show for his faith, but he's still in heaven.

Does God want good works to follow salvation? Of course he does, but we don't teach it as some kind of automatic thing. And then we turn ourselves into sort of fruit inspectors, seeing if so-and-so has enough good works to prove they're a Christian, because in our belief system, coming from 1 Corinthians 3, verse 15, and many other passages, there are examples of people in heaven that have no good works to show for it whatsoever.

Good works after you get saved determine rewards. The only thing that determines whether you get into heaven is the good work Jesus did for you and your willingness to receive it as a free gift. But in this case, and it's not true in every case, but in this case, some good works immediately showed up in this Philippian jailer's life. And those are described in verses 33 through 34. There were four things he did.

Number one, he treated the wounds of Paul and Silas. Verse 33, he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and his household. So why did Paul and Silas need their wounds washed? Because they had just been flogged and they had been beaten very severely. Remember earlier, their garments were taken off them so the blows could be inflicted in a more serious, intense manner.

So here they are in this condition, they've been in the stocks, they've spent an entire night, most of the night, in jail. And now, I guess, this Philippian jailer has remorse on them and what he did, I guess. And so he washes their wounds. This reminds me of the story of the Good Samaritan, remember that one? Luke 10, verse 34. It says of the Good Samaritan, he came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, and he put them on his own beast and brought them to an inn and took care of him.

So the Good Samaritan is extolled for that, and that's what the Philippian jailer is doing here with Paul and Silas. What's the second thing that this Philippian jailer does as he gets baptized? End of verse 33, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. So you'll notice a pattern in the Book of Acts. Every single time baptism occurs, and when we talk about baptism, we talk about immersion in water, every time baptism occurs, it occurs after a person has believed or trusted in Christ.

It never comes before. There are no examples anywhere in the Bible of an infant being baptized. As we like to say here, we will baptize any infant that can come forward and give us their testimony on how they got saved. If you can do that, then we'll baptize an infant, which rules out the infants because they can't talk yet. They can sure cry a lot, though. But we baptize people who are already believers in the Lord Jesus Christ because baptism is an outward symbol of an inward reality.

Baptism has no power to do anything. The only thing that has the power is Jesus, who saves at the point of faith alone in Christ alone. Then why get baptized? Because it's a symbol for what one has already done. Well, what if a person never gets baptized? Do they go to hell? No, they don't. Thief on the cross. Jesus was nailed between the two thieves. One was penitent, in other words, trusted in Christ at the last moment of his life, and Jesus didn't say, "Throw water on this guy before he dies so he can go to heaven."

I mean, obviously that didn't happen, and there's not a lot you can do when your hands and feet are nailed to a cross. You can't get down, get baptized, and all these kinds of things. So baptism is a step of obedience, it's a step of growth, it's a step towards full rewards at the Bema seat judgment of Christ, but it does absolutely nothing in terms of salvation. It symbolizes salvation that has already transpired.

So here are some verses in the Book of Acts, some of these I've given you before, which very clearly show you this order. Matthew 28, verse 19, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit." So you see the making of the disciple comes first, and it's presumed that you can't disciple someone that's not a believer. Baptism is mentioned second.

The Acts Chapter 8, verse 12, the Samaritans that believed. It says, "But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, men and women alike." So in Acts 8:12, you'll see the word "believe" first and the word "baptize" second. Later on in that same chapter, the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. It says in Acts 8:37, "And he answered and said, 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.'"

And then when you drop down to verse 38, it says he ordered the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. So "believe," verse 37; "baptize," verse 38. Baptism comes after believing. No infants being baptized here anywhere in any of these passages. Acts 10, verses 42 through 45, the conversion of Cornelius. It says in verse 43, "Of him all the prophets bear witness that through his name everyone who believes in him receives the forgiveness of his sins."

Verse 44 says, "While still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on those who were listening to the message." So they also believed, they received the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. And then later on in the paragraph, verse 47, it says, "Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who received the Holy Spirit as we did." Verse 48 of Acts 10, he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

So here's the same order: "believe," Acts 10, verse 43; "baptism," Acts 10, verse 48. You baptize people that have already believed. The conversion of Lydia, which we studied earlier in this chapter. Acts 16, verses 14 and 15. It says, "A woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening, and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul." How did she respond? She believed.

Verse 15 says, "And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us saying, 'If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay,' and she prevailed upon us." So notice she responded, verse 14, and then she was baptized, verse 15. And then our passage that we're looking at here, verse 31 of Acts 16, "They said, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.'" And then down in verse 33, it says, "And immediately he was baptized, he and his household."

So "believe," verse 31; "baptize," verse 33. Acts 18, verse 8, which we haven't studied yet. "Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized." So notice "believe," "believing" is mentioned first; "baptism" is mentioned second. And in spite of the clarity of this, my wife and I were at a conference recently, I can't remember if it's the one we just came back from or—I think it's the one we just came back from.

Where someone came up to our table and gave us a big, thick packet of information trying to get across the point that you have to be baptized to get to heaven. So obviously you're going to need a big packet of information to erase the simplicity of the scripture, right? So drown people in quotes and footnotes and confusing language to explain away something that the Bible clearly teaches.

So my wife said, "You don't even need to read this," and it went right into the circular file, shall we say, which is another way of saying the trash can, because I just don't have any time, I hardly have enough time as it is to read a bunch of nonsensical false doctrine. I mean, if you're that convinced you got to be baptized to go to heaven and you won't listen to the counsel of God's Word, then there's really not a lot I can do for you.

You can email me and you can send me voicemails and you could send me packets of information and you can text me and you can do all kinds of things. But if you won't listen to the Bible, I just don't have anything else I can do for you. Have a nice day. I think that's kind of what the Lord was talking about, I think it's in Matthew 10, where he says if you go into a village and they won't receive you, then you just, at some point, you have to shake the dust off your feet and move on.

And there are people that will sit on social media all day long and argue and banter, and I used to get sucked into that. I don't get sucked into it anymore. Part of the reason I left all of that is because I was all heated up one day fighting with people on the internet, and the Holy Spirit says to me, or impressed upon me, all this energy you're pouring into this, how many converts do you have? And I had to think to myself, I don't have a single one.

You know why there was no converts? Because these types of arguments, they create strife and they create pride. If someone is teachable and humble and really wants to know the truth, I for one will do anything I can to help them. But there are people out there that are not interested in truth, they're interested in winning an argument. There's a big difference between pursuing truth and pursuing victory.

And if a person is just interested in pursuing victory and they won't listen to the Bible, why in the world would they listen to me? And therefore it's a waste of my energy to be in constant conflict with them. I could take all that energy that it takes to do that and I could pour it into productive pursuits. So sometimes you have to unlike, unfriend, screen, block, all those little gizmos they give you, or else the devil will get you sidetracked into something that God doesn't want you to do.

So what happened with the Philippian jailer? He got baptized after he believed. What else did he do? He showed hospitality. Acts 16, verse 34, "And he brought them into his house," this is Paul and Silas that had been abused, "He brought them into his house and set food before them and rejoiced greatly, having believed in God with his whole house."

So you remember Lydia did that also when she got saved. Acts 16, verse 15, here's what she said: "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay," and she prevailed upon us. Us being Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke. And here the Philippian jailer is doing the same thing. Come into my house, which is basic Christian hospitality, which is something that we as Christians should be involved in. We should be hospitable people.

Hebrews 13, verse 2, says, "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without even knowing it." It's an interesting verse. You could be hospitable to somebody and find out in hindsight that it was an angel. I don't think you have to be hospitable to the devils, by the way. People that are there to hurt or maim or injure. So you obviously use discernment, but basic hospitality is part of the Christian's walk. One of the gifts that the Holy Spirit has placed into the body of Christ is the gift of hospitality. You'll see it mentioned there in the various gift lists.

So that's what this Philippian jailer does, and then they enjoy basic fellowship together, and rejoiced greatly, not a little but greatly, having believed in God with his whole household. So there's this commonality of believers and they're rejoicing together. And you'll notice that that verse along with verse 32 helps explain verse 31, "You will be saved, you and your household." So it's not dealing with, as many people teach, automatic salvation into the home of somebody just because they became a Christian.

But his household got saved because he was the leader in the Greco-Roman world. The father had a great deal of authority and everybody else said, you know what, if the father can believe, that takes any hindrance away from us believing, so we believe too. So it's very clear here, it says having believed in God with his whole household. So there are no grandchildren here. There are only spiritual children, and so they're fellowshipping together. They're rejoicing together.

Hebrews 10, verse 25, says, "Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near." So this idea of Lone Ranger Christianity, I don't need the body of Christ, I can worship God under this tree and I've got my Bible and I'm just fine. Well, that's not how the Christian life is designed to be lived. We need to be in fellowship with each other, preferably in fellowship in a local assembly.

And when I say that, I get a lot of emails from people saying we can't find a church. And I guess my response is, well, start one. Start a church. If you can't find one, start one. And don't even call it a church, call it a Bible study. And we put all of our material on the internet, you're free to use our stuff as you see fit until you see fit for someone else in your group to start teaching.

But be around other Christians at some point during the week. Mid-week, preferably Sunday, the Lord's Day, and be in fellowship with each other because God has designed the Christian life to be lived in community. The truth of the matter is I have gifts that you need, and you have gifts that I need, and we're all gifted differently. I need you, you need me, which is a different perspective on conflicts with Christians.

It's hard to be in conflict with a Christian when you need them and they need you for growth. See, God has done a really sneaky thing on us. He's made us interdependent on each other, which means whatever differences we have, we just need to work them out because we need each other in the body of Christ. This Lone Ranger mentality is outside of the New Testament norm.

So we encourage people to be in fellowship. Obviously, what it looks from person to person differs, but there is a biblical maxim that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as is the habit of some. So these are the results of this Philippian jailer's conversion. He treated the wounds of Paul and Silas, he got baptized, he started showing basic Christian hospitality, and as his household was in faith, they were rejoicing together, meaning they were worshipping together.

And then you come now to the end of this chapter, verses 35 through 40, which is the last part of the Philippian ministry where Paul and Silas depart and head off to Thessalonica. But this departure is very interesting how these guys left Philippi. It started with a decision from the rulers, verses 35 and 36. You have the timing of the decision and the jailer's report.

So notice, if you will, verse 35. "Now when day came," and compare that to verse 25 where they were singing praises to the Lord at night in prison having been beaten and fastened in the stocks and in the internal room of the prison. This miracle occurred where the earthquake transpired and the doors were opened, but that happened at midnight, verse 25. Now full, I guess—well, if that happened at midnight and daybreak is what, 6:00 a.m. let's say, a full six hours had elapsed.

So the timing is given, verse 35, and that leads to the jailer's report. The jailer reports something to Paul and Silas. It says the jailer, this the man who had just been saved, reported these words to Paul saying the chief magistrates, that would be like the city council, have sent to release you. Therefore come out now and go in peace. So apparently they, these decision-makers, reached a ruling that, you know what, we shouldn't have jailed these guys and we shouldn't have flogged these guys.

So let's really—what's going on here, let's get them out of here as fast as we can. And the jailer was probably relieved that that was the ruling of the city council, and so he relays that to Paul and Silas. But watch Paul's response here. Look at Paul's defense, verse 37. Paul said to them, "They have beaten us in public without a trial, we men who are Roman citizens and have thrown us into prison, and now they are sending us away secretly? No indeed."

I would encourage you to underline those two words: "No indeed. But let them come themselves and bring us out." Now, why is Paul saying this? Why doesn't he just leave town? Arnold Fruchtenbaum gives this explanation: what had been done to them was illegal by Roman law. In fact, it violated two specific sets of laws. The first one is called Lex Valeria, which was passed in the year 509 B.C.

The second set of laws was called Leges Porciae, issued between 24 B.C. and 195 B.C. These laws exempted Roman citizens from shameful forms of punishment such as whipping, beating, or crucifixion. They also guaranteed that Roman citizens had the right to appeal to the tribunes of the plebs. In his speeches against the corrupt governor Verres, Cicero wrote, quote, "To fetter a Roman citizen was a crime, to scourge him was a scandal, and to slay him was parricide," close quote.

It was a crime to inflict blows on Roman citizens, and the law protected a Roman citizen from scourging for any reason whatsoever. At the same time, it was a capital offense to make a false claim of Roman citizenship. So if you're not a Roman citizen and you say I am a Roman citizen, then that was a capital offense, but it was also a capital offense to be treated as Paul and Silas had been treated without any trial whatsoever.

And in fact, scourging them and all these kinds of things went against two sets of Roman laws which had been passed much earlier in time. So that's why Paul says we're not leaving right now. It's kind of this idea that you beat us in public, remember verse 22, the crowd rose up together against them and the chief magistrates tore the robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods.

So you did that in broad daylight and you want to cause us to leave town privately? No, it's not going to work that way. In fact, you're violating my rights as a Roman citizen. So you notice that Paul used his rights as a Roman citizen to advance the cause of the gospel. And at this conference we were just at, I had a chance to meet two attorneys from California originally that had migrated to Idaho, I think if I've got it right.

And both of them were younger, and so I encouraged them in their chosen profession because we need Christian attorneys out there to understand the rights that we as American citizens have, and we have a ton of them. And we need to be skilled enough to use those rights, whether it's freedom of speech or whatever, to advance the cause of the gospel. And that's what Paul is doing here.

Now, something else I want you to see is Paul did not have a philosophy of you obey the government no matter what they tell you to do, because he said "No indeed." And this was a big deal when COVID hit. Shut down the churches, six feet apart, the casino can stay open because the virus is really smart, right? It knows how to work in a church but not in a casino. Put your mask on, keep your mouth shut, and for Thanksgiving or Christmas, we're going to cap how many people you can have in your house.

And once churches started opening up, then there were regulations on if you could sing. Did you know that? Can you sing? How loud can you sing? Suddenly the government is an authority on hymnology in the body of Christ. And so you wouldn't believe the number of churches that just rolled over and played dead and quoted Romans 13, verses 1 through 7. And you know those verses.

Paul says submit to authority. Romans 13:3 through 5, I would encourage you to read all of this paragraph, but just a few verses: "For rulers are not a cause for fear of good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same. For government is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for it government does not bear the sword for nothing. For government is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil."

And that's why a little earlier in that paragraph, Paul says every person is to be in subjection to the governmental authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. So the government says something, you just roll over and play dead, right? Many, many churches took that view during COVID.

I was on quite a number of Zoom-type calls with other pastors, and I couldn't believe the number of pastors quoting Romans 13 saying everything the government tells us to do during COVID, we have to do. Romans 13 says it. And I would try to interject in these calls, well, what about Acts 16? I mean, how come nobody's quoting Acts 16, verse 37, where Paul says to the authorities when they're trying to rush him out of town, "No indeed"?

I mean, the same guy that wrote Romans 13, verses 1 through 7, is also the same guy that told the authorities "no" in Acts 16, verse 37. So when you're putting your doctrine of civil disobedience together, you can't just look at one verse or set of verses. You've got to look at everything that the scripture has to say on the topic.

And during that time period, everyone was quoting Peter: "Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every institution, whether to a king as the one in authority or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right." I mean, Andy Stanley, Joel Osteen, all of these kind of woke pastors during that era were saying the government has said we can't meet as a church, so we can't meet.

And they all of a sudden started quoting the Bible. Romans 13, verses 1 through 7; 1 Peter 2, verses 13 and 14. And when I was on some of those calls, I said, well, what about Acts 5, verse 29? You want to know what Peter did? The guy who wrote this, you want to know what he did in Acts 5, verse 29, when they were told not to preach anymore in Jesus' name? "But Peter and the apostles answered," so it wasn't just Peter, it was the rest of the apostles relative to the Sanhedrin's ruling, "We must obey God rather than man."

So if you want to quote to me 1 Peter 2, fine, but you ought to throw into the mix Acts 5:29 also so we can get a complete picture here. You want to quote to me Romans 13, verses 1 through 7, that's fine, but I think we need to throw into the mix Acts 16, verse 37, to get a complete picture on this subject of civil disobedience. And I do not think, I didn't think then and I don't think now, that the biblical position is you just roll over and play dead no matter what the state tells you to do.

Why would I say that? Because we have a book in the Bible called the Book of Daniel that was written while the nation was 350 miles to the east in a place called Babylon, modern-day Iraq, under the Babylonian captivity, where they had to function under Gentile powers. The Book of Daniel, I think Don we were just talking about this earlier, is organized chiastically. We were just chatting about that, where the information in chapter 2 is repeated in chapter 7, the information in chapter 3 thematically is repeated in chapter 6, and the information in chapter 4 is repeated thematically in chapter 5.

So chapter 3 and chapter 6 go together. And what do chapter 3 and chapter 6 have in common? They have in common the subject of civil disobedience, where God's servants in Babylon, outside the land of Israel, told the state no. The first one is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were cast into the fiery furnace because they told Nebuchadnezzar, "We're not going to bow down and worship your image."

And then chapter 6 is Daniel and the lions' den, where the Persian government passed a law saying no more public prayer, and Daniel went out and prayed anyway with his windows open, faced towards Jerusalem, as was his habit, as was his custom. So chapter 3 and chapter 6, you've got four of God's choicest servants, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, their Hebrew names Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and then chapter 6 Daniel, whose pagan name had been changed to Belteshazzar, told the state no and they disobeyed what the state said.

So therefore you look at a book like that and you say, you know what, the biblical position is not submit to the government no matter what it tells you to do. Paul didn't, and he wrote Romans 13. Peter didn't, and he wrote 1 Peter 2. So what I have here are four principles when I think civil disobedience is appropriate. Number one, there must be a clear conflict between the laws of man and the laws of God. For me, when the state says don't meet as a church, you're telling me to violate Hebrews 10, verse 25.

Number two, you should exhaust all creative legal remedies, meaning civil disobedience is not a first resort, it's a last resort when you've tried your best to cooperate with the authorities that exist. Number three, when someone engages in civil disobedience, they have to be willing to pay the price, which can involve severe fines, penalty, jail time. That's what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said as they were about to get cast into the furnace. They said in Daniel 3, verse 17, "God is able to protect us in the fiery furnace," but verse 18 says, "But even if he doesn't, let it be known to you, O King, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

So God can protect us from being burned to death, but he might not. So we're willing to pay the price. And then number four, as civil disobedience is engaged, then you always maintain respect for civil authorities. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego never got nasty, never got into name-calling with the authorities. They kept referring to Nebuchadnezzar respectfully as "O King."

So in my view, when these four elements are met, then civil disobedience becomes appropriate. And Paul here is involved in civil disobedience. Hey, get out of here. No, we're not going to leave. You come in here and you take us out publicly because it's not right that you violated our rights as Roman citizens and we want everybody in Philippi to know it.

And number two, it's not right that you give us a public beating in violation of our rights, but you want to dismiss us privately. So Paul, in verse 37, is tipping his hand for the first time in the Book of Acts to a strategy that he will use all the way until the end of the Book of Acts to get to Rome. He will keep insisting on a right called a trial before Caesar, which he as a Roman citizen had a right to.

And he'll keep using that, particularly on the fourth journey that I call it, Acts 27 and 28. A lot of people say that's not a missionary journey because he was in chains. No, it was a missionary journey because he knew exactly what he was doing. God told him to preach the gospel in Rome. Paul says, here's how I'm going to get the gospel to Rome. I'm going to keep insisting on a trial before Caesar.

Caesar is in Rome, and I'll keep insisting and insisting and insisting and insisting and insisting on it until the gospel makes it to Rome. Because when you get into that section, there are many opportunities for Paul to be tried, receive his trial early, he keeps saying no. I want a trial before Caesar. And that's a legal maneuver that he used to get the gospel to Rome. So he used his rights as a Roman citizen to advance the cause of the gospel, and that's what we as Americans need to be more skilled at doing. Our example is none other than Paul.

So the magistrates and the police get out of dodge, get out of Philippi, Paul says, "No, you come and pull us out because I want this to be public, civil disobedience." And notice the response of the leadership at Philippi, verses 38 and 39. They fall into fear. Verse 38, "The policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens."

So they understood that, you know what, we've flogged these guys illegally and we've jailed these guys illegally, and now what we have done is about to become public, and we're afraid. That's why they're fearful. Arnold Fruchtenbaum says verses 38 and 39 reveal the response of the leaders. The sergeants gave the report to the rulers with the result that the magistrates feared when they had heard that they were Romans.

They became afraid because now their own lives were at stake for what they had done to two Roman citizens. Apparently, Emperor Claudius once deprived the city of Rhodes of its freedom for having crucified a Roman citizen. So the magistrates' fear here in Philippi was indeed justified. And what's their second response? They kind of give these guys an escort and keep encouraging them to leave.

Verse 39, it says, "They came and appealed to them, and when they had brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city." So apparently they did what Paul asked, make it public. They did. It was now known that they had violated the legal rights of Paul and Silas. So Paul leaves, and his departure is recorded in verse 40. "They went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed."

Now do you see the switch from "us" and "we" to "they"? Look back at verse 17, "following after Paul and us." Look back at verse 11, "So putting out to sea from Troas, we..." Well, here in verse 40, it doesn't say "us" and "we" anymore. It says "they." So what just happened? Well, we left a "we" section. There are in the Book of Acts about three "we" sections: Acts 16, verses 10 through 40; Acts 20, verse 5 through chapter 21, verse 18; Acts 27, verse 1 through almost the end of the book, Acts 28, verse 16.

What is a "we" section? A "we" section is when Luke, the author, joins the group. So apparently Luke was with Paul, Silas, and Timothy in Philippi, but now Luke is left behind as Paul, Silas, and Timothy leave Philippi. And so that "we" section ended and won't start up again with another "we" section until we hit Acts 20, verses 5 and 6, which will say, "But these had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas." Acts 20, verse 6, "We sailed from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and then came to Troas within five days and there we stayed with them seven days."

So that's the significance of the switch from "we" or "us" to "they" or "them." So what just happened? Luke broke away from the party and stayed behind in Philippi. So what was Luke doing in Philippi while the other three kept moving to Thessalonica? Well, he probably went to Lydia's home where the believers were gathered and ministered to them. And so what you see developing here is the beginning of the church of Philippi.

I mean, Paul, 10 years later from Rome, is going to write a letter to the church at Philippi. Where in the world did the church of Philippi come from? It came from the conversion of Lydia and those within her household, verse 15. And it came from the conversion of the Philippian jailer because he believed, shared the gospel with his family and household, and they got saved. And so that's where the church—that's how the church at Philadelphia got its start.

And it eventually grew and developed into a church that Paul felt the necessity to address by way of letter from Rome about 10 years later. So that's why there's an emphasis on the brethren. It says they went out of the prison and entered the house and when they saw the brethren. Where do these brethren come from? The jailer and his household's conversion, Lydia and those associated with her, their conversion.

And so these tremendous examples of evangelism that we see in this chapter gave birth to the church at Philippi. So Luke, because the "we" section ends, apparently stayed with that group to be their pastor. And then Paul, Silas, and Timothy kept moving to Thessalonica. So that takes us to the end of the Philippian ministry. We've seen the conversion of Lydia, the casting out of a demon out of a slave girl, the imprisonment of Paul and Silas leading to the Philippian jailer's conversion, and then the departure of not Luke, but Paul, Silas, and Timothy for Thessalonica.

So next week, can you do me a favor? Can you read Acts 17? You'll get more out of this if you read it ahead of time because now we're going to move into the ministry at Thessalonica, chapter 17, verses 1 through 9; then the ministry at Berea, verses 10 through 15 of the next chapter, 17; and then Mars Hill in Athens, verse 16 through the end of the chapter.

So let's pray. Father, we're grateful for your truth and the simplicity of the gospel. Help us to put these things together so that we can be better servants of yours in these last days. We'll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name. God's people said, "Amen." God bless you guys, we'll see you Sunday.