The Word Made Plain

Guest (Female): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the Book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 16 verses 25 through 27.

Tony Clark: All right, let's dive into the Word of God. Turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 16. We're going to be looking at verses 25 to 27 as we continue to go verse by verse and chapter by chapter through the Book of Acts on Sunday mornings. As you know, we're in 1st Samuel on Wednesdays and just going through the Word of God. Looking forward to studying and hearing all that God has for us today.

Father, thank you that you personally invited each and every one of us to be here today. We pray that your Spirit would speak into our hearts. We pray that we would have ears to hear your voice. We pray that we would have a mind to understand and a will to obey what you have to say to us today. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Acts 16, looking at verses 25 to 27. The title of this message is "Surviving the Midnight Hour." This is part one of this message. Midnight can be looked upon as the darkest time of the day, or it can be looked upon as the beginning of a new day, depending upon your perspective.

Most people look at the midnight hour as a dark time, a lonely time. What are we to do when we find ourselves in the midnight hour of a trial or a tribulation? I believe that these verses teach us some valuable lessons through the lives of Paul and Silas.

Now, we left off with these men traveling to the city of Philippi. While there, they cast a demon out of a slave girl in verse 18. When her masters saw what was done and they could no longer exploit her for money, they made a citizen's arrest and took them to the authorities in verse 19, who tore off their clothes and beat them with rods and had the jailer put them in maximum security and fastened their feet in stocks in verse 24.

Now we pick up the story in verse 25. Look what it says there. "But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God." Stop right there. The conjunction "but" that starts off verse 25 is contrasting the reaction of the crowd from the reaction of Paul and Silas.

The crowd beat them with rods and threw them in prison. Now we're going to see the reaction of Paul and Silas as they responded by praying and singing hymns to God. This is a strange reaction to have when everything within you wants to get revenge.

However, this is how we should respond when we are in the midnight hour of life: with prayer and worship. Now, here's an amazing thing here. God sent them here to the city of Philippi in Acts 16 and verses 9 and 10. So why would God send them here to preach when he knew that this would happen to them? Oh, don't miss this. True faith in Jesus Christ must be tested.

Guest (Male): First Peter 1 and verse 7 says, "Knowing that the testing of your faith, being much more precious than gold, though it be tried by fire, may come out to be the praise and the honor and the glory of Jesus Christ." The question is, can we still trust God in the midnight hour?

Tony Clark: It reminds me of Matthew chapter 14 and verses 22 to 33, when the Lord sent his disciples away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. He sent them right in the middle of a storm. Why? Because can we still trust God when we're in the midst of a storm? Or is our faith only real in the good times?

Second Corinthians 5:7 says, "For we walk by faith and not by sight." The question is, do we always have to see it to believe it? Or can we still walk with God when you cannot see it, when it is dark, when it is stormy in your life? Can you pass this test? Paul and Silas did.

They were unjustly beaten with rods and put in maximum security, all for preaching the gospel. But what did they do? They prayed and sang hymns to God. What about you? What about me? They didn't moan, they didn't whine, they didn't blame God, nor give up on Christianity, nor come into church.

They prayed and sung hymns to God. Paul would later write to the church that was established here in the city of Philippi. He would later write in Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice." Rejoicing is not only when there are good times. Can you rejoice like Paul and Silas in prison in the midnight hour?

Look at the next phrase which is so key. The last part of verse 25 says, "and the prisoners were listening to them." This is a tremendous statement. The Greek word for listening is *epēkroōnto*, and it means to listen intently.

This is a strong reminder to us as believers that the world around us is watching and listening intently to us when we suffer and go through difficult times. It goes in one ear and out the other when we talk about the blessings of the Lord. They want to see how you handle difficult times and go through hardships.

What will come out of your mouth when you are in the midnight hour? Will you moan? Will you blame God? Will you curse God and Christianity? Will you remain silent? Will you remain silent because you no longer have the blessings of the Lord to talk about?

The world around us is definitely interested in Christianity when they see us praying and singing hymns in the midnight hour of our lives. When they see us praising God in the storm. Pastors around the country don't want to talk to me about the good things God has done and is doing at our church.

They want to talk to me about how I survived the midnight hour of ministry. How I prayed and sung hymns in the midst of the dark times I experienced. That's when my phone is ringing off the hook, so to speak. That is what they are listening for.

The same is true in your life. The world doesn't care about God's favor upon your life, his blessings upon you, nor his goodness in your life, nor you're too blessed to be stressed. They can care less for your little jingles and your little Christian little rhyming and rhymes. They want to watch and listen to what you're saying in the midnight hour.

This is what they, the other prisoners, were doing with Paul and Silas. Let me just pause and say this. Music is a powerful tool to have when you're going through dark times. Music can cause us to do two things. Number one: uncover insensuality, like the Israelites did as they danced and uncovered themselves around the golden calf in Exodus chapter 32 in rebellion to God.

You can testify to this. If you notice all of the sex scenes, all of the romantic scenes in movies and TVs and shows, they all have some nice little music, the music going some jazzy little thing. You've seen it in your own life when you're about to be in a romantic situation. "Oh, let me put on some soft music."

It is the same. Music will cause us to, number one, uncover ourselves in sensuality. Or music can cause us, number two, to uncover in worship, like David did in Second Samuel chapter 6, when he uncovered himself as he danced before the Lord.

What David was saying when he uncovered himself is, "Lord, I want to worship you unhindered, undignified. Lord, I don't want to try to hide behind anything in my worship of you. My life is naked and open before you, Lord," just like it says in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 13.

It says, "And there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open before the eyes of him we must give an account." And this is why David uncovered himself before the Lord. I have to ask you, what are you trying to hide behind so that no one will know the real you?

Worship exposes us before an all-seeing God. You can come late to miss worship, but you can't continue to hide from an all-seeing God. We can't hide anything from him. This is why David said in Psalm 19 and verse 12, "Lord, cleanse me from secret faults." In other words, "Lord, cleanse me from those things I'm trying to hide from people. You see them, Lord, anyways. You see them. So cleanse me."

When we try to hide something, some sin, some transgression, it hinders our worship of God. We have to understand that. David didn't want anything to hinder him from worshipping his God. When we have something to hide, we start to come to church later and later and later, to the point where we stop coming altogether.

Because we're trying to hide. We don't want people to see, and we don't want people to see what we're trying to hide, and we don't want that which we're trying to hide to be exposed. We have to understand the Bible says that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. So God, who is light, when we worship him, he shines the bright light upon those dark areas in our hearts.

So that's why we don't want God to continue to expose us and continue to show those dark areas. So we will come later and later. Why? Because men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. That's what the Bible says.

So we don't want that to be exposed. We don't want that to be seen, because we love our sin more than we love the worship of God. When we hide, worship is always hindered. It's always hindered. Because who wants to go into the light when you're trying to hide in darkness?

And so this is key here. However, you remember what happened when David returned home? His wife Michal... can I just pause here? For the longest, for years, matter of fact, when I talked about this story, all of us pastors and teachers, we said his wife Michal.

But because today saying his wife Michal has different kind of meanings and connotations today, now we've got to pronounce her name properly: Michal. Because if we say Michael, we're thinking something different today. David's wife Michael? So his wife Michal.

She said, "Oh, didn't the king look cute out there parading himself around in front of the young ladies, showing his abs off and his arms? Didn't the king look crazy out there?" And David responded by saying, "What are you talking about? I did this before the Lord. I wanted to worship the Lord unhindered, undignified, free."

The same will be true with us. There will be the Michals in our lives, maybe even those closest to us, like a spouse, that will say to you in the dark hour of your life, "Don't you look foolish reading your Bible, going to church, lifting your hands up and crying and playing praise and worship music at home? Don't you know that things are crashing down all around you?"

Hey, what you need to do is turn that music off and let's go party. Let's drown our sorrows in some alcohol. Let's get high on some drug and float away from our issues. Many people have followed this advice and gone to the bar or to the club, and the music there caused them to uncover themselves, not in worship but in sensuality. And the last state of that person is worse than the beginning when you wake up in some stranger's bed.

What are the results of having a song of worship on our hearts, like Paul and Silas did in the midnight hour? What are the results? Look at verses 26 and 27. It says, "And 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, awakening from sleep, seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself."

In these verses, we see the prayer and worship service was interrupted as God intervened in that jail. Suddenly there was a great earthquake in verse 26. The Greek says *seismos megas*, meaning that it was a massive earthquake. The prison shook and all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed.

So often the people who are connected to us are blessed when God blesses us. They are free when we are freed. And when those who are listening intently at us praying and singing hymns to God in the midnight hour end up being set free by our God... see, this is what makes Christianity attractive is when we can sing and pray in the midnight hour.

When they see God set us free, they end up following in our footsteps and being set free from the prison situation that they find themselves in. The prison of their sin, the prison of alcohol, the prison of some drug, the prison of sex addiction and porn. They end up being set free when we're set free.

And so the massive earthquake obviously woke the keeper of the prison up from his sleep, and he frantically ran and saw that all of the prison doors were opened. According to verse 27, he assumed that the prisoners fled and decided to take his sword and kill himself. Why? Because according to Roman law, if a jailer allowed a prisoner to escape under his watch, it meant the death penalty for him.

And so he decided to kill himself. Let me just pause here and just say this. Maybe you're here and in the midnight hour of your situation, you feel like this jailer. That if the news got out about you, about your daughter, your son, your husband, or even yourself, that you're dead. Your career is dead. Your marriage is dead. Life that you once knew is dead. And so you have been having thoughts of suicide.

You'd be surprised the amount of people that are in here who've had these thoughts and thoughts of suicide. I'm not doubting the whole validity of mental illness. That's a real big thing, real buzz thing today. But I just know the Bible says Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

Any thoughts, any thoughts of suicide are demonic. Any thoughts is demonic. "Well, mental illness, I'm going to send you an article." Save it. You're not going to know where to send it anyways. And even if you did, I'm not going to read it. Save it. I believe it's real. I'm not going to doubt that, especially today. You get stoned and crucified if you say anything negative about it.

But I just know that Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus said, "I came that you might have life, that you might have it more abundantly." Jesus wants to give us life. So if Jesus wants to give us life, who wants to give us death? Old Beelzebub, Satan himself.

So I think all, no matter how you look at it, whether it's mental or whether it's spiritual, it's demonic. It's demonic. God knows the days that we should take upon this earth before we took one of them, Psalm 139 tells us. And I'm here to tell you, if you've been having thoughts, don't do it.

Don't do it. Why? Because right when you think that you're at your wit's end, God will come and shake things up. Send a *seismos megas*, a mega, massive earthquake and open prison doors for you. It's during these times that everyone's chains are about to be loosened around you. This is what happened with Paul and Silas.

Don't listen to those thoughts because Satan wants to take you out. Because he knows the pattern of man. He's not all-knowing. He knows the pattern of man. Do you think he's ignorant of stories like this? He's not ignorant of stories like this.

Right when you think you want to take yourself out, God is about to send a massive earthquake and shake things up in your life. He did it with Paul and Silas. So what happened next? Well, you've got to wait until next week. Because we're ending with this jailer wanting to kill himself. We're going to see whether that took place or not, God willing, next time.

Let me conclude with this. Surviving the midnight hour. We survive by praying and worshipping God, like Paul and Silas did. We choose to worship and pray to God instead of moan and complain about God. Why? Because the world around us is watching and listening to us.

And when God intervenes in the midnight hour of our situation, it will have a way of loosening the chains and opening the prison doors of those around us. And finally, let me just say again, if you're thinking about suicide like this jailer, don't do it.

And on top of that, young people that are in here, don't do it over some girl, over some guy. Some little boy who broke your little heart. Please. Some little boy or some little girl who just hit "unlike" on your post or some silliness like that. Don't do it.

God is about to send a massive earthquake, shake some things up. Be ready for the shakeup. Be ready for the massive earthquake. God's going to shake some things up, shake some people out of your life. Don't be trying to hold on to their leg like some ball and chain. You let those jokers go. Let them go. God is about to do some stuff. Let us be ready.

Father, thank you for your goodness and your mercy, for your grace towards us. Thank you for your great love. Lord, you love us so dearly. We're so thankful for the love you have for us. And dear God, I just want to also just lift up, Lord, lift up those who suffered right down there in Virginia Beach, Lord.

We want to lift them up, God, and just pray that the Gospel of Jesus Christ would just change people's lives. Lord, Satan wants to kill and steal and destroy. You came that you might have life, that we might have it more abundantly.

And God, I pray that the abundant life that Jesus offers will flood not only the 757, but this nation. Lord, we need you, God. Oh, God, we need you. I pray for those who have never repented of their sin and asked Jesus Christ to come into their hearts as their Lord and Savior. Lord, I pray that hearts will be changed today by the power of the Gospel. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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