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 16 through 18.

Tony Clark: Prayer has no boundaries, it has no time, no limit. We can be here in Virginia praying for relatives in California or relatives around the world. I just got news of a horrible bombing that took place not only over in Sri Lanka, but we're talking about a bombing of a synagogue that took place right down the street from one of my friends in San Diego. The community is devastated. One lady died as a result of it. We can be right here in Virginia and those prayers can do great, great good in San Diego County or Sri Lanka.

There's no boundary with prayer. Satan knows he can be defeated in prayer, and this is the place he would try to attack us the most. So don't be ignorant of his devices, like 2nd Corinthians 2:11 says. His devices, that word can be translated as his schemes, his tactics. He has schemes and tactics to get us distracted, to get us to not pray at all.

He will use our spouses, our children, our phones and the myriad of text messages and notifications from a host of social media outlets, anything and anyone that can keep us from praying. Who did Satan use in this case? Well, Luke tells us that it was a certain slave girl who was possessed with a spirit of divination, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.

The first thing that stands out in this part of verse 16 is the social-economic difference in the city of Philippi. She is identified as a slave girl and how she brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This was not unusual in the Greco-Roman Empire because it was estimated that there were at least 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire. However, this certain girl was enslaved because she was possessed with a spirit of divination.

The Greek word for divination is *puthon*, and it means inspiration and soothsaying. It is where we get our English word python or python snake. The Greek language in this particular text really reads like this, that this slave girl was possessed with a python spirit. This derives from Greek mythology in which the python was a snake that guarded the famous oracle of Delphi.

Eventually, the python was killed by Apollo, the god of prophecy. And since it was believed that Apollo spoke through the oracle at Delphi, the term python came to refer to anyone in contact with Apollo. In our day, this girl would be called a witch or a medium in contact with demons.

Now, this slave girl brought her masters much profit because the people in this Roman world wanted to know what the future held for them. It is no different today. People are still reading and consulting the horoscope with palm readers and mediums and fooling around with séances and things like that. It is still bringing masters much profit because this industry is still a multi-billion dollar industry.

I want you to notice the origin, though. It said that this girl was demon-possessed. So Satan is behind this whole industry. Please beware because Satan will attack you in this area to get you to want to know your future instead of trusting God and leaving your future in His hands. Satan will whisper to you to seek these other ways to know your future.

Look at what this slave girl tried to do next. Look at verse 17. This girl followed Paul and us and cried out, saying, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation." Now, Luke tells us that this demon-possessed slave girl followed them around, crying out, "These men are servants of the Most High God."

This is the most dangerous attack Satan uses, and it is described in the old saying: "If you can't beat them, join them." And here is Satan trying to infiltrate the church by putting a weed in the midst of wheat, like Jesus described in Matthew 13 in verses 24 to 30, in the parable of the wheat and the tares.

Tares are weeds that look just like wheat. It's so hard to tell them apart. Even in the parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus is telling the story and he said that someone said, "Hey, do you want us to go and gather up the wheat?" And Jesus said, "No, lest you also uproot the wheat." Showing that weeds and wheat, or tares and wheat, they look so much alike that it's hard to tell them apart.

Here we see some of the characteristics of tares or weeds. They use biblical terminology. This slave girl identified God as the Most High God. This was an Old Testament description of the God of Israel, according to Psalm 78:35 and Daniel 5:18. She also spoke of the way of salvation.

Here is Satan trying to attack or connect himself with Paul and the way of salvation. Now, Satan is speaking the truth because Paul is showing the people in the city of Philippi the way of salvation through Jesus Christ. And Satan will only speak the truth when it will fulfill his own purposes, which was to deceive the people.

For example, Jesus in Matthew 4:6, when Satan quoted the Bible to Jesus, he was trying to tempt him to use his divine power for his selfish purposes. And if you will notice that whenever Jesus used his divine power, it was always for other people and never for himself. So yes, Satan knows the Bible and will use it to fulfill his selfish desires.

We see this constantly with the cults out there today, using the Bible to spread their false religious system. We also see it with those on TV using the Bible to try to support their greedy prosperity doctrine. Paul warned Timothy in his day of such false teachers. He tells him in 1st Timothy 6:5, in very graphic terms, that they were useless wranglings of men of corrupt mind and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain; from such withdraw yourself.

Did the people in this day follow this warning Paul gave to Timothy? No, because Peter tells us in 2nd Peter 2:2-3, he says, "And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. And by covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber."

This is Satan's most effective and devastating blow when he decides to appear as an angel of light and infiltrate the church. Now, what was the problem with this demon-possessed girl saying these things, especially if they were true? Well, the first problem is God does not need Satan to advertise for Him.

And secondly, by her saying this, it would have connected this demon-possessed girl with Paul and his team, which would have led to many people being deceived long after Paul and his team were gone. Thirdly, these masters would have made even more money by exploiting the Christians. Paul knew this.

Look at what happened in verse 18. It says, "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, we see from this verse that she did this for many days. Paul had had enough and became greatly annoyed.

The Greek word for annoyed is *diaporeo*, and it means to be grieved, worried, or to be annoyed. And Paul knew the devastation that could occur if he let this continue. He then turns to the spirit, notice, not to the girl. To the demonic spirit controlling this poor girl, and said, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her."

Paul is only doing what Jesus did. When Satan tried to advertise for Him, Jesus silenced him in Matthew 8:28-34 and Mark 3:11-12. Notice how Paul addressed them only in the authority of Jesus Christ. We see a similar thing in Jude verse 9, when Michael the archangel fought with Satan over the body of Moses, and said, "The Lord rebuke you."

You've heard me say this many times, it is always good and a great idea to have Jesus in between you and Satan. Never ever deceive yourself into thinking that you can take Satan on one-on-one. You cannot. I cringe when I hear churches and folks stomping on the devil's head and folks stomping on the ground, "Stomp on his head," and all kind of "Devil, we rebuke you!" Hey, whoa, whoa.

I want you to notice that Michael the archangel, who is really a contemporary of Satan—don't think God and Satan are contemporaries, they're not. Satan is a created being. God can just say, "Poof," and Satan is no more. Michael the archangel is more of a rival to Satan himself. And even he said, "The Lord rebuke you."

And as Paul is saying here, "I command you in the name of the Lord." There's another occasion we're going to get to in chapter 19. There were seven sons of Sceva who thought that they could take on this demon-possessed man. They said, "We rebuke you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches."

That demon-possessed man looked at them and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who the heck are you?" And that man with those demons in him jumped on them, whooped them up, and chased them down the street naked. You're no match at all for Satan. This is why it's always good to have the Lord in between you.

There's an old saying, when Satan comes and knocks on your door, say Jesus, can you get that for me? That's what you do. Don't think you can just go, "Devil, get out of here!" He'll say, "Paul I know and Jesus I know, but who the heck are you?" and whoop you up and send you down the road naked. That's what will happen, and this is what happened here.

So when Paul did this, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her," what happened next? And he—the demons and angels are depicted as men. Ladies, I know you're called my little angel. There are no female angels. I'm sorry to tell you. I know you think it's cute when your husband or somebody calls you a little angel. "Oh look at you, you're an angel that fell from the sky." Let me tell you something.

Notice it says, "And he came out of her that very hour." The demon came out immediately. However, Jesus told us in Matthew 17:21 that some demons are more difficult to cast out than others. Some will only come out by fasting and praying. Now, when Jesus said this, he's not saying when we come across that which is demonic, we say, "Okay, can you hold it right here? Give me a few days so I can fast and pray, then I'm going to come back and I'm going to deal with you."

No. We as Christians should have a habit of fasting and praying. So when we come across that which is demonic, we'll be ready to deal with it. I love how F.F. Bruce, one scholar, puts it this way, referring to the phrase, "It came out that very hour." He said, "The words had scarcely left his lips when she, the slave girl, was released from its power."

Now, what happened when these masters saw this? Surely they were not too happy. Well, you've got to wait until next time. It's too juicy for me to—it's too juicy, I just can't just keep going. I didn't want to rush over that. So you've got to wait until next time.

Let me conclude with this: The attacks of Satan. We saw how Satan would do all he can to attack us when we decide to pray, either at church or privately. So whenever you sense a fight to come out to prayer at church or privately, do all you can to push through because it is Satan at work.

I understand when we call for a church gathering, church picnic or something, it's standing room only. But when we call for prayer, it's the faithful few. Because Satan knows the power of prayer. If we truly believe that God answers prayer and that we are worshipping and serving the God who created the heavens and the earth, when we call for church prayer, we should have multiple services because we can't get all the people in at one time.

If we truly believe that we're serving the same God that is talked about in Genesis 1:1 that says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," if we truly believe that that's the God that we serve, that when we call for prayer, it would be a line outside waiting to get in because we're about to call upon this God, the one who spoke the universe into existence. We're about to call upon that particular God. It should be a line wrapped around. We should have to hire police officers to govern the traffic that's getting in here to try to come into these walls.

But we only give lip service that we believe that that's the God we're praying to. Because if I was to say, "How many of you believe that that's the God we pray to, the God who created the heavens and the earth?" everybody's hand would go up. But it's one thing to raise our hand, and it's another thing to vote with our feet. People still vote with their feet today.

And so often it's the people that have the most drama and mess in their lives who need to be here, and they're not here. That's what blows me away. So whenever there's prayer, and you say, "I pray at home," and I always tell you, I hope so. Individual prayer empowers you as the individual. Collective prayer empowers the church collectively. This is why we need to get together for prayer.

And whenever that's called—because we have monthly prayer, quarterly prayer, we pray every Saturday night—we're trying to raise the temperature of prayer. And it's always the faithful few. Now, we're getting better. We're starting to get better when it comes to monthly prayer, quarterly prayer. We're getting better. We're not where we should be, but we're getting better.

Oh, I tell you, there was nothing no greater than when we had our all-night prayer. Oh, that was just—some of you, you shudder at the thought of all-night prayer. Your legs buckle. What are we going to be doing all night? Praying! Worshipping and praying. It was just great. Those hours just ticked off. It was just good. Great time, great time.

So always, always make your way out whenever there's a time for prayer. I'm telling you there's a myriad of things we all can do instead of coming out for prayer. But I'm telling you, push your way out because Satan will try to defeat you in this particular area.

Now, we also saw that if Satan can't beat the church, he will try to join it by putting tares or weeds in the midst of the wheat. So beware of teachings that include a little truth in it, but they want to exploit you for money for their own selfish desires. Now, we know that it takes money to keep the lights on, the air conditioning on—I see y'all fanning and carrying on—it takes money to do expansion projects. We know that.

But false teachers exploit you monetarily for selfish purposes. We know it takes money to do kingdom work. We know that. You don't put a nail in the wall; somebody had to buy nails. It costs money to buy the nails. You just can't go in and say, "I want a box of nails." Well, it's going to cost five bucks. "No, I want you to give it to me on my good looks." You ain't that good-looking! It costs some money to do that.

So we know that. So just beware of those trying to exploit you for selfish purposes. And always, always, please know the power of prayer. And Satan will do all he can to stop you. Everyone knows around here, they know that at 12:00 every day, I spend time praying for revival, praying for the church.

I can't tell you the myriad of phone calls, text messages, notifications, knocks on my door. "Come on in." And I just look at them. And I just say, "What time is it?" "Oh, it's 12:14." I said, "What do I do at 12:00?" See, I'm trying to be in the spirit, not in the flesh. But I'm sick that they brought me from the heavenlies back down to the earth for some menial little thing.

"What time is it?" "Oh, okay. What do I do at this time?" "Oh, you pray." "Oh, okay. I'm done now. I'm back down to earth. I'm done. You hindered that. I'm back here." And what they want is just—that couldn't have waited? See, they're not thinking. They just think, "I've got to ask Pastor Tony something. I've got to get something." And they're not even thinking. See, that's the Satan—that's the move. Because this time, I'm trying to keep from getting in the flesh. My hands are shaking. "May I help you, my child?" And I just want to say, "Will you get out of here? Let me finish praying."

But that's what happens. That's what Satan does. He will do anything to keep you from prayer. And what do I always say to every last one of them? After—I just say, "What? I'm sorry, Pastor Tony." "I'm done now. I'm done. See, that's what Satan wanted. He wanted me to be done." So he'll use anything, anyone.

Now, some of you might be thinking, "Well, Pastor Tony, why can't you just go back to praying?" I don't want to now! I'm mad because I got interrupted. So my wife will go out, she'll go out, "No!" I just say, "I'm done now. I'm done. What do you want now? Help you bring in some groceries? I'm done. I'm done now." I can't go back being in the spirit. "Lord, I just cry out to you." No, I'm done. Get the groceries. Whatever.

Just know Satan will always try to get you. He'll try to distract you from prayer because he knows the power of prayer. Father, thank You so much for this time in Your word. Lord, I just pray that Your Spirit would just help us, Lord, to not be ignorant of Satan's devices to keep us from prayer. Let us recognize these attacks that come, Lord, to keep us from the things of God.

Oh dear God, I just pray, do a work in our hearts. Lord, I pray for Your precious people here. Lord, may we become men and women of prayer. May we seek Your face. May we not look at prayer as some job, some chore, or some something to check off our list. But Lord, let us look at it as entering into Your presence, that we're beseeching and calling upon the God who created the universe.

Oh God, help us to see the importance of prayer. Lord, I pray if there is anyone here who has not repented and prayed to ask Jesus Christ to come into their heart to be their Lord and Savior, Lord, may there be salvation that takes place today. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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