Unshaken: Chapter a Day

Acts 16 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

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A night vision changes the travel plans, a business leader opens her home, a slave girl finds freedom, and a hardened jailer melts into joy after midnight hymns shake a prison. Acts 16 isn’t just a chapter; it’s a vivid field guide to hearing the Spirit, removing barriers, and speaking the gospel with courage when pressure mounts.

We start with the tension around Timothy’s circumcision: not about earning salvation, but about clearing obstacles so skeptical communities can hear the message. From there, we unpack how the team discerns the Macedonian call—no theatrics, just thoughtful, prayerful agreement that aligns with Jesus’ mission. In Philippi, the gospel meets people where they live: Lydia, an influential seller of purple, whose heart the Lord opens; a demonized slave girl exploited for profit, delivered in a moment that costs her owners their revenue; and a Roman jailer who moves from despair to faith as Paul and Silas sing their way through pain and into a divine rescue.

We explore how providence threads through closed doors and sudden earthquakes, how integrity matters when Paul demands public accountability as a Roman citizen, and why household faith and hospitality become powerful engines for a young church. Expect practical takeaways on discerning the Spirit’s lead, praising God in the dark, using your home for mission, and sharing the gospel with the same clarity Paul offered: Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.

If this journey through Acts 16 stirred your faith or sharpened your focus, share the episode with a friend, subscribe for more chapter-a-day studies, and leave a review to help others discover the show. What moment from Philippi challenged you most?

Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.

Pastor Plek:

Welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck. That's Pastor Han. We're checking out. Acts chapter 16. We're going to observe it. We're going to interpret it, and we're going to apply it so that you can take God's word with you today along your way in the car or simply play it in your mind. That's what we're going to do. All right. So let's start this off with the outline. Verses one through five of Acts 16 is the strengthening of churches. And we have the joining of Timothy, who had a Jewish mom and a Greek father, and was well spoken of by the brothers. Then we've got uh this Macedonian call that uh Paul has a vision of a man pleading, come over to Macedonia and help us. And so he's directed by the Spirit in verses six through ten to go there. They arrive in Philippi in verses 11 through 15, where Lydia is converted. Then we have the confrontation with the slave girl and then the impending imprisonment. Um, verses 16 through 24, the slave girl won't shut up about them being servants of the most high. And you gotta love this. Paul gets annoyed and makes the demon come out of her. Okay. And then that gets him in prison for that. Verses 25 through 34, you have the miraculous deliverance and the Philippian jailer's conversion. And then finally, and that's in 25 through 40 34, and then 35 through 40, you have the vindication and departure, um, where Paul uh then says, I refuse to be just let free. Um, because they've been beating the magistrates come, urge them to leave the city, and then eventually they encourage Lydia and the brothers, and they depart. Okay, let's talk about some observations that you made here.

Pastor Holland:

All right, first one Paul circumcises Timothy. Didn't we just go through this and didn't we do that? Just in the previous chapter, they say you don't need to be circumcised to be a Christian.

Pastor Plek:

And now he's circumcising them, him.

Pastor Holland:

So And they just met. So that must have been an awkward meeting. Yeah, and he and Timothy's grown. Um, this is not a baby decision on you know the eighth day. This is a grown man, and and you do not need to be circumcised to be saved. And yet Paul goes, Hey man, I'm gonna need this is uh this is a high bar. Um I want you to follow me. Here's the first thing I want you to do. And you know, the reason uh it's it says that uh the Jews in those places knew his father was a Greek. So, you know, it sounds like his dad was not a believer, um, and you know, didn't have him circumcised when he was a baby, uh, you know, as a believer would have done. Right. But his mom was a believer. You find out more about that in first and second Timothy, that his mom and grandma taught him the scriptures and raised him to know Jesus Christ, um, which is awesome. But his dad was not a believer, and uh Paul wants to circumcise him just so that they can kind of you know have um have access to the Jews, right? Right. Yeah, what a wild that's intense, that's so intense.

Pastor Plek:

It's like, hey, I'm not a tattoo guy, but I'm gonna get a tattoo. Maybe a little bit more extreme, maybe a little more extreme. I mean, it is kind of I mean that's that's dedication. Okay. Um what do you think about this vision? Come over to Macedonia and help us. Um, and I I I've always sort of like he gets it, Holy Spirit inspired, and then he's like, I mean, this is what God told us to do. Go into all the world. I guess that's their next step. Holy Spirit's leading, let's go. And everyone's like, Yeah, sounds good. Let's do it.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, it's similar in the last chapter, you know, they say it seemed good to the Holy Spirit in us. And similarly, here in verse 10, it says, concluding that God called us to preach the gospel to the world. Yeah, they had to make a decision. They're going, okay, I think this is what this means. Yeah. And we're gonna roll with it. And I love that. You're really seeing what it looks like for the Holy Spirit to lead people, um, not just, you know, burning bush moment, but just a like, okay, I think this is what this dream means. Let's go for it.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Okay. Um, all right, so they get there, and man, there's three different people that Paul interacts with that Luke really highlights. First, you've got Lydia. She is a prominent, rich dealer of Scarlet, right? Like a scarlet. Seller of purple goods. Yeah, seller of purple goods, which I think is kind of cool. Uh, she is wealthy. She has a household by herself as a woman. I don't know how old she is. I don't know if like her husband died. We don't hear anything about the husband or if there was one, but it seems like she is a mover and a shaker, entrepreneur in Philippi. Then contrasted with a demon-possessed slave girl, is the next person that they highlight to get saved. Yep. Uh, and then finally, the Roman jailer, a hardened, probably middle-age soldier came to Philippi to retire. He, you know, he put in his hard years of service. He has a pretty much cushion job. He just has to keep the guys in prison. He has no problem putting people in torture things like the stocks. And he's just looking to go about his day. Yeah. All right. Each each class is represented here. And I thought that was really cool. Like the aristocratic wealthy, the unbelievably poor, demon-possessed slave, and then the middle class soldier. Yeah. Um, and the gospel penetrates them uniquely. Um because you see with Lydia, she went to the place of prayer. Like she was going to a place of prayer. I don't know if this was a Jewish place of prayer or just a general place, a meditation garden of some sort. Well, it says she was a worshiper of God. Okay. In verse uh 14.

Pastor Holland:

Right.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

14.

Pastor Plek:

So, but yeah, but even so, like, what is this place? I don't know if it did the Jewish people have like, hey, is your local place of prayer? I think it was probably just like a meditation garden of some sort. I don't think, you know, there's there's tons of those things around all over the place, and doesn't necessarily it's a place of prayer. It's like, hey, here's a good view of the river. You know, here's a good, you know, here's a good place to be quiet, get away from it all. And that's where Paul goes and meets them. And it must have been well known because that's kind of he kind of make a beeline for that. Finds them, shares a gospel, they accept it, and then they prevail on him to just to headquarter their ministry out of there. And then the whole household gets saved.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. I love that. That's like a, you know, you see the the idea of household salvations and baptisms is really awesome. You see God not just reaching individual people, but actually reaching families, uh, mothers and fathers. Um, yeah, all the familial kind of connections that are referenced here, I think, are really cool.

Pastor Plek:

All right, how about this? And this, I don't want to challenge anybody's faith here, but why doesn't Paul, once he meets the slave girl, why does he have to wait to get annoyed to then uh release her of the demon? Wouldn't don't you think it would be nice for Paul to be like, hey, demon-possessed girl, be free? But he doesn't do that. He has like this little, you know, this reminds me of my six-year-old, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, like, just be quiet, you know, like you've got one of those moments, and Paul loses it on this little girl, which then ultimately gets him, you know, in jail in socks. Yeah, yeah.

Pastor Holland:

I don't know. I mean, it's maybe it's like, you know, uh, it says he got greatly annoyed of her. So it's not necessarily like this noble thing. Right. It wasn't very spiritual, delivers her. Um, but I don't know. I mean, maybe she was following them.

Pastor Plek:

Maybe they weren't, you know, maybe he was like ministry out of annoyance for the glory of God. Apparently.

Pastor Holland:

Um, yeah, she's following him around. Here's what's weird what she's saying is true. It seems good. Hey, these men are servants of the Most High God, they proclaim the way of salvation.

Pastor Plek:

But as as I know, when you have somebody doing that, I mean, not that I yeah, I've had that, but like someone say, Hey, have you seen, have you met Chris? He's a famous soldier who wrote a book and blah, blah, blah. And then you're like, Oh gosh. Okay, can you stop?

Pastor Holland:

I don't yeah, or if like we went to the gym together and someone is always like, Oh, this the messengers of God are here. They proclaim the way, you know, like you'd be like, All right, hey.

Pastor Plek:

I appreciate that. Can we just like tone it down just a bit?

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. It's kind of awkward. But yeah, she comes to Christ and the Philippian jailer. I think his story is really cool because it says that they're praying and singing hymns at midnight. That's just awesome. They're in, you know, if there's any, if ever any time to just be like, God, where are you? Why'd you let this happen to me? It would be like in the stocks, in jail for doing the right thing, you know. And yet they're not complaining, they're not grumbling, they're singing hymns. And I just love that.

Pastor Plek:

And maybe this is why Paul does so well in prison in general. He's like, At least I'm not in stocks, and you just never know when God's gonna show up. Like I, you know, like when I think about Paul, you know, all that he had to suffer, you know, kind of going back to several chapters ago when he got saved, and then Ananias uh, you know, says, I was uh show him how much he will have to suffer for my for my name. I think there was something really cool there where he gets God visits him and does the miraculous, like when he gets stoned, when he gets shipwrecked, when he gets beat by a snake on a shipwrecked beach, when he's in prison in the stocks, being tortured. Because it wasn't just like, you know, you you stuck your head in your this was like a painful city seated position where your feet are in stocks and it's like it's hurting you consistently. And the jailer just did this to him, and you would think that he's about to off himself, and Paul's like, like, hey, it happens, buddy. See ya. No, he goes and stops him and then prevents everybody else in jail from leaving.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. And I love this um question and answer here, just a simple explanation of the gospel. He says, What must I do to be saved? Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. You and your whole household. I love it. It's almost like it's you know, it's like a catechism question and answer there. It's like so simple and straightforward. Um He doesn't even say death, burial, resurrection. Yeah, believe in the Lord Jesus. Yeah and you know what that includes his life, death, burial, resurrection. You'll get all that later.

Pastor Plek:

But what must you be saved right now since you're about to stick a sword to your throat? Yeah, believe in Jesus. Okay. Um, and then I love that Paul, he's Paul is a stick it to the man guy. He's like, no, no, no, no, you're not gonna release me. Yeah, you are gonna uh I'm a citizen, and um, and it's it's what they have beaten us publicly, uncondemned men who are Roman citizens have thrown us into prison and they now throw us out secretly. No, let them come themselves and take us out. Yeah, and I love that he does that. He's not a punk, he is not going to go out quietly. He doesn't care about like this. Is where, like, probably for me, I'd be like, sweet, I'm out of here. But he's like, no, no, no, I'll stay in prison a little longer. Go and get the magistrate and tell him to bring out a Roman citizen. Yeah, and that scares them. Here's a guy who's not afraid of prison. Here's a guy who's not afraid of like basically anything. And that has a lot of gravitas, and I'm sure all of Philippi heard about that in some way.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, they came and apologized to them in verse 39. I mean, dang. Pretty great.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Okay. Have we already gotten into the nature of man? Or we no, it's sorry. All right, we're in nature of man. What give give me some truths about the nature of man?

Pastor Holland:

Um, verse 14, it says that the Lord opened Lydia's heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. We are, you know, spiritually dead. We need God to open our hearts. Yeah. Otherwise, we are not going to believe. Right.

Pastor Plek:

Um, how about we can be enslaved to sin and greed? So, just like that young slave girl was enslaved by a demon, as well as being in literal slavery, the owners were enslaved to sin and greed and couldn't see that a miracle had just happened, that the power greater than making money was available and they didn't want it. They wanted what they knew. They went back to what they knew and then tried to kill off or get rid of the one who had a greater power, greater authority, greater freedom.

Pastor Holland:

Man, that's good. Um, I think about uh verse 40, uh, when they'd seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed. Just really simple, but we need encouragement. Yeah, we're we, yeah, we need that from one another as members of Christ's body.

Pastor Plek:

How about everybody comes to Christ in a crisis? Uh, you know, and for Lydia, whatever that crisis was, existential, you know, religious, whatever, whatever for whatever reason, that's how the Lord opened her heart. Um, and she knew she needed to be saved. You've got the the crisis of the demon-possessed girl, she had a demon. Uh, that's bad. And then the crisis of the Roman jailer. He's just like, I have to kill myself because I'm gonna, there's no way I can prevent all these people from escaping. And Paul to each one of those is able to present the gospel in a way that affects their soul. Everyone who comes to Christ in a crisis. That's good. Um, how about character of God? What do you got? God graciously opens hearts to belief. Um, yeah. And how about God sovereignly directs supernatur or directs circumstances to open doors uh or even close doors so the gospel might be open elsewhere? Remember, he closed doors in Asia and Bithnea, and then opened with a Macedonian call, opened up the door, and then it's not a dude, which is kind of wild. Was it the Philippian jailer who was in Macedonia that needed to be saved? I don't know. But remember it's Lydia first, then the slave girl second, and then finally the jailer. Uh, but then there's an earthquake involved in that. Um, uh, which I just and like there's also just the this weird circumstance of the slave owners firing up the city to arrest these guys.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, and it's really interesting. It uh, you know, you talk about God opening and closing doors. It says literally, um, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

unknown:

Yeah.

Pastor Holland:

That's verse seven to go into Bithynia. The spirit of Jesus did not allow them. The Holy Spirit uh forbade them. I'm just like, man, that is you know, and is that judgment? Uh or timing? Yeah. Um, you know, it and may or both, you know, but it's like there the idea of God opening, Paul in Colossians says, pray for me that God would open a door for the gospel. Um, there, there's the reality. There, there are some people who are open, you know, in some places, some regions, some communities that are open and ready to receive, and some that aren't. And uh, you know, praying for God to guide us, you know, where where do we need to go? Where who's gonna be receptive? Sometimes you don't know. They went into Macedonia not knowing who was gonna believe. We just said we're just preach the gospel to everyone. Um, I also love that God works through uh um the different things here. He's uh it's a prayer gathering, it's um uh Paul being annoyed, it's singing hymns at midnight. Like God is using all kinds of means to draw all kinds of people.

Pastor Plek:

Oh, that's good. All right, let's get to some application. Uh remember Sin to avoid, promise to claim, example to follow, command obey, knowledge to believe. Um, how about Sin to avoid? Avoid exploiting others for personal gain.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, that's a that's a good one. Um uh yeah, uh example to follow, sing to God in the midnight hour. And you know, whether whether that's uh literally at midnight, you know, and you wake up um and just sing and pray, but uh, you know, it could be like the the metaphorical midnight hour, and you're like, man, everything is dark and this is terrible, this situation I'm in is so hard. Be like Paul and sing hymns and praise God.

Pastor Plek:

Here's one obey the Holy Spirit. Yeah. And if if you feel convicted in some sort of way, talk about it out loud. And then it might seem good to you, or it might seem good to the collaboration of people that you've brought that thing up to to follow the Holy Spirit in that direction. I think that's a really powerful way to kind of see like God uses people to discern his will.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, promise to claim, believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.

Pastor Plek:

Oh, that's good. Um, how about uh yeah? Uh I love Lydia's hospitality. Yeah. Like, hey, she had to sort of, I don't know, no, beg she prevailed upon them. So I'm not sure what was it at first like, nah, we can't. And she's like, if you don't use my house, I don't know. Did she threaten that? I don't know. Like she Yeah, what you think my house is too small or too ugly? You know, like, oh, am I not good enough for you?

Pastor Holland:

And like, uh, well, no, uh, ma'am, yeah, prevailed upon insisted, insisted on, you know, using her house for the kingdom of God, though. Well, I love that. Me too.

Pastor Plek:

Like, you know, at some point we need to use our house to advance the kingdom, to uh house missionaries, to shelter missionaries, uh, to uh continue to use it as a place of prayer, a place of joy, um, and also a place where your household gets saved. Amen. All right, anything else before we wrap this up? Uh get baptized.

Pastor Holland:

Example to follow.

Pastor Plek:

Get baptized.

Pastor Holland:

Uh, if you haven't been baptized yet and you believe the word, you believe in the Lord Jesus, then you're saved. Get baptized.

Pastor Plek:

Hey, thanks so much for joining us today. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.

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