We are in a sermon series in the book of Acts, and we've come to chapter 16.
And as I reflected on this passage, it struck me that this book, right, we believe that scripture is God breathed, that this is a gift of God.
It is living and active, the scriptures itself tell us.
It came through the agency of human beings, and it bears that mark, and yet it is the divine word, and so it brings life, it brings comfort, it brings reproof and encouragement and shaping.
And this book of Acts was given to the church for a number of reasons.
One is that it continues the story, right?
We have the four Gospels that tell the ministry of Jesus, his death and resurrection.
Well, the book of Acts picks up where those gospels leave off and show the birth of this community that Jesus founded the church.
It also shows how Jesus continued to lead, to guide, to comfort, to protect the church.
Even though he is ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, he reigns actively in the church.
And that is clear throughout the pages and verses of Acts.
But Acts also was given to give us a picture of what it would look like for future generations to live in this unfolding story.
We, those who have put our faith in Christ and follow Christ, walk in these same pages.
And the author, Luke, and the divine author, God, described through the lives, the foibles, the successes, and the failures of these saints, what it might look like for us to follow in that same story.
And I believe this chapter, chapter 16, puts in beautiful words and in a beautiful narrative what Jesus said would be true of his disciples.
In Mark, Matthew 16, he said, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
In other words, the pattern of the normal Christian life is cruciform.
I think we'll touch on this later in the sermon, but I think many of us have inadvertently absorbed a light prosperity gospel where we believe that God's love and blessing is manifest in our life by success or good things, and that pain and suffering or hardships are a sign of God's disapproval.
And I hope that you will see in this passage and then see throughout the scriptures that that is absolutely not what the scriptures teach.
That if we follow in Jesus' footsteps as his disciples, then we will follow him into a fellowship of his sufferings.
And this is vital, brothers and sisters, for us to live and to walk the normal Christian life.
Because if you're like me, I often get tripped up in suffering, wondering what I've done wrong and what God is trying to work out of me or correct me.
So that's what we're going to be looking at this morning.
And I want to, as we begin, I want to give credit to a particular author and theologian where some of these central ideas came from.
Named Paul Miller, he wrote a book called The J Curve, Dying and Rising with Jesus in Everyday Life.
And I highly commend that book to you.
But that's where the title of this sermon and kind of the central themes come from.
But as we as we jump in, let me read a short portion of chapter 16.
Acts chapter 16, 19 to 24.
But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.
And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city.
They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.
The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them, gave orders to beat them with rods.
And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.
Having received this order, he put them in the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
This is the word of God.
Thanks be to God.
Let's pray for a second.
Father in heaven, by your Spirit, what we ask as we look at your word is that you would speak to our hearts, each of us individually.
Tell us what we need to hear this morning.
For we ask it with thanksgiving in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Point one, throughout our Christian lives, Jesus will purposefully lead us into small deaths as a fellowship in his sufferings.
As we talk about this, I want to frame it with this question: How do you tend to interpret suffering in your own life?
When suffering or hardship, unexpected disappointment comes into your life, how do you respond?
Let's look at Paul.
In chapter 15, the chapter before this, when Paul experienced a great success at the Jerusalem Council, he kind of won, along with some other disciples, kind of a theological debate that really would bless and help the church, even to this very day.
From the council, he took a friend Silas and he began to visit a lot of the newly planted churches that he and Barnabas had planted on their missionary journey, and he went encouraging and strengthening the churches along the way.
On that time, he's also continuing to preach the gospel that the kingdom of God is come and the king of the universe is Jesus.
And in that, uh coming to the city of Philippi, we're told was a leading city in this region, uh, kind of like Atlanta in the southeast, right?
It's the most prominent city in this region, and it was a Roman colony.
While he was there proclaiming the gospel, a wealthy merchant woman named Lydia received the gospel.
And this was this was a great win for the gospel.
She was uh prominent in the area, she was known, she was wealthy, she could help this brand new church be built there.
Uh, as Paul and Silas are going about their business for a few days, we're told a slave girl who had a spirit of divination or a demon of divination that had possessed her.
It allowed her to kind of know things or predict the future.
Uh, she was following them around, and for whatever reason, she was shouting behind them, these men have been sent by the Most High God, and they proclaim the way of salvation to you.
We have no idea why she was doing that.
Maybe she thought she was being helpful, maybe she was actually trying to divert what they were doing.
For whatever reason, this happened for a number of days, and finally Paul had had enough.
And whether it was compassion for this poor girl, uh oppressed by a demon and being exploited by her slave owners, uh, or whether he was just, frankly, annoyed at this happening for so long, he cast the demon out, and she was freed from this demon possession.
But what we're told and where we picked up in the story is that the girl's owners were not happy.
They had just lost a huge source of their income.
And so what do they do?
They go to the magistrate, the leaders, the political leaders of Philippi, and they weave a false narrative against them.
First, what do they say?
These guys are Jews.
All right, one big strike against them.
Two, they're proclaiming things that we as Romans are not allowed to believe, practices we find reprehensible.
They are troublemakers and they're labeled disturbers of the peace.
So, as we heard, the magistrates, you know, the whole crowd gets whipped up into a frenzy.
They're beaten, their clothes are ripped off, they're thrown into prison, and this little detail at the end, the the jailer trying to do his very best, puts them in the inner sanctum of the prison, and he puts their feet in the stocks.
And if you know what those are, they are they're wooden bait planks, basically with holes in them, and they they would put them on you to lock your legs in a position that was painful.
So not only are you in prison, but you're constantly in pain, right?
It's adding insult to injury.
And so my question, as I read this, is what did Paul and Silas do to deserve this?
What questions would you be asking in this scenario?
You've been going about God's work, you've seen success, you've seen people come to faith, you're seeking to be faithful, and how are you repaid?
Greedy, exploitative pagans lie and cheat, and have you thrown in prison unjustly?
I know where my head and where my heart often goes.
Why is this happening, Lord?
What did I do to deserve this?
Are you punishing me for something?
I thought I was walking in your will.
But here's what's amazing.
What are we told right after that section that we read?
In verse 25, Luke writes, About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God in prison.
And the prisoners were listening.
So my question is, how is this possible?
How are Paul and Silas falsely accused, beaten, put in stocks, in prison, and about midnight they are praying and singing hymns to God?
Well, the answer as you look at Paul's life, uh kind of described throughout different parts of the New Testament, is that he had learned, Paul had learned through previous experiences how Jesus works.
He had learned from Jesus' own teachings, from what we said earlier, those who follow Jesus will have to deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow him.
And he had learned that the path that we walk as followers of Christ is the same path that Jesus walked.
A path that descends into death and then by the power of God is resurrected on the other side.
Now hear me clearly, Jesus' death was redemptive and salvific, it saved all of God's people.
Our suffering doesn't save anyone, let alone ourselves.
And yet the pattern of our lives, Jesus teaches us, will mimic and reflect his own.
So listen to what Paul says about 12 years later, 15 years later, in the letter he will write to this very church, the church in Philippi, he says, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, to become becoming like him in his death, so that somehow, so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
I think what Paul is trying to teach the Philippians, what he's teaching us, and what we see in this story, is that we who anticipate and long for the power of God's resurrection in our own lives will also experience a fellowship in Jesus' sufferings.
That those two things, just as they cannot be separated in Jesus' life and ministry, they cannot be separated in ours.
And again, I think this is a teaching that has often been missed in our evangelical Christianity.
And it's one that we need to come back to so that we can actually make sense of what we experience.
Because this is how Jesus works in his church.
All right, that brings us to point two.
Resurrection life is born in the tomb.
Just as Jesus died, his sacrificial death for us, so that his resurrection life might be born in us, and through us, those around us, so we experience suffering in our lives, so that others might be blessed through us.
Paul's and Silas' resurrection begins in their hearts, right?
Because in the face of evil and the face of suffering, they know and remember that Jesus is Lord, seated at the right hand of God in heaven, they can rejoice that nothing happens to them on earth that is not under his lordship.
And so even in that moment, resurrection is born, joy is born in them.
Now Paul knew at this point that the Lord was at work.
He didn't know how things would play out, but he trusted that the Lord knew what he was doing, that he was, the Lord was good, and the Lord was working good in this situation.
And through their singing in the midst of unjust suffering, both the prisoners and the jailer is observing what they're doing.
And then God brings an earthquake.
And through this earthquake, God vindicates Paul and Silas, and we don't have enough time to get into this, but everyone in this context, the jailer, the prisoners, the magistrates, those living in Philippi, would have seen and interpreted this random event as a statement from the divine.
And as the earthquake comes, the doors to the prisons open, the fasteners, the chains fall off, the stocks fall off.
This is God's work.
And the jailer, maybe after he comes to or is able to, he goes into the prison and he sees that the doors are open and he doesn't see any prisoners.
So he assumes that everyone has escaped under his watch.
And so, as was sort of the custom, uh, failing to do his job, he takes out his sword and he's about to kill himself, take his own life as a as a lack, loss of honor, uh, when Paul cries out, No, we're here.
Don't don't kill yourself.
And in uh overwhelmed by disbelief and relief, this jailer falls at Paul's feet.
And he says, What must I do to be saved?
In other words, he says, Who the heck are you guys?
And how are you like this?
You see, to this Roman, he understood by the hymns and the prayers that Paul and Silas were singing and praying that he worshipped a God that this jailer did not know, but he desperately wanted to.
And so Paul responds, believe in the Lord Jesus, you will be saved, you and your household.
The soldier ends up taking Paul and Silas into his home, washing his wounds, they eat together, they rejoice, the jailer is baptized, along with his whole family, and they rejoice.
The story is incredible.
Finally, the magistrates get wind of what's happened, right?
This earthquake has shook the city.
Um, you know, these these two prisoners who they've unjustly thrown into prison are released, and so they try to sweep things under the rug.
They say, just let them go, right?
All charges are dropped.
But Paul wisely says, no.
We're Roman citizens.
We're not to be treated this way.
So we would like the magistrates to come to the prison.
We would like a formal apology, and then we would like to be released.
And the magistrates do it.
They have no other choice.
Now they're afraid of their own reputations being further tarnished because of what has happened.
You see, Paul was going about his faithful work when the Lord intentionally brought him into a fellowship of his sufferings.
It was unjust, it was unforeseen, it was painful.
And yet he did not cry out.
He did not defend himself.
And because he was a resurrection man, and because he had experienced this in the past, and he writes about it in his letters, he knew that the Lord was at work.
He didn't have to fight, but he watches.
He sings, he trusts, and he waits.
Because he knows as Jesus has led him into death, it is Jesus who will resurrect him in his time, just as Jesus said, uh, my life is not taken from me, it is given freely, and the Father will resurrect me on the third day.
And that's exactly what the Lord does.
He acts, he vindicates Paul and Silas, protects this newborn church, right?
So the theologians wrestle with why is Paul silent at the beginning?
He doesn't declare his citizenship, but he brings it up at the end.
The only logical explanation is that he intentionally is protecting the church in Philippi.
And we won't have time to get into that, but he suffers in love for this church, and through that willing suffering, God works through it to bring new life.
Resurrection life in the heart of Paul and Silas and new life into the jailer's heart, and who knows how many prisoners and others, the the jailer's whole family.
So that brings us to point three.
Dying and rising with Jesus is the pattern of the Christian life.
We've seen it here in the life of Paul and Silas, but it's the same for all who follow Jesus today.
The Lord brings us into our own fellowship in Christ's sufferings, not because he is punishing us or mad at us.
He loves you completely if you are Christian, if you are in Christ.
He has died for all of your sins, past, present, and future.
There is no retribution, there is no condemnation for any suffering that you experience in your life.
But the scriptures tell us that God does bring us into this fellowship of suffering to shape us, to free us of idolatries and false lords and gods, and help us to fall more deeply in love with Him.
And for those of us who have experienced that and walked through that pattern a number of times, we begin to see and experience suffering in a new way so that we can endure it with patience, expectation, and hope.
And then, as the Lord allows, we become conduits of God's grace to others around us.
And I believe this is exactly what Paul is describing in 2 Corinthians chapter 1.
Listen to this.
He said, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion, and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort comfort we ourselves have received from God.
For just as the suffering of Christ flows over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
If we are distressed, it is for your comfort, Corinthians, and salvation.
If we are comforted, it is for for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance and the same sufferings we suffer.
And then he goes on to tell the Corinthians, others will be comforted through you.
Beloved, the foundation of all that we're talking about, this dying and rising with Christ, begins with this: that you in Christ are a beloved son or daughter of God.
He loves you deeply.
He loves you so much that he wants to conform you to the image of his son, Jesus Christ.
And that path follows Jesus' path.
A path through death and suffering, but resurrection life.
And my hope for us as a community is that as we hear this message and we experience the hardship of this life, we will do so in a greater amount of hope and resurrection life.
And as we experience God's comfort, we will be that conduit as a community to those around us, our brothers and sisters in Christ, so that others may know and celebrate our Lord as well.
Let's pray.
Our Father and our God.
Just as we prayed heavy prayers earlier in the service.
Lord, we thank you that you love us more than we can imagine, more than we could dream.
And Lord, though we don't always understand it, we thank you that you work in our lives through leading us into a fellowship of Christ's suffering so that Christ's resurrection life may be born in us, and through us would be born in others.
Oh Lord, teach us to sing in prison.
And we long for the day of resurrection.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.