7/2/23 The People of Philippi - Part 2 “Freedom”

The People of Philippi – Part 2: “Freedom”

Acts 16:16-24

As all of you know, this coming Tuesday, our nation will be celebrating its Independence Day - The United States of America will officially turn 247 years old…that’s a lot of candles to put on a cake!

If we were to actually light that many candles, the Canadian wildfire smoke might just have some competition!

Our nation has indeed been around for a while. This country was founded on the ideology that its very survival would depend on its citizen’s dependence on God, specifically, the God of the Bible.

John Quincy Adams (The 6th President of the United States) famously wrote: “The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: that it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”

In other words, the morality of the Jesus Christ was seen by the vast majority as the foundation upon which this country was constructed.

Founding Father Patrick Henry (Famous for his line ‘Give me liberty or give me death’) wrote: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!”

This country is unique in that its birth initiated, not a theocracy, but a representative democracy saturated with Christian theology.

Many of the great institutions of higher learning in this country were founded upon the premise that the Christian God is to be at the center of education, that the holy scriptures are to serve as the guide for scientific inquiry, and that the teachings of Christ are to permeate our social and political landscape.

Well, as we all know, our country today looks very different than it did 247 years ago….geographically, environmentally, culturally, and morally.

A few things have improved, such as the abolition of slavery in 1863, the beginning of Veteran-specific hospitals & healthcare in 1923, and – of course – the founding of Culver’s in 1984! 😊

All joking aside, sadly - I cannot think of many moral or social improvements that have taken place in our country over the last 2.5 centuries, at least from a Christian perspective.

We could easily spend the rest of this sermon talking about the immoral and unbiblical condition of our government, our public educational system, our judicial system, our economic system, network media, social media….basically, every aspect of American society has been infiltrated and saturated by Satan’s presence and deception.

Unfortunately, we see it on full display every single day…And today, we are reaping the harvest of disobedience to biblical morality fervently sown by the past few generations.

Like the Israelites following their release from bondage in Egypt, we as a nation are currently wandering in a desert of disobedient, ungrateful, and self-indulgent idolatry.

Many Americans today would rather blame others for their position in life than to take responsibility for their own future and determine to change their present situation.

Folks, I don’t want to dwell on all these negative aspects of our country this morning. You are all well aware of the immoral sewage that surrounds us today.

 You don’t need me to remind you of the state of our union – the actual state of our union – not the falsified, sugar-coated marketing advertisement that we hear from the commander-in-chief every year.

So, for the remainder of today, I’d like to focus on something that our country has always been known for, and that still endures – something that the rest of the world continues to strive for.

….And that is our freedom.

Our freedoms and liberties still set this great nation apart from every other country in the world.

Freedom is also what our passage of scripture is about this morning as well.

If you recall from last week, we are currently following Paul on his second great missionary journey where he has just entered the European city of Philippi.

This would be the first time that Paul (Along with his traveling companions Silas, Timothy, and Luke) would find themselves on the continent of Europe.

Being so far away from Jerusalem, there were not enough Jewish men in Philippi to even start a synagogue (A minimum of 10 men were needed) so, instead of introducing himself to the local synagogue, Paul begins to preach on the banks of a river outside of town where people were in the habit of engaging in prayer and spiritual conversations.

Last week we met Lydia, one of these individuals who would regularly meet along the riverbank. Lydia was a wealthy textile trader from Thyatira who heard Paul’s preaching, and as scripture says, the Lord opened her heart to respond to the message of the gospel.

Lydia became the first person on the continent of Europe to give her life to Jesus Christ. She had met the savior, and the savior set her free.

Today’s passage is about another woman, a young lady who was definitely not experiencing freedom – spiritually or physically.

Look with me at verse 16 (Acts 16:16) of our passage for today.

Paul & his companions are once again heading to the place of prayer on the riverbank when the text says they “Were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future.”

This young lady was enslaved on two levels – she was a physical slave to evil masters wanting to make a profit from her ability to predict the future, as well as a spiritual slave to the presence of a demonic spirit – a spirit who was giving her the ability to tell the future.

Freedom would have been the farthest thing from her grasp right now as her body was enslaved to men and her mind was enslaved to the devil.

The original Greek text utilizes an interesting phrase when describing this woman’s fortune-telling ability. It refers to her so called ‘gift’ (Or, what really was, a curse) as a “Python Spirit.”

The phrase ‘Python Spirit’ actually refers to Greek Mythology as it references a fictional snake that guarded something called the Oracle at Delphi. This snake was said to be destroyed by Apollo, the Greek god of prophecy. The term ‘python spirit’ then, in the everyday vernacular of the time, came to refer to someone who had been in contact with Apollo and his prophetic power– or so they thought.

Today we would call her a ‘medium’ in contact with demons… and she was practicing something that the bible refers to as ‘divination.’

The bible explicitly warns us that attempting to speak with the dead or engage in any kind of fortune-telling through witchcraft, sorcery, meditation, tarot cards, Ouija boards, seances, crystal balls, palm-reading, horoscopes, or through prayer to the dead – is of the devil, and it should be avoided at all costs.

Deuteronomy 18:9-14 provides us with a ‘crystal-clear’ warning concerning these practices. It reads “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so.”

These are strong words, aren’t they! God is serious about wanting His children to stay clear of attempting to know/predict the future or trying to contact the dead.

Any attempt that we may make to contact the realm of the dead, learn of future events, or to proclaim prophecy in any way that adds new revelation, or takes away from the established canon of scripture, is of the Devil - and we are to run from it!

So, how do these sorts of things affect our daily lives?

does this mean that when you’re sitting at the Panda Garden in Reedsburg and you happen to glance at your ‘fortune’ inside of your fortune cookie, you’ve angered the Lord?

Or what if you go over to your friend’s house and a Lord of the Rings movie comes on, are you inviting the wrath of God down on your life because Gandalf the wizard is going around casting spells?

Scripturally speaking, I believe it all boils down to how you respond to these components of the occult that have become imbedded in our culture.

I’m a fan of the Lord of the Rings movies, but you won’t find me dressing up like Gandalf and attempting to cast a spell on my neighbor’s dog….Dachshund!, You Shall Not Pass!!

Most people will read a fortune cookie and forget what it says by the time they walk out of the restaurant.

However, there are other people who will take the little slip of paper home, stick it on their fridge, meditate over it, try to align it with their horoscope, look for signs of the message coming to fruition in their life, and so on.

THIS, I believe, is the kind of response that Deuteronomy is speaking of when it tells us not to ‘practice’ these things.

Say I go home and slap on some yoga pants (Believe me, you would NOT want to see that!...don’t worry, I don’t own any yoga pants 😊) and I do some muscle stretches in my living room.

That is not the same as engaging in yoga stretches with the intent of receiving some sort of calming effect from the universe wrapped within an Eastern Mystical paradigm of meditation.

There is a big distinction between recognizing something as simply a benign activity or form of entertainment, and that of immersing yourself in a malignant world of toxic spiritual divination.

Back to our passage. Verse 17 (Acts 16:17) tells us that this fortune-telling woman followed Paul and his companions around shouting and yelling.

The content of what she was shouting, however, comes as somewhat of a surprise, doesn’t it?

She says in verse 17: “These men are servants of the most high God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”

Wait, What? Here she’s possessed by a demon – one of Satan’s spiritual comrades - and yet she is telling everyone around her that Paul and his companions are here to save you…..is anyone else here confused about this scenario?

I believe we reach some clarity surrounding this scenario by doing what we always should do when something in the Bible doesn’t seem to make sense – we consult other passages in God’s Word.

Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 as Paul talks about the general strategy of false prophets “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.”

Essentially, this girl’s controlling demonic spirit was attempting to infiltrate the ranks of the new church that was being built right before everyone’s eyes there in Philippi. If he were to accomplish this by gaining people’s trust, the demon (Through the slave girl) would have had a devastating effect upon the newly forming Philippian Church.

John MacArthur says it like this: “The father of lies speaks the truth when it suits his purposes, disguising himself and his emissaries as angels of light. Some of his most effective and diabolical work is done in the name of Jesus Christ. He often uses a little truth to ensnare people in a false system of religion. Since the demon-possessed girl was agreeing with the Christian preachers, the natural assumption would be that she was part of their group. She would then have been in a position to do unspeakable harm to the cause of Christ.”

This is why this demon-possessed girl was speaking what was essentially truth at the time – It was all part of a greater plan to eventually infiltrate and subvert the infant church at Philippi.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Satan still uses this tactic of packaging deception and lies in wrapping paper of truth.

The New Testament is full of warnings to watch out for false prophets – this is a warning for us today as well. If a preacher/teacher/church leader holds to a doctrine that goes in direct opposition to God’s Word, they need to be called out.

Verse 18 (Acts 16:18) tells us that Paul eventually becomes troubled (Some translations use the word ‘annoyed’) with this woman to the extent that he’s finally had it – he turns to her and casts the demon out of her right on the spot!

Wouldn’t that have been an amazing thing to witness!

The casting out of demons is something that we occasionally see in the gospels as well as the book of Acts.

Many theologians believe that the ability to drive out a demon falls under something called apostolic authority.

The 12 apostles (Along with the later addition of Paul) were granted specific miraculous abilities in order to provide indisputable proof of the message they were carrying concerning the messianic credentials of their master, Jesus.

Matthew 10:1 says “He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them the authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.”

Mark 3:14-15 “He appointed twelve – designating them apostles – that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.”

Finally, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:12 “The things that mark an apostle – signs, wonders and miracles - were done among you with great perseverance.”

Remember, biblically, to be considered an apostle, you had needed to study directly under Jesus himself. This is why we do not have apostles today…we have disciples of Jesus (That is anyone who follows Jesus) but we no longer have apostles.

The key here is that Jesus gave the apostles the power to work various miracles – the ability to defy the laws of nature did not originate within the men themselves.

Keep in mind that in the days of Jesus & the early church, the New Testament had not yet been written – In the absence of scripture, there needed to be tangible ways in which people could know without a doubt that Jesus was who he claimed to be, specifically, God in the flesh.

There needed to be proof pointing to the legitimacy of Jesus’ claim that He was the Son of God – the miracles performed through his apostles provided such proof.

The question always comes up: “Does God still use people to cast out demons (Or perform exorcisms) today?”

I like to answer that question this way: “God is sovereign and He can do whatever He wishes, and if His wish is to use one human being to drive out an evil spirit in another human being – then so be it.”

Whether God uses an individual to exorcise a demon or He drives the demon out Himself – the point is that it is by the authority of God that a miracle takes place, not by any authority of our own.

This is why I don’t use prayer language that invokes any authority of my own.

For example, If someone were concerned about an evil spirit in their home and wanted me to pray over their house, my prayer would go along the lines of something like this: “Father God, I pray that through the power of the name of Jesus Christ that you rid this home of any evil entity or sprit.”

However, I would not say something like this “Evil Spirit, In the name of Jesus, I command you to leave this house.”

Did you catch the difference there? One prayer acknowledges the supreme authority of God, while the other one assumes a measure of human authority.

Folks, the kind of authority we have as human beings over Satan is rooted in what Paul teaches us to do in Ephesians chapter 6 when discussing the armor of God. We have the authority to stand our ground and we have the authority to wield the sword of the Spirit – which is God’s Word, the Bible.

This is exactly what Jesus did when the Devil tempted him in the desert – he quoted scripture - and that is exactly what we ought to do as well when we are subjected to temptation of any kind.

Lastly, by driving out the demon who had control of the young lady in our passage for today, two things happened.

1)     The girl experienced freedom – she was liberated from the spiritual bondage that had controlled her.

2)     Paul was now the object of public scrutiny as the possessed girl’s owners were enraged – they had lost their significant profit coming from the young lady as she no longer had her satanic gift.

Because of this spiritual deliverance, Paul & Silas would eventually be placed in prison where more miraculous events come to pass. In prison, they are able to have such an effect upon the jailer that he comes to faith in Christ.

Next week, Chris Anderson will pick up where we left off today and he will go into more detail about what happens while Paul & Silas are in prison, and how God brings something good from what is (In the moment) a negative situation.

In conclusion, Freedom is a word that we sometimes take for granted, but when it comes to spiritual freedom, it is the most important type of freedom that we could ever have – and this freedom comes only through the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

To possess the freedom to stand firm against the attacks of the Devil and to not fall into sin is a miracle in itself – and if you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you – then you have this power!

If you have yet to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life, come to him today!

Experience what victory over sin feels like – it will change your life, and it is Absolutely Priceless!!

Let’s Pray.