Acts 16

1 – 3

Paul came to Derbe and Lystra. A follower named Timothy was there. Timothy’s mother was Jewish and a believer. His father was a Greek.
The brothers in Lystra and Iconium respected Timothy and said good things about him. Paul wanted Timothy to travel with him. But all the Jews living in that area knew that Timothy’s father was Greek. So Paul circumcised Timothy to please the Jews.

Paul was showing the Jews that he believed it is not a problem to live as a Jew if you are Jewish even though this does not save you, but he refused to do this for Titus. because he was not Jewish. Galatians 2:3

I have learned to become all things to all men, that I might gain the more. To the Jew I became as a Jew. To those that are free from the law, I became as one who is free of the law. I Corinthians 9:22

4 – 5

Paul and the men with him traveled from town to town. They gave the letter made by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey. So the churches became stronger in the faith and grew larger every day.

Paul was working under the covering of the Jerusalem church. He faithfully brought the letter that the Council had written to every place where he started a church. God will not bless a ministry that does not have a covering. There are no “lone wolf” ministries in God’s kingdom.

6 – 7

Paul and the men with him went through the areas of Phrygia and Galatia. The Holy Spirit did not let them preach the Good News in Asia. When they came near the country of Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia. But the Spirit of Jesus did not let them.

God can give you a feeling in your spirit that something is wrong. He is protecting you from making a mistake. It was God’s plan for Peter to go to this area not for Paul (1 Peter 1:1). Whatever is not from faith is sin. Romans 14:23

8 – 10

So they passed by Mysia and went to Troas. That night Paul had a vision. In the vision, a man from Macedonia came to him. The man stood there and begged, “Come over to Macedonia. Help us!” After Paul had seen the vision, we immediately prepared to leave for Macedonia. We understood that God had called us to tell the Good News to those people.

If God gives you a vision He will confirm it in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Some of these witnesses will be mature Christians and some of these witnesses will be Scriptures. Do not build your life on visions. God does always lead you this way. Test the spirits because the devil can also show you some things and he makes them look like a vision from God.

Luke must have met Paul in Troas because he now begins to put his personal testimony into this book as he says, “We… or us.”

11 – 12

We left Troas in a ship, and we sailed straight to the island of Samothrace. The next day we sailed to Neapolis. Then we went by land to Philippi, the leading city in that part of Macedonia. It is also a Roman colony. We stayed there for several days.

It takes two days to sail to these places if the wind is with you. Later it took Paul five days to make the same trip. We serve the Lord if the wind is with us or not. Acts 20:6

13 – 15

On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate to the river. There we thought we would find a special place for prayer. Some women had gathered there, so we sat down and talked with them. There was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira. Her job was selling purple cloth. She worshiped the true God.

The Lord opened her mind to pay attention to what Paul was saying. She and all the people in her house were baptized. Then Lydia invited us to her home. She said, “If you think I am truly a believer in the Lord, then come stay in my house.” And she persuaded us to stay with her.

From what we can tell about Philippi there were not very many Jews there and they were not respected. It takes ten people to have a synagogue so there must have been less than ten people at this prayer meeting. It is interesting to see that God heard the prayers of a women’s prayer meeting to change their city. Maybe one of their prayers was, “God, please send somebody to help us!” See Verse 9.

16. Once, while we were going to the place for prayer, a servant girl met us. She had a spirit of a snake in her. She earned a lot of money for her owners by telling fortunes.

In spiritual warfare it does help to know the name of the demon that you are dealing with. The spirit of a snake wants you to think that it is very wise. Genesis 3:1

17 – 19

This girl followed Paul and us. She said loudly, “These men are servants of the Most High God! They are telling you how you can be saved!”
She kept this up for many days. This bothered Paul, so he turned and said to the spirit, “By the power of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her!”

Immediately, the spirit came out. The owners of the servant girl saw this. These men knew that now they could not use her to make money. So they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the city rulers in the marketplace.

It would be very dangerous for people to say that they were saved because they heard the voice of a demon. God does not need the help of demons and these men would have made money by pretending to share the Gospel.

Jesus also told demons to be quiet and leave.
Demons also were coming out of many, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But stopping them, He would not allow them to speak, because they knew Him to be the Christ. Luke 4:41

20 – 24

Here they brought Paul and Silas to the Roman rulers and said, “These men are Jews and are making trouble in our city. They are teaching things that are not right for us as Romans to do.”

The crowd joined the attack against them. The Roman officers tore the clothes of Paul and Silas and had them beaten with rods again and again.

After being severely beaten, Paul and Silas were thrown into jail. The jailer was ordered to guard them carefully. When he heard this order, he put them far inside the jail. He pinned down their feet between large blocks of wood.

There is nothing that Paul would have said that Romans were not able to do. Jesus warned us that men will make up every kind of lie against us.

Paul told the Thessalonians that he felt very bad about how they were treated in Philippi. It seems like Paul may have come into the city of Thessalonica with torn clothing and still bleeding.

God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are My followers. Matthew 5:11

You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare His Gospel to you boldly, even if men were against us. 1 Thessalonians 2:1–2

25. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing songs to God. The other prisoners were listening to them.

Remember that when we are going through a hard time people are watching. We are put on this earth to lead people to Christ, it will be a sad thing if they watch as we complain against the Lord and say, “The Christians are no different than we are!”

Each day the LORD pours His unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing His songs, praying to God who gives me life. Psalm 42:8,

I will remember my song in the night; I will meditate with my heart. Psalm 77:6
Let the faithful rejoice that he honors them. Let them sing out loud for joy as they lie on their beds! Psalm 149:5

Where is God my Creator, the One who gives me songs in the night? Job 35:10

26 – 28

Suddenly, there was a big earthquake. It was so strong that it shook the foundation of the jail. Then all the doors of the jail broke open. All the prisoners were freed from their chains.

The jailer woke up and saw that the jail doors were open. He thought that the prisoners had already escaped. So he got his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul shouted, “Do not hurt yourself! We are all here!”

Yes, the Lord would cause an earthquake just to see one family turn to Christ! Paul would say that the beating and the jail were worth it! What power there is in singing praises and prayers!

29 – 31

The jailer told someone to bring a light. Then he ran inside. Shaking with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, “Men, what must I do to be saved?” They said to him, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved—you and all the people in your house.”

This man must have heard something about the gospel. If you cannot speak the Gospel in one or two sentences, then you are making it too hard to understand. False churches tell people that they need to read some of their books so that they can understand the Bible. When we share something besides the death and resurrection of Christ, we are not following the Lord’s command. Matthew 28:19

32 – 34

So Paul and Silas told the message of the Lord to the jailer and all the people in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took Paul and Silas and washed their wounds. Then he and all his people were baptized immediately. After this the jailer took Paul and Silas home and gave them food. He and his family were very happy because they now believed in God.

False teachers use this story to say that the jailer must have had some babies in the house and so we need to baptize babies. Children who do not understand the Gospel do not need to be baptized so that they can be saved. See Matthew 18:10, 2 Samuel 12:23

35 – 37

The next morning, the Roman officers sent the police to tell the jailer, “Let these men go free!” The jailer said to Paul, “The officers have sent an order to let you go free. You can leave now. Go in peace.”

But Paul said to the police, “They beat us in public without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens. And they threw us in jail. Now they want to make us go away quietly. No! Let them come themselves and bring us out!”

Roman citizens carried passports that proved who they were. Paul did not have a chance to show his passport until now (Acts 22:25). The leaders of the city would be in big trouble if word got back to Rome of what they had done.

Paul was thinking that the city would think that he had done something wrong and this would make the Gospel of Jesus look bad. He also wanted the people to treat the Christians with respect so he made the leaders publicly release him.

38 – 40

The police told the Roman officers what Paul said. When the officers heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were afraid. So they came and told Paul and Silas they were sorry. They took Paul and Silas out of jail and asked them to leave the city. So when they came out of the jail, they went to Lydia’s house. There they saw some of the believers and encouraged them. Then they left.

Luke stayed with the Philippians (Philippians 4:3, Acts 20:6). The church of Philippi probably had less than 10 people including a businesswoman, a slave girl and a jailer’s family.