Sermon Manuscript for Sunday, June 1

Acts 16:16–34

To Be Freed, To Be Saved

1.     Coincidentally, today’s passage can be read while recalling the prison where Paul was held, the agora, the Bema where he was judged, and the streets of the city of Philippi, which we visited near the end of our pilgrimage.

2.     For those who traveled together, I imagine today’s passage and the Philippi we saw during the pilgrimage are vividly drawn in your minds.

3.     We’ve heard a lot about the Apostle Paul and likely have a general understanding of who he was. But after visiting Greece and Türkiye, my image of Paul has changed significantly. I now feel a kind of human closeness that I didn’t have before—perhaps because I experienced firsthand what I had previously only known intellectually.

4.     As you well know, Paul was a missionary to the Gentiles. He had the extraordinary story of going from persecutor to evangelist, and though he had a promising future within the Jewish establishment, he chose instead a path of suffering and obscurity.

5.     Paul founded the seven churches in Asia Minor. These communities were composed of both Jews and Gentiles, and Paul preached that Gentiles could come before God without circumcision, and that there was no discrimination in salvation—this was the gospel of Jesus Christ he proclaimed.

6.     Paul’s ministry thus took root in what is now Türkiye through these seven churches, and continued to grow steadily through ongoing relationships. But as Paul was preparing for his second missionary journey, he experienced a change in plans.

7.     In the earlier verses of Acts 16, it says that the Spirit of Jesus and the Spirit of God prevented him from going to Asia Minor. Then, through a vision in which a man from Macedonia appeared and pleaded, “Come over to Macedonia and help us,” Paul set sail from Troas, arrived in Neapolis, and went straight to Philippi. This was his first time bringing the gospel beyond Asia to Europe.

8.     This situation is dramatic. Instead of the path he had planned, Paul found himself in a vague and unfamiliar land, knowing no one, yet striving to share the gospel.

9.     Paul was accompanied by Silas. He had parted ways with Barnabas—who wanted to bring John Mark—so Paul began his second missionary journey with Silas.

10.   Philippi, where Paul first arrived, was about 16 kilometers inland from the port city of Neapolis (now called Kavala). It was named after King Philip of Macedonia and was a strategic location during the Roman era.

11.   Naturally, it was a populous city, and Paul went straight there as it was the representative city of Macedonia.

12.   After arriving in Philippi, Paul and Silas went outside the city gate to the river on the Sabbath in search of devout Jews to meet those performing purification rites. Since Jewish law required a synagogue in towns with more than 10 Jews, the fact that Paul looked for them at the river suggests there were fewer than 10 Jews in Philippi.

13.   At the river, they met Lydia, a seller of purple cloth, to whom they preached the gospel. Lydia was baptized immediately and invited Paul and Silas to her home, where her two children were also baptized.

14.   Lydia, the first fruit of Paul’s ministry in Europe, later became a strong supporter. Selling purple cloth at the time meant she was akin to a luxury clothing dealer today, suggesting she was materially affluent.

15.   While Paul used funds from other churches for mission work or to support the Jerusalem church, he used the support from Lydia for his personal needs. This shows how special Lydia was to Paul as the firstfruit of his European mission.

16.   Paul always stopped in Philippi during his missionary journeys—five times in total—so we can say that Philippi served as a basecamp for his mission.

17.   The first hardship Paul faced in his mission is described in today’s passage.

18.   We don’t know the exact reason, but in verse 16 it says, “as we were going to the place of prayer,” implying they had set out to pray at a designated location.

19.   The passage says they met a slave girl possessed by a spirit of divination. The Greek word for demon is “daimon,” and for divination, the word “Pythos” is used, which suggests she functioned as a fortune-teller—perhaps like giving predictions similar to fortune cookies.

20.   In verse 17, this slave girl followed Paul and Silas, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”

21.   Verse 18 says she did this for many days, and Paul, being greatly annoyed…

22.   Personally, I’m intrigued by Paul’s behavior here. He wasn’t particularly proactive, nor does the text say he was moved with pity. The passage simply says he was annoyed. The Greek word used is aganakteō, which literally means “to be greatly troubled,” but in this context, it likely means “to be angry” or “indignant.”

23.   So when it says Paul was annoyed—it really means he was angry.

24.   This anger seems to have had two targets. First, the persistent annoyance. Second, the realization that this girl had owners exploiting her for money.

25.   At first, Paul likely didn’t know she was a slave. He might’ve thought she was just a wandering girl. But over several days, he realized people were profiting from her fortune-telling.

26.   Understanding this helps us grasp why Paul was angry.

27.   In verse 18, Paul acts decisively. “In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her!” And the spirit immediately left her.

28.   In verse 19, the girl’s owners realize their source of income is gone, so they seize Paul and Silas and drag them into the marketplace to the authorities. The “marketplace” here is the agora, where officials were always present.

29.   The girl had only one body, but multiple owners. This shows another reason Paul might have been angry—multiple people were profiting off one person, who was likely treated as less than human.

30.   In verse 20, Paul and Silas are brought before the magistrates. Though not recorded explicitly, they were taken from the agora to the Bema—the judgment seat. Today, we’d say they were brought straight to court for a summary judgment.

31.   The slave girl’s owners accuse them in verses 20–21: “These men are Jews, and they are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.”

32.   The claim that their customs were “unlawful for us Romans” reveals how early Christians were viewed. The gospel Paul and Silas preached was seen as unacceptable and unpracticable by Roman standards.

33.   Ironically, through this accusation, we can understand something important about the gospel they preached. If something is “unacceptable” and “unpracticable,” it means it’s not mainstream, not popular—it goes against the grain.

34.   In verses 22–23, Paul and Silas are punished swiftly. Their clothes are torn off and they are beaten.

35.   In fact, since Paul was a Roman citizen, this kind of trial was illegal. But he did not reveal his citizenship and endured the beating.

36.   In Philippi, the prison is located right next to the Bema. And it is in this prison that another event unfolds.

37.   Paul and Silas are imprisoned, and while they are praying and singing hymns, a great earthquake occurs—the doors open and their chains fall off.

38.   The jailer, waking to see the open prison doors, assumes the prisoners have escaped. He draws his sword to kill himself, but Paul shouts, “Don’t harm yourself!”

39.   In this miraculous moment, we see a contrast: some are freed, and one is about to take his own life out of fear.

40.   If prisoners escaped, the jailer would have to bear the punishment for their crimes. Likely, he was not a Roman soldier, but a local Philippian hired as a guard.

41.   In this sense, the jailer is much like the slave girl—carrying great responsibility under a fragile facade.

42.   This jailer falls before Paul and Silas and asks, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

43.   Paul replies, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” And the jailer and his entire family are baptized.

44.   Paul’s first step into Europe bears fruit in Lydia, followed immediately by suffering. In that suffering, two encounters—one with the slave girl, one with the jailer—show us powerful transformations.

45.   The slave girl is set free by Paul’s prayer, and though she is not mentioned again, she was freed. The jailer, in contrast, receives the gospel, believes, and is baptized.

46.   Both figures have something in common: the girl is freed from a demon; the jailer is freed from a system of unjust responsibility.

47.   The slave girl’s owners accused Paul and Silas of “unacceptable and unpracticable customs”—but the salvation brought by Jesus Christ was not just about escaping suffering or earning a spiritual license. It was about joining the liberating movement of God’s history.

48.   “You and your household will be saved” does not mean simply gaining access to heaven. It means that through the gospel, one becomes a person who can go where they previously could not—freed from wounds, pasts, and unspeakable anxieties.

49.   In the Roman system, one master could own hundreds of slaves. Defeated nobles became slaves overnight. Slavery was a brutal reality of constant oppression.

50.   So while this passage can be read as Paul simply bringing the gospel to Europe, deeper reflection reveals a challenge to Roman social structures and traditions—with the gospel of Jesus Christ bringing a message of radical liberation.

51.   That’s why the people of Philippi accused them of promoting “unacceptable and unpracticable customs.”

52.   Beloved congregation, we are saved. This doesn’t simply mean we now get to enjoy heaven’s joy—it also means that God’s liberating hand reaches into the oppression and suffering others still experience and brings freedom.

53.   Therefore, our mission becomes clear. If we truly believe we’ve been called to build God’s kingdom, then we must work to realize what the world still calls “unacceptable and unpracticable.” That is our gospel mission.

54.   Let us remember that we are those who live out the unimaginable, under the theme of love.