Three Sunday Sermons Part 3: The Perils of Paul
Again, the unaltered manuscript:
In 1914, the Pathe film company hit on a formula for success. They created a series of short films based on a Charles Goddard novel called “The Perils of Pauline” that ran in 20 episodes. At the end of every episode, Pauline, the heroine, would be left in some sort of extreme danger – the most famous examples being tied to railroad tracks with a train approaching and tied to a log heading into a sawmill. The producers of the Perils of Pauline created a term for the endings of these serials – the CLIFFHANGER – in part because Pauline would be occasionally hanging from a cliff near Palisades NJ at the end of several episodes. There was a remake in 1934 (with sound!), a film in 1947 and another film in 1967 – as well as the cartoons Dudley Do-Right and the Perils of Penelope Pitstop. Whew – Pauline has had a lot of peril…
The backstory is pretty simple: Pauline’s guardian dies, leaving her a fortune in the care of his secretary Mr. Koerner until the time of her marriage. Pauline wants to wait a while before marrying, as her dream is to go out and have adventures to prepare herself for becoming an author. Mr. Koerner, hoping to ultimately keep the money for himself, tries to turn Pauline's various adventures against her and have her "disappear" to his own advantage. And so, every episode ends with Pauline facing certain doom…
Sounds like the Apostle Paul’s life as we read it in the book of Acts. It seems like every time Paul turns around, his life is in danger. He was imprisoned several times, beaten, chased out of town, snuck out in the middle of the night, shipwrecked.
Last week we read that Paul and Silas and Luke and maybe some others came to Philippi to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They had some early success with Lydia and maybe some others who gathered by the river to pray.
In fact, that’s where they’re going – back to the “place of prayer” – when this episode begins. This girl – and the Greek indicates that she’d be pretty young – probably younger than 16 – this girl starts following them saying, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” One preacher noted that this would have been pretty good advertising for Paul and the guys with him. After all, everybody in town would have known this slave girl – but Paul and Silas were the new kids on the block. Okay, so the girl might have been mentally unstable – certainly she was spiritually unstable – but she was known in town. And her owners had used her to get rich because she said she could tell people’s fortunes – read the future, that kind of thing, I guess... And if people believed she could do this – and she was saying that Paul was proclaiming a way of salvation – well, that seems like pretty good advertising to me...
But the indication is that she was just saying it over and over again – Paul was getting annoyed. There’s a medication out called “Head On” – it’s a pain reliever that you apply directly to the forehead. When their first commercial came out they said, in a thirty second spot, “Head on. Apply directlty to the forehead.” something like 20 times... “Head on...” Ugh... Of course, now they’re mocking their own commercial – with some success, I might add.
But I think that’s what it must have been like –
“These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
“These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
“These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
“These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
“These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
So – Paul turns to her and says, I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” Immediately the demon leaves her...
Here’s this girl who is at least twice enslaved. First, she is spiritually enslaved. This is a classical depiction of demonic possession – which I believe is what really IS going on here – a person who has no control over herself. She has, Luke calls it, a “spirit of divination” – that is, she can see and know things she has no natural way of knowing. However you understand what is going on with this girl, there is a spiritual enslavement going on here – she is not in control of her own spiritual state.
Second, she is enslaved by systems of evil that bind her in an impossible to break grasp. Brian McLaren in his book The Secret Message of Jesus talks about how Jesus came to cast out the demons – and cast down the evil of this world. He writes about systematic evil – those institutions and prejudices that enslave people. This girl is enslaved by a system of human bondage that sees her not as a person, but as property to be used, profited from, exploited – and economic system that makes this human trafficking possible, a patriarchial system that gives this girl even no status as a human being – since she is not a man, not even an adult... There is SYSTEMATIC EVIL that holds her in bondage. She has no freedom at all. Not her her society, not in her relationships, not even in her spiritual life.
Jesus came to usher in the Kingdom of God. His death for our sins – his perfect atonement for us – was the BEGINNING for us – not the end. If we accept Jesus offer of forgiveness which frees us from being slaves to the spiritual and systematic evil of this world – then we are welcomed in as part of the Kingdom of God. We are welcomed into new life, we are made brand new the Bible says – and invited to look at the world around us in a new light – the light of God.
That light reveals evil and sin for what it is. The light of God reveals selfishness and hatred and addiction and shame – but the light of God doesn’t just reveal – God RELEASES us from those things too.
When you believe that GOD is here – when I begin to believe that God’s power and presence is always with me – then I begin to see the world in this new kind of light.
Here was a girl – doubly enslaved – and suddenly freed in the power and name of Jesus Christ. The spiritual bonds that held her were released – and in that, she would have been of no significant value to her owners anymore – in fact, that’s the REAL reason that Paul and Silas and the others get tossed into jail – in freeing her from her bondage, Paul took away their meal ticket.
Now, here’s another thing about living in this kind of freeing faith – here’s another of the Perils of Paul, if you will – when sin and evil are revealed for what they are, there is sometimes a price to pay. They get tossed into jail, right?
But even in jail, they are free, aren’t they? What do they do? They sing, they pray – it’s midnight and Paul’s got a revival service going on. Would you do that? Would I? But Paul’s living constantly in the expectation of the presence of God – he KNOWS beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is there in prison with him – and regardless of the outcome of this, he knows that God is going to deliver him, one way or another.
And, it happens to be another...
There’s the earthquake, and the chains dropping off and the doors opening up...
Now – what would we do? Unjustly beaten and thrown into prison, the doors pop open and we could walk out – and don’t forget, that Peter was literally delivered from prison by a messenger from God who led him out of the jail to Mary’s house not long before this. So, the doors are open. What would I do?
Why don’t they leave? Have you ever wondered that? I think you’ve probably heard before that Roman jailers were responsible for their prisoners with their own lives. That is, if they escaped, the jailer would be executed. A simple, if brutal, way of keeping the guards honest. Paul would have known this and so they stayed. Paul would not have his freedom at the expense of enslaving someone else. To put it another way, his Open door would have been a closed door for the jailer. And this is a powerful testimony to the jailer who brings his entire family in to hear the “way of salvation” that this man was proclaiming – a salvation that does not climb over others, exploit others, destroy others. That’s what the Kingdom of God looks like.
The girl was delivered from her spiritual bondage at the expense of Paul’s freedom, the jailer was delivered from HIS spiritual bondage also at the expense of Paul’s freedom. But in the KOG we live in the center of God’s will – where freedom is not dependent on our external circumstances, but on our inward relationship...
Erwin McManus writes in his book An Unstoppable Force:
You've heard it said that the safest place to be is in the center of God's will. I am sure this promise was well intended, but it is neither true nor innocuous. When we believe that God's purpose, intention, or promise is that we will be safe from harm, we are utterly disconnected from the movement and power of God...
The truth of the matter is that the center of God's will is not a safe place but the most dangerous place in the world! God fears nothing and no one! God moves with intentionality and pwoer. To live outside God's will puts us in danger; to live in his will makes us dangerous.
That’s the flipside of this this story. We can look at the cost that Paul paid for listening to God – for living a life in the EXPECTATION of the presence and power of God. But look at the RESULTS. Wherever the Kingdom of God is – wherever we live in the expectation of God – we see evil cast out and thrown down – we see lives changed and transformed. We see the enslaved go free, we see the broken healed, we see salvation come. Paul may have lost his freedom for a short time (really, here it’s just one night) but he was the catylast for releasing one girl from evil and opening up one whole family to the truth and power of the Gospel of Jesus Chrsit. I think that a night in jail is a pretty small price to pay.
Do you remember the famous line from President Ronald Reagan about the Berlin Wall, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Toward the end of the speech that Mr. Reagan delivered standing in front of that wall, he said,
As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner: "This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality." Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.
What walls stand in our lives, in our community, in our relationships? What walls have been put up to keep in the darkness and shut out the light? The kingdom of God tears down those walls – and we who live in the expectation of God’s power and presence – in the very center of God’s will – we are DANGEROUS to those walls.
Think about the evil that traps people. The spiritual evil that turns us in on ourselves that says we’re never good enough, never smart enough, never thin enough, pretty enough, rich enough, strong enough. Jesus came to cast out that spiritual evil. And the systems of Evil all around us – to tear down the walls that trap people – the walls of poverty, and drugs and pornography and abuse and sexism and classism – tear them down – be dangerous. God is here.
The charges leveled against those early, dangerous men known as the Apostles was this: “They are turning the world upside down.” Let’s be dangerous. Let’s turn our world upside down...
May 20, 2007
Acts 16:16-35
“The Perils of Paul”
Acts 16:16-35
“The Perils of Paul”
In 1914, the Pathe film company hit on a formula for success. They created a series of short films based on a Charles Goddard novel called “The Perils of Pauline” that ran in 20 episodes. At the end of every episode, Pauline, the heroine, would be left in some sort of extreme danger – the most famous examples being tied to railroad tracks with a train approaching and tied to a log heading into a sawmill. The producers of the Perils of Pauline created a term for the endings of these serials – the CLIFFHANGER – in part because Pauline would be occasionally hanging from a cliff near Palisades NJ at the end of several episodes. There was a remake in 1934 (with sound!), a film in 1947 and another film in 1967 – as well as the cartoons Dudley Do-Right and the Perils of Penelope Pitstop. Whew – Pauline has had a lot of peril…
The backstory is pretty simple: Pauline’s guardian dies, leaving her a fortune in the care of his secretary Mr. Koerner until the time of her marriage. Pauline wants to wait a while before marrying, as her dream is to go out and have adventures to prepare herself for becoming an author. Mr. Koerner, hoping to ultimately keep the money for himself, tries to turn Pauline's various adventures against her and have her "disappear" to his own advantage. And so, every episode ends with Pauline facing certain doom…
Sounds like the Apostle Paul’s life as we read it in the book of Acts. It seems like every time Paul turns around, his life is in danger. He was imprisoned several times, beaten, chased out of town, snuck out in the middle of the night, shipwrecked.
Last week we read that Paul and Silas and Luke and maybe some others came to Philippi to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They had some early success with Lydia and maybe some others who gathered by the river to pray.
In fact, that’s where they’re going – back to the “place of prayer” – when this episode begins. This girl – and the Greek indicates that she’d be pretty young – probably younger than 16 – this girl starts following them saying, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” One preacher noted that this would have been pretty good advertising for Paul and the guys with him. After all, everybody in town would have known this slave girl – but Paul and Silas were the new kids on the block. Okay, so the girl might have been mentally unstable – certainly she was spiritually unstable – but she was known in town. And her owners had used her to get rich because she said she could tell people’s fortunes – read the future, that kind of thing, I guess... And if people believed she could do this – and she was saying that Paul was proclaiming a way of salvation – well, that seems like pretty good advertising to me...
But the indication is that she was just saying it over and over again – Paul was getting annoyed. There’s a medication out called “Head On” – it’s a pain reliever that you apply directly to the forehead. When their first commercial came out they said, in a thirty second spot, “Head on. Apply directlty to the forehead.” something like 20 times... “Head on...” Ugh... Of course, now they’re mocking their own commercial – with some success, I might add.
But I think that’s what it must have been like –
“These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
“These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
“These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
“These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
“These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
So – Paul turns to her and says, I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” Immediately the demon leaves her...
Here’s this girl who is at least twice enslaved. First, she is spiritually enslaved. This is a classical depiction of demonic possession – which I believe is what really IS going on here – a person who has no control over herself. She has, Luke calls it, a “spirit of divination” – that is, she can see and know things she has no natural way of knowing. However you understand what is going on with this girl, there is a spiritual enslavement going on here – she is not in control of her own spiritual state.
Second, she is enslaved by systems of evil that bind her in an impossible to break grasp. Brian McLaren in his book The Secret Message of Jesus talks about how Jesus came to cast out the demons – and cast down the evil of this world. He writes about systematic evil – those institutions and prejudices that enslave people. This girl is enslaved by a system of human bondage that sees her not as a person, but as property to be used, profited from, exploited – and economic system that makes this human trafficking possible, a patriarchial system that gives this girl even no status as a human being – since she is not a man, not even an adult... There is SYSTEMATIC EVIL that holds her in bondage. She has no freedom at all. Not her her society, not in her relationships, not even in her spiritual life.
Jesus came to usher in the Kingdom of God. His death for our sins – his perfect atonement for us – was the BEGINNING for us – not the end. If we accept Jesus offer of forgiveness which frees us from being slaves to the spiritual and systematic evil of this world – then we are welcomed in as part of the Kingdom of God. We are welcomed into new life, we are made brand new the Bible says – and invited to look at the world around us in a new light – the light of God.
That light reveals evil and sin for what it is. The light of God reveals selfishness and hatred and addiction and shame – but the light of God doesn’t just reveal – God RELEASES us from those things too.
When you believe that GOD is here – when I begin to believe that God’s power and presence is always with me – then I begin to see the world in this new kind of light.
Here was a girl – doubly enslaved – and suddenly freed in the power and name of Jesus Christ. The spiritual bonds that held her were released – and in that, she would have been of no significant value to her owners anymore – in fact, that’s the REAL reason that Paul and Silas and the others get tossed into jail – in freeing her from her bondage, Paul took away their meal ticket.
Now, here’s another thing about living in this kind of freeing faith – here’s another of the Perils of Paul, if you will – when sin and evil are revealed for what they are, there is sometimes a price to pay. They get tossed into jail, right?
But even in jail, they are free, aren’t they? What do they do? They sing, they pray – it’s midnight and Paul’s got a revival service going on. Would you do that? Would I? But Paul’s living constantly in the expectation of the presence of God – he KNOWS beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is there in prison with him – and regardless of the outcome of this, he knows that God is going to deliver him, one way or another.
And, it happens to be another...
There’s the earthquake, and the chains dropping off and the doors opening up...
Now – what would we do? Unjustly beaten and thrown into prison, the doors pop open and we could walk out – and don’t forget, that Peter was literally delivered from prison by a messenger from God who led him out of the jail to Mary’s house not long before this. So, the doors are open. What would I do?
Why don’t they leave? Have you ever wondered that? I think you’ve probably heard before that Roman jailers were responsible for their prisoners with their own lives. That is, if they escaped, the jailer would be executed. A simple, if brutal, way of keeping the guards honest. Paul would have known this and so they stayed. Paul would not have his freedom at the expense of enslaving someone else. To put it another way, his Open door would have been a closed door for the jailer. And this is a powerful testimony to the jailer who brings his entire family in to hear the “way of salvation” that this man was proclaiming – a salvation that does not climb over others, exploit others, destroy others. That’s what the Kingdom of God looks like.
The girl was delivered from her spiritual bondage at the expense of Paul’s freedom, the jailer was delivered from HIS spiritual bondage also at the expense of Paul’s freedom. But in the KOG we live in the center of God’s will – where freedom is not dependent on our external circumstances, but on our inward relationship...
Erwin McManus writes in his book An Unstoppable Force:
You've heard it said that the safest place to be is in the center of God's will. I am sure this promise was well intended, but it is neither true nor innocuous. When we believe that God's purpose, intention, or promise is that we will be safe from harm, we are utterly disconnected from the movement and power of God...
The truth of the matter is that the center of God's will is not a safe place but the most dangerous place in the world! God fears nothing and no one! God moves with intentionality and pwoer. To live outside God's will puts us in danger; to live in his will makes us dangerous.
That’s the flipside of this this story. We can look at the cost that Paul paid for listening to God – for living a life in the EXPECTATION of the presence and power of God. But look at the RESULTS. Wherever the Kingdom of God is – wherever we live in the expectation of God – we see evil cast out and thrown down – we see lives changed and transformed. We see the enslaved go free, we see the broken healed, we see salvation come. Paul may have lost his freedom for a short time (really, here it’s just one night) but he was the catylast for releasing one girl from evil and opening up one whole family to the truth and power of the Gospel of Jesus Chrsit. I think that a night in jail is a pretty small price to pay.
Do you remember the famous line from President Ronald Reagan about the Berlin Wall, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Toward the end of the speech that Mr. Reagan delivered standing in front of that wall, he said,
As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner: "This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality." Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.
What walls stand in our lives, in our community, in our relationships? What walls have been put up to keep in the darkness and shut out the light? The kingdom of God tears down those walls – and we who live in the expectation of God’s power and presence – in the very center of God’s will – we are DANGEROUS to those walls.
Think about the evil that traps people. The spiritual evil that turns us in on ourselves that says we’re never good enough, never smart enough, never thin enough, pretty enough, rich enough, strong enough. Jesus came to cast out that spiritual evil. And the systems of Evil all around us – to tear down the walls that trap people – the walls of poverty, and drugs and pornography and abuse and sexism and classism – tear them down – be dangerous. God is here.
The charges leveled against those early, dangerous men known as the Apostles was this: “They are turning the world upside down.” Let’s be dangerous. Let’s turn our world upside down...
Comments