Lilac Ministries

Bible Study Lessons

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Scripture: Acts 16:16-33

Topic: Singing in the Midst of Strife


This month we’ll be looking at the options we often have, even in the midst of difficult times. We can despair (not a pleasant choice). We can deny (a common practice). Or we can defy our trials by acting on our hope. These choices are perhaps closely related to whether we remain victims - or whether we are able to become survivors or even thrivers (like the “more than conquerors” described in Romans 8:37).

We find ourselves in Philippi, with (author/physician) Luke and Paul and Silas. Some of the worldly men of the city are enjoying a lucrative business, thanks to the fortune-telling ability of a slave. In addition to divining the future, the girl announces again and again (for days on end) that Paul and Silas are men of God “who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” It seems that Paul was not unlike some of today’s political newsmakers who have been forced to decide whether or not they are pleased with certain endorsements and (particularly) with certain endorsers!

Paul exorcises the spirit, thereby denying the businessmen the income to which they had become accustomed. Paul and Silas end up thrown into “the inner prison,” with their feet placed in stocks. Their reaction is to sing hymns in the middle of the night. An earthquake sets all the prisoners free. The jailer sets about doing himself in (before his superiors take his life), but Paul assures him that all of the prisoners have remained. The jailer responds by washing their wounds. Paul and Silas respond to the jailer (and his questions) by preaching and baptizing.

In place of fear and despair and attempts to protect and preserve self, we see God’s kingdom at work. A spirit of hope and generosity prevails. We noted that we can’t afford to presume that our acts of faith will always be rewarded with immediate results - or with ANY visible results within our lifetimes. But perhaps we can “borrow from the future” in the sense of acting on what we believe God has promised. We laughed, but soberly so, as we considered the fact that we sometimes “make withdrawals” based on the “direct deposit of faith” we have received from God in the form of the Holy Spirit, acting with a courage we didn’t think we had.