18 Jan

6/3/18  ACTS 16:16-34      “DEFEATING SATAN 100% OF THE TIME!”

There are many times in life when we think that we have done a dandy job of something and we end up in all kinds of trouble even if we are right.  That is because we live in a world controlled by Satan.  I don’t know of anyone who can beat him……on their own.  It is only through Jesus that he can be beaten and only then if you are a believer and call on Jesus for help.  Jesus has beaten Satan and you shouldn’t have to worry so much about that because he has been defeated.  We are going to see this aptly illustrated in our Scripture reading for today.  Let’s see if you can understand how you can defeat Satan 100% of the times when he attacks.  All you need is a little faith.

I have read several true stories like this one that Ian Johnson tells of Divine intervention and protection that was experienced in a village in South Vietnam in 1968.  One night under the cover of darkness a Viet Cong soldier of a battalion of over a thousand came to warn a village.  “Tomorrow is your day.  So you need to get out of this village right now,” the soldier said.

Most of the people of the village were Christian.  They met and decided that they were indeed greatly outnumbered but their real defender was Jesus Christ.  The whole village agreed that they would all, as a village, turn to Jesus in prayer.  They sang and prayed fervently.  Towards evening they could see the enemy at the edge of the village.  It was at this point that the Lord filled their hearts with a sense of peace as they continued to sing.  Soon shots rang out but as quickly as they started, they stopped.  All night long the villagers prayed.  In the morning they found that the enemy had scattered.

Days later some of the Viet Cong were captured by advancing troops and brought to the village as prisoners.  When they were asked about why they didn’t attack the village when they were there earlier, they responded, “As we began to shoot the village, it was surrounded by beings dressed in shining white.  As we continued to shoot at them they continued to increase in brightness and advanced toward us.  They would not fall.  We got scared and ran and didn’t stop.” God had stopped a massacre like there was nothing to it.  He was the greatest weapon that day.  Isn’t that something?  I just love true stories like this.

We can see these things happen today just like they happened to Paul in our Scripture.  We will look at two incidents.  One is a miracle and the other is something that any of us can do.

Paul and Silas are still in Philippi.  As they would go to worship, they would get accosted by a girl who had an evil spirit that helped her to predict the future.  The people who owned this slave girl made a lot of money from her doing this.  Right away we have some major things happening here.  Satan is at work in this girl.  There are many places in the Bible that tell us that sorcery and fortune telling are the work of the devil.  But what is interesting here is that the girl keeps coming back to these strong Christians day after day. She is drawn to them because of something about them.  It’s just like people are drawn to you because there is just something about you.  That something is Jesus Christ and He naturally attracts people like bees to flowers.

I think that it is easy to see this happening all around us.  Satan is always on the attack.  And he will especially go after someone who is deeply committed to Jesus Christ.  We can look at the Jimmy Baker scandal a number of years ago.  Just within the last few years we have had nationally known pastors step down because of some sort homosexual behaviors.  We pastors are only human and we are subject to the same pressures that everyone else has.  Only I think that the attacks upon us are a little harder because it is harder to convince us.  This is because of our love of Jesus.  And that is our defensive line against Satan.  As I said Jesus has beaten him and we can all be safe if we know what to do.  However, there is no way I condone any of these behaviors in pastors or anyone else.  A sin is a sin and God hates sin.  We cannot go around saying something is ok to do just because everyone else is doing it.  The lesser of 2 evils is still evil.

Anyway let’s look at the people that were making money from this poor slave girl.  People made their livelihood from these works of the devil.  And it is the same way today.  What would happen if I started calling people evil who try to sell you their services of fortune telling, sorcery and so on?  What would happen if I started to tell you the truth that male homosexuals have a life expectancy of 20 years less than the rest of the population?  If that lifestyle is so good, then why are their lives so short?  Or what would happen if I started to tell you that the absolute truth comes from this book and all other religions are lies?  It is time that pastors quit trying to pacify everyone.  We will only be successful in God’s eyes if we minister with truth and grace and with the love of Jesus.

Moving on, we find Paul gets fed up with this woman and casts the demon out.  She is finally free.  And there is not a person here who can’t also be free.  One of the first things we need to learn is that Satan is the root of all evil.  Only bad things come from him.  When we make one of our patented dumb decisions, it is Satan who is standing over us clapping his hands.  He is dancing for joy when I make a mistake.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.  When Jesus died on the cross and rose again, He defeated Satan and death.  He did this because of his tremendous love for us.  He did this to show us the way to beat the devil.  All you have to do is command Satan out of our life in the name of Jesus and he has to obey.  Satan is a fallen angel and even he knows who is boss.  He has to obey Jesus.

So when you feel an attack coming just say, “In the name of Jesus Christ, Satan get away from me.”  Or if you feel he is attacking a son or daughter say, “In the name of Jesus Christ, Satan get out of his or her body.”  You can even say, “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Satan get out of this church or home or apartment.”  Things will happen and they will happen fast.

Years ago I remember going to an important church meeting where we were going to start a new ministry which led me here today and I was feeling terribly sick.  The closer I came to the church the worse I felt.  I was really sick.  Finally, I realized what was happening and I told Satan to take a hike in the name of Jesus Christ.  Immediately, I was ok again.  Things like this have happened to me many times.  I praise the Lord for His presence in my life.  If you don’t remember anything else I say today, remember this and use it.

Now the slave owners are mad and they go and have Paul and Silas severely beaten and thrown in jail.  Remember that this is in the city where Paul would establish his most influential church as some experts will tell us.  It seems like a pretty rough start to me.  Anyway, they are not only thrown in jail but the jailer is taking no chances and he puts them in leg shackles in a cell in the middle of the prison.  Maybe he had heard of Paul and his God and wasn’t taking any chances.  Or maybe he just wanted to be extra careful that they didn’t escape because their escape would mean his death.  The passage doesn’t elaborate and we don’t know.

But what we do know is that in spite of their predicament Paul and Silas were praying and singing to the Lord around midnight as the other prisoners listened.  Then there was an earthquake at the prison that opened the doors and loosened the chains on the prisoners.  This was the miracle.  The jailer was about to kill himself because he thought that all the prisoners had escaped.  Paul stopped him and the jailer wanted to know what he had to do to be saved.

One of the unnoticed themes in this passage comes when we read that everyone’s chains fell off.  This didn’t just happen to Paul and Silas.  It happened to everyone in the jail; everyone who was good and everyone who was bad.  With Jesus it does not matter if you are so called good or bad.  For we have all sinned in the eyes of the Lord.  Even the best person that you can think of is like blackened coal in the eyes of God.

We can go back to the first part of the reading and see the slave girl who is poor and possessed.  We see that even someone who is working directly in conflict with Jesus is worthy of the salvation that He offers.  Luke is telling us here that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, you are worthy of His grace.  You are worthy of His love.

How many people do you know that are locked in their personal prison?  How many people do you know who are shackled to their sin?  I have known many people in my life that have come to Jesus Christ and I praise the Lord for that.  But I have also known many people who have come to Jesus and have held onto some of their sin.  These are the good people who are still in jail.  They hang onto their sin because they have had it so long that it begins to feel good them.  They don’t want to let go because it has become a part of their identity.  In this jail that Satan has them in, they will get three square meals and a place to sleep.  It is all they know.  They have been there so long that they don’t remember what freedom is like.  Satan is vicious.

There is a world out there that is beautiful and it is free to us.  There is a world out there where we can come and go as we do the work of Jesus Christ.  There is a world out there where you can get some sleep at night because you have the assurance that all will be well in the end.  I think that all of us know people like that; people who are stuck in their prison.

Then the jailer asks, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  And Paul replies and you have heard me say this before, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”  Friends and neighbors, this is not rocket science or even computer science. This is very simple, so simple that many people get lost trying to make it complicated.  We have to believe in Jesus Christ.  You have also heard me say this many times.  I not only believe in Jesus, I have a knowledge that He is there all the time.

Several years ago we lost a champion of the Christian world, the Reverend Jerry Falwell.  Here was a man who loved Jesus.  Now don’t get me wrong.  He had a lot of ideas and many of them went against the grain of a lot of people.  He stirred things up.  But I noticed one thing as I watched the news coverage of his death.  Some of his harshest critics were interviewed.  Every one of them disagreed with various stands that Falwell made.  But there was not one person who could say that he did not like Jerry Falwell on a personal level.  Personally, he was so likable that everybody who met him liked him.  They all said that he had a tremendous love for Jesus.  That was first and foremost in his life.  He loved Jesus.

And that is what we have to ask ourselves as we read a passage like this.  This little story has all of the elements.  It has the despicable behavior of the slave girl.  It has the bad people in jail.  It has the good people in jail.  And it has the Good News of Jesus Christ that saves them all.  If you do not know Jesus Christ, repent of your sins and ask Him to live in your heart today.  And if you have not done that yet then think about this:  you could be one of the people in the passage this morning.  You could be in your personal jail.  Ask Him into your life today.

Because look what happened to the jailer.  He and his whole household accepted Jesus Christ.  It tells us that they were filled with joy.  There is no joy without Jesus.  Then he patched and cleaned the wounds that Paul and Silas had.  He took them to his house and they ate a meal.  This is almost a repeat of the story of Lydia.  It does not say but I would almost guess that this jailer was an integral part of the church in Philippi.  Once again God has taken a bad situation and a so called bad person and worked the miracle of salvation.  This is the same miracle he works every day as he changes lives.  This is the same miracle He worked in my life.

Today you have seen how you are empowered to fight the battle against Satan.  This is a point that you should not forget.  We also saw again how God does a miracle.  He frees Paul and Silas, and He does it for His glory.  In this case a jailer and his household are saved and probably help start a new church.  In our opening story we saw a miracle in a small village far away where the people’s love for Jesus saved them.

This is the Good News of Jesus Christ.  The biggest miracle is what He does in the lives He changes.  I hope and pray that each of you has or will let Jesus take control of your life, total control.  Without him you are like the prisoners in a small finite cell.  But with Him you are like someone who is out in the wide open spaces with an infinite number of places of go, things to do and people to tell the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Praise the Lord.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.