All right, is that picket? Yeah, that's picking up. Is it ringing? Am I too far forward?
You can, you hear me? Of course, what do you what do you mean something's not on?
Okay, I just thought I heard ringing. That's why I was Alright, so we are back in Acts.
Chapter 16. For the end of the chapter.
Oh, that's where the notes start. Okay. So we're, I'm going to back up and, and, Read through versus starting in verse 16 again.
Just a little bit for context and also to give me a chance. To say a little bit more about.
Pagan Greek mythology, pagan Greek religion, because my wife tells me that not everybody is as nerdy as my kids and I are and the stuff about the oracle at Delphi might not have been.
As useful to you as I would have hoped last week. So let's go back starting at verse 16 and I'll read down through.
I'll read down through 24.
As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination or a spirit of Python.
As I told you last week. And brought her owners, she had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gained by fortune telling.
She followed Paul and us, crying out, These men are servants of the Most High God. Who proclaim to you the or probably better translation is a way of salvation.
And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.
And it came out that very hour. But when our owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.
And when they brought them to the magistrates, they said, these men are Jews and they are disturbing our city.
They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice. The crowd joined in attacking them and the magistrates poured the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods.
And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into the prison ordering the jailer to keep them safely.
Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet with stocks. Let's open and prayer having.
Read the Word of the Lord and then we'll begin talking about it.
Father, we thank you for your word for Luke's work in recording. These events. And for putting them down for the people that he was writing them to originally and also for us.
Father, we thank you that we have. So much that we can learn from this. Which is probably that your spirit would be among us right now and that it would guide me and open the hearts of people so that we can We can learn those things that we need to learn from your word in Christ's name, and we pray.
Amen. Okay, so like I said, as they were going to the place of prayer, in verse 16, that still makes it sound like we're largely talking about a Jewish.
A Jewish group of believers. The the place of prayer I think is referring back to earlier in the chapter when they had gone and sought out a place of prayer and that was where they met Lydia and some other women.
So I think we are still dealing. With that, and that'll become relevant later. But just to say, I think we're primarily still talking about.
A group of Jewish Christians here that Paul is ministering among.
So they're going to the place of prayer and they encounter this girl. Who it says in the.
ESV that she has a spirit of divination. There are several different translations available, but the Greek actually says she has a spirit of Python.
And I mentioned last week that this is related to the Oracle at Delphi, where a prophetess who was called the Pythia.
Was was Kept, I guess, is probably the best term for it. Actually, when when this site was most active.
I've read that they kept 3 or 4. Profitesses, pithias. They kept 3 or 4 of them available at all times.
Because the way this worked. For those of you who don't know, The way this worked, Delphi was a a site.
Not terribly far from Corinth. And one theory is, and I think it's a pretty good one, is that it was sort of the intersection of 2 fault lines.
And so there was like something between a cave and a deep hole. There and they had built the Greeks had built a temple over this site.
And they had one little room. That wasn't entirely enclosed, but it was, you know, closed off some back near the opening, the deepest part of the opening.
And you could go there and you could ask a question of the the Pythia. The prophetess who was being kept there and the priests would, you know, if it was the right time.
A lot today, no prophecies available. And it wasn't regular either. It was just It was not freakent, but it was not infrequent and it was just if you got lucky.
But it was considered by the Greeks to be the most reliable oracle. That they had available to them.
People would come. From all over the Greek world. To to inquire there were other similar sites but they would come from all over the Greek world to inquire of those to try to seek out an answer to prophecy.
No, sometimes. The young women were very clever with their you know, how they deliver it. One really famous instance of it.
Is a king. Who was from, well, he was actually the king from Lydia, which at that time was a large region of Turkey centered in the city of Lydia where where the the name that that we encountered earlier in the chapter came from.
But he came and he asked the oracle about going to war against the Persians because The the Persian Empire was starting to encroach into his territory and he was nervous about this and he goes to her and she says, If you go to war.
A great empire will be destroyed. Well that sounds great until you think about the fact that And as it turned out, Oh, it was his great empire that was destroyed.
The Persians wiped him out. So sometimes the answers could go either way. But they what they believed and this is the reason that it was called Python and the reason that the prophetess was called the Pittia.
Supposedly the Greek god Apollo had killed some great serpent or some great dragon or some kind of python.
Down in this cave. And it was from, I guess, the decay of the. The beast.
I'll just leave it open-ended at beast. That you could actually, sometimes you could smell that and it was a sweet smell.
The only animal I've ever heard that decays and it gives off a sweet smell, but supposedly it's a sweet smell.
And a lot of theory is that it was probably some sort of a gas. That would affect their brain and put them into translate states.
There are all kinds of speculations about that. But the point is This was a major part. Of Greek religion.
A major and and Greek ranging from from, you know, at least as far as wrong. And well into Turkey and anywhere that you would have heard about this.
People were interested in traveling to this site. And this young woman is described as having the same sort of spirit.
Now she's obviously not at Delphi. Inhaling those vapors. But she's there with the same idea.
And just like at Delphi where you would spend quite a bit of money to be allowed to inquire of the Pythia that was there.
Her owners because she had this same sort of gift or spirit. I don't know how they were.
Describing it. Luke and Paul obviously are describing it. As possession by an evil spirit. But because she has this ability.
They are able to make quite a bit of money on her. People will come, they will. Hey them in order to get an answer.
From the girl. So that, that is the context. For what's going on here. The the girl I think is representing.
Sort of in just one person in one place as soon as they get into. As soon as they leave.
Sort of the world that they had been part of and enter into what we know of as Europe. Enter into more Greek territory there in Macedonia, they're coming into conflict with this foundational aspect of Greek religion.
And as we said, Paul casts out the spirit. He holds off, she's following them around for many days.
And saying these men are servants of the Most High God. Which sounds good to us, but. Who knows what?
Any of the other people in Philippines would have thought when they hear the Most High God, Zeus was even sometimes referred to as Zeus Most High.
So they could have been, I guess, Jupiter, because it's a Roman city, not a primarily Greek city, but
There's no reason to believe that they would have been thinking of the one true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
When they hear that, And so Paul turns and says to the Spirit, this is in verse 18, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.
And it came out that very hour. So. Everybody sees this. Everybody sees what's happened.
And her owners after, you know. Probably working with her a little bit afterwards. Discover, wait a minute.
She can't do it anymore. We can't make money off of her anymore.
So one thing I think that tells us is that. She wasn't faking it. Right? A lot of times you go to, well.
Okay, you don't go to I don't go to hopefully none of us go to fortune tellers, but When people go to fortune tellers Most of the time, I think they're just You know, they're complete charlatans.
They're, they're saying something. That that You can interpret as having to do with you.
And they pick up on cues to be able to dial it in a little bit more, but it's all just a scam.
If she were just scanning people. If she were just, I can't remember what the term for it is that, because they've.
They've come up with a term for this method now. But if she were just doing that. She would still be able to, to do that, because that's a learned behavior, that's a skill.
That's not something that. Paul would cast out. So she wasn't faking it. She genuinely was possessed by a spirit.
That would speak through her. And probably speak accurately. Evil spirits can go and observe a whole bunch of stuff and can.
Gather a whole bunch of information. So she probably was speaking fairly accurately. I don't know what she meant by it and I don't know what The people in Philippai would have heard But it's not inaccurate.
To say that these men are servants of the Most High God. And it's only a slight twist.
To say that. That they were proclaiming to you a way of salvation, which I think is a better translation.
Than what almost all English Bibles have, which is for a claim to you the way of salvation.
She's telling people that they're proclaiming. A way of salvation. And I think the reason she's doing it both of them, whether it's her motivation or the spirit's motivation.
I think the reason is in order to dilute or cloud or confuse the gospel message. To write from the beginning.
Give the people of Philippine before Paul and Silas even have a good chance to evangelize many of them Give the people at Philippe a way to work the God that they're talking about into the Pantheon of gods that the Philippians already know.
You know, yeah, they're talking about the Most High God. Just you know maybe the most high but one of all of these gods they're talking about a way of salvation not exclusive So she's giving them language for that.
And that's why Paul confronts this. And casts out the demon, or casts out the spirit.
So continuing on. When her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.
That's in the marketplace in the forum. Is where these kinds of things would happen out in public.
They didn't have a courthouse where they would schedule a date. This is going to be done in the public forum.
And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, these men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city.
They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.
So the accusation is twofold. And both parts are important. To their accusation.
The first is they emphasize that they're Jews who are here disturbing the city. So I think.
We can glean from that. That there was some anti Jewish feeling in Philippines. If you, you know, in verse 22 it said the crowd joined in attacking them.
So it didn't take much. To stir them up. To oppose what these Jews are doing.
The second part and the more formal charges because you can't really charge them with being Jewish. The more formal part is they advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.
So they're saying. They're coming in here from the outside and they're preaching anti-Roman.
Stuff. The things they're saying are anti-Roman. They're really not. All in silas don't.
Do or say anything with regards to Rome, the Roman Empire, the Roman government? At all in any of this.
But that's the charge and that's going to be really. Effective in Philippai because Philippi, while it's in Macedonia, in sort of greater Greece as we think of it now.
Philippae is a Roman colony. It's not a Greek city. It's a Roman colony.
There be plenty of people speaking Greek. But the inscriptions that we've found in Philippines are predominantly Latin inscriptions.
Official business would be conducted in Latin and Philippines. Most of the as a Romans, as a Roman colony.
The citizens of Philippai were Roman citizens. And they were very proud of that. It had been founded as a military or a veterans colony.
So some. Some legion. When it finally after. 1015, 20 years, however long, was allowed to stand down and muster out.
They, some of them were given plots of land here in Philippines and that's how the the colony was established as a Roman colony.
And like I say, they are very conscious of that Roman status that's very much more important, apparently.
In Philippai than it is to a lot of the other cities. The other Roman cities it's the only one where Luke mentions that it's a Roman city.
There are several others that are. But Luke mentions it here and it's culturally very important to them.
So in response to that. The magistrates. Ter off their garments. And they have their lors is what the these men with rods are called.
They have, and if you've ever watched one of these like old Roman Empire movies. Or TV shows and you see a I think you have to be higher than a senator, but a high ranking official.
Who's going around and part of his entourage are these men that have a group of sticks, basically, a group of rods.
That are those men are called lors. And having them walk around with them and the number of them that you get walking around with you is an indication of rank.
And so. These, these 2 city magistrates. Have their liquors. Beat Paul and Silas with rods.
This is an official punishment. It's actually within there the the magistrates legal right. To do this even without a trial.
Except for the fact which they don't know yet. That Paul and Silas are Roman citizens. With them being Roman citizens, which We find out.
Later in the chapter, it's highly illegal. I'll, I'll talk more about that later when we get to it, but it's highly illegal what they do.
Since Paul and Silas are Roman citizens, but other than that, if they had just been some random Jews, from Cilicia and Jerusalem who showed up and the magistrates decided we need to beat them.
It would have been legal.
So they're arrested. They're thrown in prison. They're put into the inner room of the prison, which is the most secure part of the prison.
And they're fastened their feet. To the wood it says and that's how they would have said in stocks I think I don't does everybody have in stocks?
Okay, so think of it that way, but the languages that they're feet are fastened to the wood.
I think Luke is. Not, sad that the stocks are wood giving him the opportunity to say this.
And draw a connection between what they're going through and what Christ goes through as he's fastened.
To the wood, the wooden cross. Which is actually referred to as the wood. And some of the Greek passages.
I think Luke's happy to be able to. To draw that connection. But they're thrown into prison.
Into the innermost room and they're fastened in socks. They're fastened there.
And in verse 25, about midnight, they're singing hymns to God.
This is all wild. They've been beaten. Badly. It's like they didn't just get whacked.
Right? Judaism has rules about how many times you can be beaten. Right, you know, 40 minus one.
Rome did not have those rules. So I'm assuming that the Lors beat them until they were no longer able to.
To. You know, say anything and then they were dragged off to the prison. So in that state They were thrown into filthy prison because they didn't usually get cleaned very much.
With a bunch of other filthy prisoners. Who are not being supplied with any more than the absolute minimum to keep them alive.
Until such time as there would be a trial. And these guys are singing hymns. It's amazing to me.
But it midnight, they're singing hymns in their torn clothes. Still in the stocks.
And then. Let's see, verse 26, and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken.
And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bonds were unfastened. Now, earthquakes are not all that rare in that part of the world.
There are Quite a lot of fault lines going through there and so It's not uncommon that there would be earthquakes.
They're usually not huge. This one I would assume was bad enough to break up the prison.
Rebuild. This one I don't think was anywhere near that bad. But it was bad enough to break them out.
So this is kind of like a jailbreak except nobody leaves, the jail's just broken.
Verse 27, when the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, He drew his sword and was about to kill himself.
Supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, Do not harm yourself.
For we are all here. And the jailer called for lights and rushed in and trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas.
So.
The earthquake breaks the prison open. And the jailer assumes when he sees that the doors are all knocked off.
He assumes that the prisoners have left. And that leads him to draw his sword and be about to kill himself.
I, I suppose, although it doesn't tell us. I suppose because he believed that the punishment for losing his prisoners was going to be worse.
Than, than death. Not not worth saying live and possibly in a and a veteran in a veteran colony.
With military leadership basically the magistrates here. They actually have a military title. It's It's not exactly a rank, it's more like a job description.
But it's a military term that they're given as. The 2 men that that sort of run the governance of Philippe right then.
So maybe it would have been that bad. I don't know if I were in charge.
And people managed to get out of jail because there was an earthquake. I don't know that I would blame the jailer that badly.
But he expected them to. And Paul stops him. So maybe then in verse 29 when he comes in trembling.
He's still trying. Because he's worried about because, you know, the adrenaline of having thought that he was going to lose his life.
But I don't think so. I think there's another reason that he comes in trembling.
I think it's because he assumes this has something to do with Paul and Silas.
I think that he believes that in some way, and I think he's right. But that in some way them being there is what brought about this earthquake.
After all, he knows what the charges are. He knows the charges are something to do with the spirit world, something to do with you know, the gods.
And, and now. They've been handled. Treated badly, thrown in prison. And there's an earthquake destroying his prison.
So I think that he's assuming that either they did it. Or somebody did it on their behalf.
And so he goes in verse 30. He goes and says, he brought them out and said, sirs or lords, it's the same Greek word that's usually translated Lord.
Says, what must I do to be saved? I don't know what he means by saved yet at this point.
But Paul takes advantage of it. And gives him the gospel. First 31 and they said Believe in the Lord Jesus.
And you will be saved. You and your household.
He's not saying if the man believes. That he and his household will be saved. He is saying that it's belief.
That's required for salvation and that That. Commands not the right word. That admonition.
Is to him and his household. That they all should believe.
So verse 32 then. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
So he had the opportunity or they had the opportunity. To to preach to his whole household. I don't know if that's, you know, wife and kids.
If it's servants. If it's all of the above, I don't know who all is involved.
And this man's household My guess is that the the first readers of the book of Acts did know.
Right, Lydia is the only one who's named. But my guess is the Philippian believers when they read acts for the first time.
They know who the the the Pythoness girl is. They know who they obviously know who Lydia is.
They know who this Philippian jailer is. We just call him the Philippian jailer.
They knew who he was. They know his family.
So they preach the word to them because he had taken them. Presumably up to his house. Otherwise, I don't know how they would have.
Preached to his household. Luke skips over. Little bits of action because he's got a lot to get through and he only wants to bother giving us the most important details.
But they must have been taken back up to his house. And there they got the opportunity to preach to everyone.
And in verse 33, he the Philippian jailer, He took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds.
Because he hadn't, like they hadn't had an opportunity. To cleanse those wounds since being beaten.
They'd just been dragged off to prison and thrown into a squalid, disgusting Sell.
So now, finally. He takes them ministers to them by washing their wounds. And then that favor is turned about.
They've got enough water to wash, Paul and Silas's wounds with. And so does it say which one?
It does not say whether Paul or Silas actually did. The baptizing, but he was baptized at once.
He and all his family. So this is fast evangelism, right? Take that very night.
They go and they're able to preach the gospel to this man. And his family, and they all believe.
And they're all baptized right away. And then this will show you how urgent that must have been.
Then finally, he brought them up into his house and set food before them. Only after baptizing this man and his family.
Did Paul and Silas? Bother to eat. And my guess is that as they were going to the place of prayer back in verse 16, that was probably in the morning.
So they probably did not get bright fish, lunch. Supper, 11, Z's, any of that.
Hadn't eaten anything that day. And now finally, Finally, they get to eat, but.
That's not as important. As preaching the gospel to this man and his family. And baptizing them.
Bringing them officially, symbolically. Bringing them by an act that they will be able to look back on and remember.
Bringing them into the church.
All right, so then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
Verse 35, but when it was day The magistrates sent the police saying, Let those men go.
And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, The magistrates have sent to let you go.
Therefore, Come out now and go in peace. So apparently, After doing all this, Paul and Silas reported back to the jail and sat there behind the broken-down doors and and stayed in jail and so the jailer comes and says, you can come out now and go in peace.
Now why do they want to do this?
I think they're they were less scared than the jailer because they weren't expecting their lives to end.
I think they kind of wondered if these 2 guys didn't have something to do with that earthquake last night.
You know, they had, they knew that they had been. You know, tiptoeing up to the line of decent and appropriate jurisprudence.
And they threw these guys in prison. And then there was an earthquake. So I think they're ready to to get these guys out of town as quickly as possible.
But Paul's not having it. First 37. Paul said to him, Wait, wait, wait.
They have beaten us publicly. UN condemned men who are Roman citizens? And have thrown us into prison and do they now throw us out secretly?
No! Let them come themselves! And take us out.
So Paul does not want to just be let out. He doesn't want his get out of jail free card.
No, they were publicly beaten. Publicly shamed and humiliated. Publicly accused and publicly thrown in prison.
He wants a public vindication.
Now my first thought is, that doesn't sound exactly like Paul and me. Paul talks all the time and his letters.
About being willing to suffer. For the sake of Christ. About, you know. He doesn't sound like somebody.
Who's gonna say, you know what, stand up for your rights. So I don't think here.
Paul is standing up for his rights. I think he's using his rights that he does have. In order to stand up.
But I don't think he's doing it. In order to stand up for his rights and a litter in a you know, in a straightforward kind of sense.
When Paul and Silas are publicly accused and publicly shamed and publicly humiliated. Everything associated with them.
Gets tainted with that shame.
The Gospel in Philippae. Gets tainted with that shame.
The handful of believers. That they've already brought to faith in Philippai. Going to be tainted with that shame.
And it's going to be very hard. For them to do anything else, to accomplish anything else.
And the worst part of it is It wasn't even true. If they had been. If they had been accused of preaching the gospel.
If they had been, you know, grabbed because of what the fortune teller girl said. And beaten for that.
He probably would have been willing to suffer for that. After all, that was true. He was a servant of the Most High God.
He was proclaiming not just Away, but the way of salvation. But they were accused of Anti-roman activities.
This was the the maybe it was the House Committee on Anti-roman Activities. I don't know.
But they were accused of anti-Roman activities. And beaten largely just because they were Jewish. There was an assumption that, well, you know, I mean, They're Jewish.
They can't be Roman. We can treat them however we want to. And so Paul wants a public vindication of, of.
What they were doing. In order to publicly communicate that. No, they're not anti-. They just have a message.
That's all they're coming with. And so he insists on that.
That was down to reverse 37. So verse 38. The police reported these words to the magistrates and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens.
They were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens, because if you were a Roman citizen, You could go anywhere you wanted to in the world.
And you could. You could know that you could not be mistreated. Now it happened. Obviously it happened.
People. People violate rights all the time. But a Roman citizen, particularly one of rank, and Paul doesn't appear, I think if he had any rank other than citizenship, he would have pulled that card out right here in Philippines that day.
But particularly if you were of any rank. And you're mistreated somewhere? Rome might show up with a with a legion to set things right, Philippine might not do real well.
If, if it gets back to Rome, that a Roman citizen was being mistreated. So that's why at the very least.
These 2 magistrates, no. That they could very easily lose their jobs. Now, how does Paul prove his Roman citizenship?
Right, that's one question. If I were, if I were there, I'd be like, are you really a Roman citizen?
Let me, let me see your Roman passport. But that's dicey. That's hard because one of the very few things Worse than than beating a Roman citizen.
Is claiming to be a Roman citizen. And not actually being one. And so that's rare. You don't do that.
You don't claim to be a Roman citizen. Unless you're going to be able to say, all right, let's send somebody to Tarsus.
Where I was born and they can get the records. Because at this point, I doubt if Paul has, he might have some paperwork with him, but I doubt if he has paperwork with him, they probably tore it off when they tore his clothes off.
But they could send somebody to Tarsus to come back. With records from Tarsus.
With witnesses from Tarsus confirming, yeah, this guy's a Roman citizen. The other thing that would have.
Would have made them say, oh yeah. So when they found out his name. Paul? Nobody's named.
Paul in Syria or Cilicia or Judea or any of those places you don't name your kid Paul?
Unless you're a Roman citizen. It's a fairly well-regarded Roman name. So the fact that his name is Paul.
Would have been enough to at least sort of confirm his story. And to, to make them say, It should have been enough to make them say, maybe we ought not beat this guy.
They should at least have investigated it.
So they're afraid and they come and now instead of Expelling them from the city. Now the magistrates come.
And in verse 39, they apologized to them. And they took them out out of the prison.
And asked them to leave the city. So now they're pleading with Paul and Silas. You know, please can you make this problem go away?
Will be nice, we won't do anything else, but please just. You know, don't send word back to Rome.
Which would probably make us lose our jobs. So at this point, Paul and Silas do agree to leave.
They went out of the prison and visited Lydia so they agree to leave but they don't.
They don't scurry off out of town immediately, right? They went out of the prison and visited Lydia.
And when they had seen the brothers, apparently they had had opportunity in this time to convert some men as well.
When they had and when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed. So Paul and Silas leave.
Leave Philippe headed. Continuing West. On the Via Ignatia. And we'll find them next week on their way to Thessalonica.
But at this point, they are. They have. They've sort of faced down. To things that they're coming into contact with now.
I think the fact that they're using the Via Ignatia which is the major Roman road.
Traveling between the east. And the West. I think Luke is is highlighting that. In order to.
To signal this like. Trajectory of the gospel to Rome. Right, Paul, I mean, not Paul.
Luke in the book of Acts is very interested in the progress of the gospel. Too wrong because that's sort of the center of the world.
And from there, the gospel can spread to everywhere else. So that's a strategic target.
That he's interested in. And as they've now entered into this This part of the Roman world.
In this chapter, they face. 2 of the biggest. Obstacles that they're going to face.
One is the spiritual world that's going on in the West. And that they face in the the Python S.
The the the fortune teller girl. And the power of Christ. So greatly excels the power of this Python spirit and It is cast out.
And she is freed from that bondage.
And then they face the governmental opposition that they're going to face. Here, there, and occasionally.
And they face that and deal with that confrontation as well. And those are, those are I think going to be paradigms.
For the rest of their mission as they sort of bounce back and forth. Between these 2. Enemies, both the sort of governmental structural and the spiritual realm, both opposing the progress of the gospel.
That is all I have, any comments or questions. Except for Neil. It's not allowed to, cause he comes up with.
2 hard ones. Oh. Should have ruled Bill out to yes, Bill.
When all answers, we are all here. Oh, right. I left. Yeah, I skipped over that.
Go ahead. There, like, reading through this, and they remain. Yeah, I would assume so.
Yeah, I they were. Not advanced by the
You know, committed to tell. Maya, some, I don't know if they Like I wouldn't go so far as to say that they became Christians.
But Bill was asking for those of you on Zoom. Where's the camp? There it is.
Bill was asking about, the part that I skipped over inadvertently. Where everybody's busted loose in the prison.
And Paul calls out to the jailer that we're all still here. Nobody has left. My assumption would be that You know, it says right before that that as they're singing these hymns.
Everybody is listening to them. Like all the other. And. Inmates are listening to them.
And my assumption is they realized these guys They've got something going on. And presumably Paul encourages them, fellows, stay here.
You, you don't want to escape. You want to stay here. Maybe he is able to preach the gospel to them successfully.
Maybe he just convinces them. It is a much better idea to stay here in jail than it is to escape and try to make your way because none of them were in good physical condition.
They were going to be easy to catch. And if you're a Jail escapee, they're gonna execute you.
So, so that would be, I don't know of any traditions saying what happened to any of the other prisoners that'd be interesting but I don't know of any.
Carmen? All the
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know why. Karma's mentioning that they wait a number of days.
They don't cast out the demon the very first time they encounter her. It might be. It might be that this is Let's see.
No, she kept doing that for many days. She was even proclaiming who they were and identifying them.
It could have been, you know, on for practical reasons. They were wanting to. At least put off.
Provoking the kind of response that they ended up getting. Presumably they know. If we do this, this is This is going to get ugly.
And maybe they thought it would be advisable. To wait until they had built up the church at Philippines a little bit more.
Before they caused that kind of problem and probably ended up having to leave. It looks, I think, yes.
It looks like they probably leave Luke behind in Philippines. Chapter 17 verse one says, now when they had passed through, so we're not in we sections anymore.
So apparently Luke stays behind in Philippai. I guess to to continue to strengthen that church.
They needed somebody who had more than several weeks. Of of knowledge about Christ and about the Gospel and to instruct them.
But. That's the only speculation that I can come up with is that they thought That would be better to handle.
Down the road, you know, she wasn't She wasn't in immediate danger, she was safe.
And so. They could wait and cast that demon out, you know. Later. But that's me speculating, I don't know.
Does that make sense? Satisfactory?
Yeah.
But, ors. LICT ORS.
Yeah. I'm always kind of been a little confused. A lot of points in the.
You'll see somebody and their household. And I'm, I guess I'm.
Curious what's the Maybe the cultural context. That I'm not getting as to because to me if A friend's dad became Christian, I wouldn't expect everyone in the family to be really also become Christian.
And I'm wondering what the cultural context for maybe it's not that is. I think there is some cultural context going on in the and their whole family or and their whole household.
The particularly in the Roman world, I don't know if it's as true in the Greek world.
But particularly in Roman culture. The, Head of the household. Was a very strong position.
And if the head of the household was convinced of something, The household would take that usually. As you know a very strong indication that this is right.
I'm not going to believe it. If dad or grandpa or whoever is the the term for it was Potter Familias and it just means the father of the family.
But if, you know, if the patcher fromelius doesn't believe this, Even if it sounds like it makes sense.
It can't possibly be true. And the flip side is if he does believe it then you're going to give it the benefit of the doubt.
And so in that culture, I would think that When this Philippian jailer accepts the truth of the gospel.
The other people in his household. Then become very much more inclined. I don't think it's automatic, and I'm not saying that you're a Christian because your dad was a Christian.
I'm saying that because the head of their household. Because he was willing to put himself at risk.
Even for this The rest of them found that to be a very compelling argument. And so they also believed.
But I do think that they believe. On their own, it's just that yeah, they were influenced.
Leave looked like you wanted to say something. Oh, OK. Looked like you started to, but.
Zeke. Let's see.
I think it was the spirit that was making her do that.
Well, so there are 2 that's true being cast out would be bad for it But I'll repeat for Zoom.
Thank you. Joseph's asking you know why would the spirit that is possessing the girl Because I think that she's not saying what she says in her right mind.
She's saying that under the influence of the spirit, in my opinion at least. Why would the Spirit want her to do that?
Wouldn't it be bad for the spirit being cast out? And yes, it would be bad being cast out.
But I think there are 2 things at play. One. I mentioned earlier a little bit, but strategically, from the spirit's perspective.
If it can confuse the issue of the gospel. That's what the spirit wants to do.
It. It understands what's coming. Has some idea, it probably at this point it at least knows about Jesus.
Later on, we find spirits. They know Jesus and they've heard of Paul. So word gets around.
Among the evil spirits. And so this one already knows about Jesus. Knows about the gospel.
And I think it's trying to. To throw just a little bit of shade onto that. Some confusion onto that.
To make the Gospels message less effective, at least in Philippines. And if it's really successful, maybe broadly.
And the other reason that I think it's the spirit. Saying it. Well, there I guess they're 2.
One is that Paul gets frustrated with the spirit and casts it out because she's saying this.
And also, Jesus has a very similar experience when a demon-possessed man comes. And proclaims him to be, I don't remember.
Exactly what, but proclaims who he is. And Jesus casts it out. So, you know, Paul's having a, a very similar experience to Jesus.
Yeah, John, and then I think we've got to stop.
Yeah. What?
Personal information. If, Right. Away. To salvation and then they heard the singing.
Yeah.
Well, I think he's, so John's asking about, where the the jailer comes and says, what must I do to be saved?
And maybe he does understand. Maybe he maybe does understand what he's asking. I just, the reason that I'm not convinced that he's asking about salvation in the way that we talk about salvation.
Is because I mean the word itself is much broader than that. Most of the time it just means, you know, being saved from a bad situation or you're on the battlefield.
And you get saved. You know, from getting your head chopped off for something like that. It's totally plausible that he could have at some point heard the girl saying that they were proclaiming a way of salvation.
But he's also in a really dangerous situation. And he thinks, I think he knows that they have some sort of power.
But I think until they're able to preach to him after that. He doesn't have a full enough understanding to ask.
That question. Yeah, doesn't say what what this girl was saying when they Yeah. Yeah, what is what is the salvation that you have?
And I want it because you guys can start earthquakes and that's scary. Alright, so with that we do have to stop and I will.
Turn it over