First Presbyterian Church
of Inglewood
Telephone
numbers: (310) 677-5133 Fax (310) 330-8342
Electronic
mail: PRESBYTS@SBCGLOBAL.NET
Sunday,
June 28, 2009
Rev.
Dr. Harold E. Kidd
Acts
16: 25 – 34
WHEN
GOD PERFORMS A MIRACLE
“But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying
and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 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 chains were
loosed.” Acts 16: 25-26
We
live in a day and time when a vast majority of persons have difficulty
believing in miracles. One of the reasons I say this is because we are
creatures of the earth and thus captives of logic, reason and rationality. Yet
we must understand that miracles occur every day of our lives. Amen.
Even
while we are able to attach a scientific reason to such things as the rising of
the sun; the beating of a heartbeat, and the change of the seasons – still
these occurrences are, in the mind of the believer, miraculous. Because behind
every cause, we believe, there is the uncaused cause, who is God.
Behind
the rising of the sun, there is God. Behind the beating of a heartbeat, there
is God. Behind the change of the seasons, there is God. God is the uncaused cause.
Not only the creator, but as well, the sustainer of all life. To be sure our
faith is one that believes if God did not sustain the properties of natural
laws, and life from the sea to the heavens, from the protozoa to the very cells
of a heart or lung, then all life would cease. If God did not sustain.
I
define a miracle as an extraordinary manifestation of God intervening in a
situation or occurrence which leaves no doubt that it was God who intervened. A
miracle is when we say…”That if it had not been for the Lord….” Those of us who
embrace this faith, believe in the God of the miraculous. The bible itself is a
living document of how God over and over again steps in to human situations
beyond salvation, and does the miraculous. It is replete with example after
example of miracles and their aftermath.
The
application of these biblical accounts are given to remind us as we go through
our seasons of life, that with God all things are possible. Now some would say,
God gave me a sound mind, good wisdom, and a healthy body with which to
navigate through life. And rightly said. But having said that, are there not
times in our own journeys of life, when there is the need for a miracle? Is
there not in the daily grind of human existence the tremendous need for the
supernatural intervention of God in terms of help, healing, reconciliation,
salvation, personal transformation, and deliverance?
In
our text, Paul and Silas have arrived on the European continent, in the city of
Philippi, and for the first time the gospel is being preached there. Their
witness to Jesus Christ has been successful in bringing many to the faith. Just
give a witness, and God will do the rest.
Their
first convert is a businesswoman named Lydia. The word says “The Lord opened
her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul,” which reminds you and me that,
even though we speak the things of God, God is the one who opens the heart so
that the message spoken through us will be received. It does not matter how
eloquent or convincing we might think our message to be.
It
is God who opens the heart to receive the message. So even while some are preaching or teaching
or giving a witness of Jesus, there ought to be someone as well who is praying
God, open up their hearts. I think that is why God sent them out two by two.
While one is witnessing, the other is praying. Prayer and proclamation go
together.
But
in the second recorded conversion, because of young girl possessed with a
spirit of divination, Paul & Silas are thrown into jail. You see, this
young girl is being used as a fortune teller by men for economic gain. When she
is converted, her conversion upsets the money-making scheme of her masters. So
they seize Paul and Silas, drag them into the marketplace to the authorities,
and accuse them of making trouble in their city.
Paul
and Silas are stripped, beaten, flogged, and thrown into prison placed into
solitary confinement. Under such grave circumstances, Paul and Silas yet do not
believe that their situation is hopeless or helpless. Logic won’t help them.
Human reasoning won’t free them. Neither will physical ingenuity break the
shackles of their chains. Yes, “It is not by power, nor by might”; says the
Lord, “but by my Spirit.”
Paul
and Silas believe in the power of God, and his ability to do the miraculous and
release them from prison, if it is his will. “Thy Will Be Done, O God.” We do
not know the time of their imprisonment, but at midnight, says the text, Paul
and Silas begin to worship God. I know that we can worship Him when we are up.
We know that we can sing His praise when things are going well, we know that we
have a passion to pray when the blessings are coming our way. But can we
worship Him in the seasons of our midnights. Can we sing his praises when we
are shackled by a heavy burden and unable to free ourselves?
Midnight,
when no other help we know. Midnight, when the demons of doubt and
discouragement make their appearance. Midnight, when nobody knows nor sees the
trouble we’re in. For Paul & Silas are locked away, from any human help or
hope. And at midnight it was that Paul & Silas prayed and sang hymns to
God. Luke does not tell us specifically what they prayed and sang. Our
imaginations are left wide open at this point. Perhaps they sang Psalm 27 “The
Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear.” Or perhaps they
sang Psalm 48:
“Great
is the Lord and greatly to be praised,
Great
is the Lord and greatly to be praised,
Great
is the Lord and greatly to be praised,
Praise
Him, Praise Him, Praise Him,
Great
is the Lord and greatly to be praised
in
the city of our God…in the city of our God,’’
It
is not utterly important to know what they sang and prayed, but that when they
sang and prayed; a miracle took place. There was an earthquake, the foundation
of the prison was shaken; the prison doors flew open and every prisoner’s
chains dropped. Paul and Silas, and every other prisoner in the jail were
suddenly liberated. But that is not the end of the story. The question must be asked,
how did Paul and Silas respond to God’s miracle?
The
first response is that they gave their testimony of what the Lord had done,
because Paul and Silas realized that their deliverance was not of their own
doing. Every miracle of what God has done for us demands a testimony. Because
our testimonies give glory to God and they have ways of giving hope to others.
Giving testimony should never be a form of bragging, but when the situation is
right, and prompted by the Holy Spirit, our
bearing witness to what God has done just might encourage someone
else.
Notice
here in this text that they gave testimony to God even before God moved.
Because verse 25 says, “and the prisoners were listening to them.” Yes, someone
is listening when we are going through. Someone is observing how we handle our
midnight. And they did not pray and sang to God to be seen or heard of men, but
they worshipped God at midnight, because they were convinced that God is able.
Notice
in this text that the deliverance was public. For how can you hide an
earthquake? How can you hide the sudden loosing of prisoners chains? Once God
delivered them, The miracle became public. Paul and Silas may have prayed and
sang in their midnight situation, but only God could have provided the miracle
of their deliverance. Therefore God not only wants but deserves the
credit.
This
does not mean that we have to tell all our private matters but, as the Spirit
guides, to simply declare that the Lord has performed a miracle in our lives.
But when the Lord really shows up in your life, you’ll want others to know how
the lord worked. To witness that the Lord delivered, the Lord healed me, that
the Lord made a way out of no way, that the Lord put relationships back
together again, that it was the Lord who brought rebellious children or us back
to our senses, is to release the power of God to minister in the life of
someone else. It is to give God the glory! I wish I knew how to make it plain.
It
was because of their testimony, that the Philippian jailer asked them, “What
must I do to be saved?” Which leads us to the second response to this miracle.
Opportunity. when the jailer awakens from his slumber and assumes that his
prisoners have escaped. When he wipes the cobwebs of sleep from his eyes and
surveys the situation, he draws his sword and is about to kill himself, for
fear of what will be his punishment.
He’s
about to commit suicide, when Paul stops him with the words, “Do thyself no
harm!” Paul and Silas recognized that when God grants deliverance, when God
performs a miracle, when God makes a way out of no way, when God brings help,
when God heals, when God brings us back together again in reconciliation, this
is our opportunity to be a blessing to someone else. Amen.
At
this point Paul saw himself as an instrument of God’s hope and life. We bring
hope when our testimony gives life and the birth to new possibilities in the
circumstances of someone else. Their testimony, that it was God who delivered
them brought God’s salvation to this jailer. One never knows what opportunities
avail themselves when we position ourselves to be a blessing to someone else.
Yes, we do have a duty and obligation to be a blessing to others when God
blesses us.
But
the final response to this miracle is that of discovery. Amen. For through this
miracle they learned that God is more than head knowledge. They learned that
God is more than a theological assumption. Through this miracle they had a
divine encounter with the Holy, an experience that taught them just how real
God is.
God
moves in our lives from what others say about Him, to what we can learn of Him
through our own personal study, reflection and meditation, but then something
else is needed, a personal experience with God that becomes uniquely our own.
That yes, God is real!