June 19, 2025 -- Acts 16:40 -- The power of the Gospel to bring people together

People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

So they went out of prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
Acts 16:40 ESV
 
Such a simple pair of sentences and what weight they carry and information they convey! Context: Paul and Silas were in prison for casting out a fortune-telling demon from a slave girl. Her owners, realizing their hope of gain based on her demon-gifts of fortune-telling were gone, had them beaten and thrown in jail. While in jail, Paul and Silas were singing to God and other prisoners were listening. The Lord caused all the prisoners’ chains to fall off and the doors to open. The jailer, about to kill himself because he thought he might have lost the prisoners in his care, instead, was converted.
 
Consider the Philippian church. A rich businesswoman was the first convert, she and her household. Arguably a formerly demon-possessed girl. A jailor and his family. One must wonder how many prisoners were added also, those who heard Paul and Silas singing to God while in prison? What a mix of people.
 
Beloved, that is the power of the Gospel. In our stratified, segregated age, churches rarely reflect the wide and diverse mix of people represented here in the Philippian church. You can understand why the Euodia and Syntyche argued. It could very well be that they objected to the criminal element in their church. Who knows if perhaps one of them was the former-demon-possessed slave girl and the other a well-off matron offended by her inclusion in church.
What is the point? When the followers of Jesus Christ proclaimed the Gospel Jewish people and non-Jewish people (which was so radical for the Jews to experience) responded. It is the wonderful fulfilment of Jesus’s words “Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you” (Matthew 21:31). The call of God cuts through the wickedness of human hearts. The Spirit of God draws men and women who are absolutely unexpected and brings them into community.
 
No wonder the New Testament churches were so chaotic. When the Spirit of God upends a sinner so that in Christ the old is passed away and the new has come, the most unexpected, the most incongruous people are brought together and made to be one family. It is as Jesus said, those who do the will of God are His mother and brothers and sisters (Matthew 12:50). Do you rejoice at the power of God, the very same power which led you out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the light, the Kingdom of the Son He loves? Are you prepared for the disruption of your comfortable life?
 
God our Father, thank You for Your electing love which draws sinners, such as we are, to Yourself through Your beloved Son, Jesus. Thank You for the fact that in Him each one of us is a new creation, the old has passed away and the new has come. Help us, Your people, to walk in a manner worthy of calling to which we have been called, recognizing there is one body and one Spirit. Lead us, King Jesus, as captives in Your train and give us the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit necessary so that we will all attain mature manhood. Amen
 

Copyright © 2025 Sh'ma Christian Ministries, All rights reserved.