SERMON
Snapshots
of
the
Holy Spirit
Acts
Chapters 16 – 18
Pastor Robyn Hogue August 16, 2015 Skyline
Presbyterian Church
Over the years I’ve seen many
snapshots of my husband Larry. There’s a black and white framed photo of him as
a toddler in a sailor suit. No one in his family served in the Navy, but that
sweet photo inspired me to get pictures taken of both Dan and Evan in sailor
suits at very young ages. I cherish a photo of Larry as a boy of about ten
beside a lakeshore. His family has been camping and he was fishing with his
dad. I’ve seen pictures of Larry the member of the high school jazz choir,
football team and male vocal lead in “Oklahoma.” I’ve shown our sons the tanned
and sun bleached “wild man” photo of their dad as swim instructor. I’ve
cherished the pictures of my bearded groom on our wedding day; the tender
father with infant sons in his strong arms. My cell phone contact photo is a
candid shot of Larry smiling as he talks with a co-worker from his days
employed at Group Health. These pictures seem to take in the whole sweep of his
life to date, and yet they in no way give me in a complete sense about this
person I have married. Thirty-eight years later I am still married to a
mystery.
In that same sense, the Holy Spirit
is a mystery. The Spirit is not a principle, a philosophy, a doctrine. We can’t
know the Spirit as we would chemistry and history and algebra. Nonetheless, we
learn something about this mystery by taking a kind of sweep through our
spiritual family album—the Bible—and see if we can find some well-defined
snapshots of the Holy Spirit.
Most students of the Book of Acts
study the people, the events, and particularly, the activities of Paul. Let’s
for the moment compare Paul to a surfer. We see him, figuratively taking all
kinds of wild waves. He bobs up and down tumbling, falling, riding the crest.
Now, rather than focusing on Paul, we’re going to focus on the wave. Remember,
the surfer doesn’t make the wave. He or she simply rides it—well or poorly. The
wave that carries us along as the Church of Christ is the Holy Spirit. Our job
is to ride that wave the best we know how.
With this preamble let’s take our
look at one of these Holy Spirit snapshots found in these next chapters. The
first is in chapter 16, beginning at verse 6. Paul and Silas are beginning their
third missionary journey. They attempt to go into Bithynia, but, we are told,
“The Spirit of Jesus did not allow them,” and so they went instead down to
Troas. Here, through a vision, Paul is told to come over to Macedonia and help
us.” Let’s call this photo “The Macedonian Vision,” with a subtitle, “Who’s in Charge?”
One of the truths which stands out in in this snapshot is that the Spirit is
able to intervene and direct the lives of believers.
As we have seen, Paul wanted to go
to Bithynia but instead is given a vision which sends him to Macedonia. Thus,
for the first time, the gospel is brought to Europe. The first European convert
is a woman, a rich merchant, Lydia, a seller of purple goods. She is the
prepared person who receives the good news gladly and through her Christianity
is launched in Europe.
The Spirit can operate in our lives
just the Spirit did in Paul’s. There are times when the Spirit seems to say
“no,” and our path is blocked. Another time, a door opens unexpectedly, and we
can go through it. The Spirit can direct us in terms of when to take that new
job, start that new venture or make that phone call. I remember giving pastoral
care to a gentleman in my former church who was concerned for his business
partner, a man in his late forties who was dying. This gentleman said, “We
never talked about the really important things, about life and death. Pray that
I may have a chance to do that this week. He has only a short time to live and
I want him to know about the Lord and His love.” He made the call that week,
but somehow the opportunity was not there. There were other visitors and many
interruptions. The next week he reported, “I tried, but I failed. I think the
Spirit said “no.” Just days later, the dying man called this gentleman to come
over. The spent three uninterrupted hours and opened their hearts to each
other.
Snapshot #1 reveals who is in charge
of the church. No hierarchy, no group of officers, no long-range planning
committee decided that it was the right time to bring the Gospel to Europe. The
Spirit chose the time, and the church responded in obedience to that Spirit.
The next snapshot is found in
chapter 16, verses 16-18. Paul and Silas are met by a slave girl with a spirit
of divination. Her soothsaying has produced much profit for her owners. For
many days she has followed Paul and Silas, crying, “These men are servants of
the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” In annoyance,
Paul turns and charges the spirit to come out of her, and she is healed. Let’s
give snapshot #2 the title “The Slave Girl Healed,” and the subtitle “The Holy
Spirit is Comfortable with Imperfect People.” The snapshot captures the truth of the Holy
Spirit using both this imperfect slave girl to broadcast Paul and Silas’
presence in the city and an irritated
Paul as God’s healing agent in her life.
My version would have gone like
this: Paul is preaching the riches of Christ and suddenly is moved by
compassion for this girl who has been following him in agony for several days.
Filed with pity and the Spirit of Jesus, Paul turns to help her, he lays hands on
her, prays for her and she is healed, and then send her off on her way with his
blessing. It didn’t happen that way according to Acts. This fanatic little
evangelist has a laser beam vision, pinpointed on preaching the Gospel in
season and out of season, and all the while she’s calling out in her disturbed
state, “Oh, listen to this man! Listen to this man!” Finally Pau has had
enough. She has busted up his meeting once too often. In annoyance, he says
something like, “For heaven’s sake, in Jesus’ name, be healed and get out of
here!”
If you’re like me, you’re sometimes
annoyed by interruptions, even feeling resentful about his person who is
ruining our schedule. We don’t have an hour to give right then, and we feel
pressured. But even though we may not feel good about this interruption, who
cares? The Spirit has put us in that situation and if we can keep our mind and
heart open, the Spirit will do the rest. The Holy Spirit can act whether our
motives are high or low, loving or otherwise.
A third snapshot of the Holy Spirit,
which we’ll call “Songs in the Night,” is found in verses 25-34 of chapter 16.
The men who lost their livelihood when the slave girl was healed managed to
have Paul and Silas thrown in prison, their feet fastened in stocks. At
midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns when a great earthquake
shook the foundations of the prison and all the doors were opened and all the
fetters unfastened. When the jailer awoke and saw what had happened he drew his
sword about to kill himself. In those times, if prisoners escaped, the jailer
received their sentence. He was just about to save the authorities the trouble
of executing him when Paul called our and reassured him that the prisoners were
all there. The jailer rushed in, fell down before Paul and Silas and asked
“Men, what must I do to be saved?” They spoke the word of the lord to him and
to the members of his household, and that very night he was baptized with all
of his family.
When we really believe that God, the
ultimate being, loves us, we’re home free. Paul and Silas didn’t know that they
would be delivered. They might have been killed. But there they are, locked in
the stocks, singing hymns, praising God and holding a revival meeting in
prison. This is not because they expect deliverance but because they are riding
the rising tide of the Spirit. Billy Graham was once asked how he could remain
so optimistic facing all the tragedies in the world. He said, “I’ve read the
last chapter in the Book.” That’s the kind of certainty we need in order to
sing songs in the night.
If you are subject to sleepless
nights, wakeful and beset by anxieties and pressures, I hope you can begin to
sing songs and to say, “Lord, I face a tough day tomorrow, but my life in Yours
and I’m trusting You.” That kind of supreme confidence is the mark of the
Spirit. When we’re in tight places we can believe “He who is in us is greater
than he who is in the world?” (I John 4:4)
From prison Paul goes to
Thessalonica and Berea, a neighboring town. He has wonderful success among the
Gentiles. When opposition once again forces him to leave he heads off for
Athens leaving Silas and Timothy behind. In chapter 17, verses 24-32 we read
that Paul has arrived in the university center of the world. Athens’ great days of glory are past, but the
city was still a great hub of learning, the Oxford or Cambridge of tis time.
Inn that marvelous, rarefied atmosphere, Paul goes to Mars Hill, where the
scholars and philosophers gather each day to hear something new. This
sophisticated bunch has heard it all. They sit al day just exchanging ideas. We
all get caught up in that sometimes. Think for a moment on the amount of time
you spend reading things on the internet, Facebook, Pinterest, blog posts,
internet news sources. There are the inevitable earthquakes and floods,
politics and wars. We understand those Athenians.
Paul’s audience is made up of these
people who want to discuss great ideas. He gets their attention by building a
bridge, by commenting on their many statues to their gods. He moves on to talk
about the one true God, but when he mentions Jesus being raised from the dead,
he loses them. Some mock him and even worse, others say, in effect, “Tell me
about this later.” The title of this snapshot is “Flop in Athens.” Paul has his
big moment and he blows it. My suggested subtitle for this one is “The Holy
Spirit Keeps Us Humble.” A small company did believe and joined Paul, but for
the most part, the crowd said, “Ho hum. We’ll come back and hear you another
time.” But the real mark of spiritual maturity for Paul, and for us, is how we
deal with failure. How do we handle it when we blow the big one? We hoped so
much to accomplish some particular goal, and as far as we can tell, we flopped.
Paul seems able to say, “Well, win some and lose some,” and moves on. Too often
in that situation most of us spend too much time wallowing around, paralyzed by
our failure. Paul never missed a beat. He just kept on preaching.
My last snapshot for today is found
at the beginning of chapter 18, verses 1-4. Paul moves on from Athens to
Corinth. He is befriended there by Aquila and his wife, Priscilla, both of whom
are tentmakers like Paul. They are in Athens because Emperor Claudius has
ordered all of the Jews to leave Rome. Paul moves in with them and they begin
to work together in their common trade. I’ll call this photo “The Rhythm of
Life.” Paul sits eight to ten hours a day sewing tents, and by night he
continues to be the world’s most exciting evangelist and preacher. I think the
Holy Spirit wants that same rhythm of life of all of us. I’ve got a confession
to make about being a “religious professional.” I think my life can at times
take on somewhat of a lopsided focus. It is spiritually healthy to have a job
or calling where you volunteer “out there in the real world.” We need the rhythm of prayer and play, work and
worship. All the while Paul is in Corinth (about a year and a half) he is the
center of intense controversy—preaching, converting, and challenging his
opponents. And yet we have a picture of him sitting quietly, sewing all day
with his colleagues. My suggested subtitle for this snapshot is “Lay Ministry.”
These snapshots do not sum up the
work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will always remain more than we can
comprehend; known and not yet fully known. All of these snapshots are part of a
much bigger album, one which captures that wave of the Spirit which moves
through history and which continues throughout the world.