Acts · chapter 16 of 28
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Acts 16 tells how Paul and Silas, on the second journey, recruit Timothy and, guided by a vision, cross to Macedonia. In Philippi, Lydia, a seller of purple, believes and is baptized; then Paul and Silas are beaten and jailed for freeing a slave girl with a spirit of divination. They sing in prison, an earthquake opens the doors and the jailer believes with his whole household.
This chapter marks the gospel's move into Europe. After the council's decision in Acts 15, Paul sets out on a second journey and the Spirit closes some doors and opens one. In Philippi the first church on European soil is born, with a businesswoman, a freed slave girl and a Roman jailer as its first fruits.
Paul reaches Derbe and Lystra, where he meets Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father. Paul circumcises him because of the Jews in those places and takes him along. The Holy Spirit forbids them to speak the word in Asia and does not allow them to enter Bithynia. At Troas, Paul sees in the night a man of Macedonia pleading for him to come over and help them, and they conclude that God is calling them to preach the gospel there. From here the narrator says we.
In Philippi, a Roman colony, on the Sabbath they go outside by the river and speak to some women. Lydia, a seller of purple goods from Thyatira and a worshiper of God, listens, and the Lord opens her heart. She and her household are baptized, and she welcomes them into her house. Later, a slave girl with a spirit of divination, who brought her owners much gain, follows them crying out. Paul commands the spirit in the name of Jesus Christ to come out, and it comes out. Her owners, seeing their hope of gain gone, drag them before the authorities, accuse them of disturbing the city, and have them beaten and jailed with their feet in stocks.
At midnight Paul and Silas are praying and singing hymns, and the prisoners are listening. Suddenly a great earthquake opens the doors and unfastens the chains. The jailer, thinking the prisoners have escaped, is about to kill himself, but Paul shouts that they are all there. Trembling, he asks what he must do to be saved. They answer: believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. They speak the word to him, he washes their wounds and is baptized with all his family, rejoicing that he has believed. Next day the magistrates order them released, but Paul says they are Romans, beaten without trial, and demands that the magistrates come themselves. The magistrates apologize and ask them to leave; after visiting Lydia, they depart.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Paul sees a man of Macedonia in the night pleading for help, and at once they seek to go to Macedonia, convinced that God was calling them. The Spirit's direction came through closed doors and a vision, and they responded with obedience.
Lydia listens to Paul and the Lord opens her heart to pay attention to what was said. Conversion is God's work, who opens the heart, though it comes through human preaching.
Paul and Silas, beaten and with their feet in the stocks, pray and sing hymns to God at midnight, and the prisoners listen. Praise in pain is a powerful testimony.
The jailer asks what he must do to be saved, and they answer that he should believe in the Lord Jesus and he will be saved, with his household. The answer is simple and complete: salvation is by faith in Christ, and it reaches a whole family that believes.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father. — Acts 16:1-3
Answer: A man of Macedonia pleading with him to come over to Macedonia and help them. — Acts 16:9
Answer: She was a seller of purple goods from the city of Thyatira, and a worshiper of God. — Acts 16:14
Answer: He commanded the spirit in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. — Acts 16:18
Answer: Praying and singing hymns to God. — Acts 16:25
Answer: Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household. — Acts 16:31
Acts 16 shows God at work in very different people: a religious, well-off woman, an oppressed slave girl, a hardened jailer. No one is out of his reach. In your group, ask whom around you you do not expect God to reach, and pray for them.
Paul and Silas also teach us to worship in pain. They did not deny their suffering, but they chose to pray and sing, and the jailer saw the difference. Ask what you can do this week to thank God in a hard situation, knowing others are listening.
Acts 16 ends with Paul and Silas leaving Philippi with a young church behind them. In Acts 17 they continue through Macedonia and Greece: Thessalonica, Berea and Athens, where Paul will speak before philosophers.
Timothy had a Jewish mother and a Greek father, and Paul circumcised him because of the Jews in the region, so as not to hinder his witness. It was not a condition of salvation but a practical decision for the mission. With Titus, who was Greek, Paul did not yield.
From Acts 16:10 the narrator says we, which suggests that Luke, the author, joined the group at Troas. That form appears again in other stretches of the journey.
Paul promises that salvation is within reach of the whole family that believes. The account says they spoke the word to everyone in his house and that all were baptized and rejoiced, not that the jailer's faith automatically saves the others.