Our Hope Of Gain
Acts 16:16-24 (Transcript Only) How do you define gain? What do you consider to be gain? And if you don’t like the word “gain” you can use success…
The word “Gain” gets repeated twice in this Acts passage about the church in Philippi and when Paul later writes to the church in Philippi, he brings up “gain” multiple times himself… So this idea of “gain” or “gaining” something was a big theme for the church in Philippi.
And gain in the context of the book of Acts refers to money — a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling… 19 her owners… hope of gain was gone…
But money is not how all of us define gain:
Some of us want the gain of experiences or popularity or prestige or approval or power
And those things aren’t wrong per se, in and of themselves but they become wrong when we make them our ultimate gain.
And the Biblical word for making something other than God our ultimate gain is idolatry.
And that’s what we’re going to think through this morning — Because (Christian or not) we’re all great at idol worship and making “stuff” more important than God.
And Idolatry is one of the sins that’s easy to fall into, it’s extraordinarily easy to commit and even commit without even realizing it…
So as we think through our study of the book of Acts this morning and our temptations to worship stuff over God … I want us to consider the dangers and the sad outcomes of worshiping idols, but even more the joyous outcome of worshiping Jesus.
Idols will leave us disappointed … Jesus will leave us satisfied.
That’s what I want to prove to you today.
So, If you walk out of here this morning thinking, “idolatry is bad, Jesus is good,” then I will have done my job.
And so here’s what I want to walk through with you here this morning:
1. Human Gains Corrupt Us
2. Human Gains Craze Us
3. Human Gains Chain Us
4. Divine Gains (Jesus) Content Us
So, let’s go to point 1: Human Gains Corrupt Us
16 As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18 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.
So, if you were here last week, you know the “place of prayer” here is not a building but rather an area by the river where women from Philippi met.
So Paul, Silas, Luke, Timothy, and maybe some others are on their way there and as their traveling through the streets, this slave girl comes up who has a “spirit of divination” and “fortune-telling”
The literal Greek this was written in says the girl had “A Spirit of Python” and this has culture significance as one commentator explains:
“The Python was a mythical serpent or dragon that guarded the temple and oracle of [the Greek god] Apollo. It was supposed to have lived at the foot of Mount Parnassus and to have eventually been killed by Apollo. Later the word “python” came to mean a demon-possessed person through whom the Python spoke… Undoubtedly, all who knew the girl regarded her as neither fraudulent nor insane but as demon-possessed and able to foretell the future. And by her fortune-telling, Luke tells us, she earned her masters a great deal of money.”
And for some reason, one day, this demon-possessed woman decides to follow around this group of missionaries … indeed she followed them for “many days.”
And on the surface, her shouting might not seem like a big deal since it seems like she’s telling the truth: “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”
I mean she’s not wrong?
We see this same thing happen with the demons Jesus meets with in the gospels where some of them have better theology, a better understanding of Jesus than the disciples!
But the reason why Jesus still casted out those demons, why Paul casted out this demon … is because the words they say like “most High God” and “salvation” would have meant different things to the different people that heard them…
The demon’s words (in short) were confusing the message of the gospel…
And herein we start to see the idolatry come out:
As one commentator puts it: “In view of the pagan usage of [“Highest God”], the term would not have suggested the referent was the Jewish God… There were many ‘highest gods’ and a pagan hearer would understand the referent of the term to be that deity he or she considered to be supreme. Hearers would not think of Yahweh. Thus the primary effect of the term on pagans must have been to mislead them.” (Paul Trebilco “Paul and Silas— ‘Servants of the Most High God’ (Acts 16.16-18)” May 1989 Journal for the Study of the New Testament)
Think about the term “salvation.” When people hear that term, professing Christian or not, we all can think of different things.
The “Way Of Salvation” to some people is getting a degree, getting a job … or advancing in your career field or having a family or NOT having a family, having enough for retirement
To some salvation is not being drug addicted or not being in jail anymore.
To some people “salvation” is being universally loved and accepted and approved by the world around you. To some salvation is maintaining your health and living to an old age.
It all comes back to how we define “success” and what we see as “gain.”
And to the owners of this slave girl … their gain, their way of salvation was through the accumulation of money.
And their desire for that gain corrupted them.
BUT even before they get violent with Paul you see that corruption because THEY OWNED ANOTHER HUMAN BEING
Now … again, slavery in the ancient world, in ancient Greece, ancient Rome was different from the chattel slavery we Americans are all familiar with.
But the dehumanizing and abusing someone for their labor is clearly on display here.
Notice in verse 19, the owners are not overjoyed that she was delivered from a demon, they don’t even care about her as a human being at all…
19 But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas…
She’s not a human being to them, they do not even say “our slave got healed,” she is just “a hope for gain”…. And now that the spirit is gone she is useless to us.
We don’t care about her … we just want money.
We see a similar dehumanization happen when Jesus heals the demon-possessed man in Mark 5 — 3 He lived among the tombs… 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.
And Jesus casts out the legion of demons from this man and (at their request) sends them into a nearby pig farm … the pigs go plunging into the water … but rather than celebrate this miraculous healing of this man …. The farmers are angry.
These people: 15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. 17 And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.
That’s the mindset you get from wanting human gains: We don’t want your healing … we don’t want spirituality … we just want money … whether from demons or some other source….
Our quest for human gains — whether money or other things — will corrupt us. It’ll dehumanize those around us to us and we’ll see people no longer as image-bearers but as means to an end.
But it’s not like that when we worship and pursue Jesus. Jesus makes us care about individuals — their spiritual AND PHYSICAL needs — it was actually the church that started hospitals to heal the sick, it was the church who started schools to educate the uneducated … and it was actually the church that helped lead the way in the abolitionist movement so that image-bearers of God might be free.
But if we hold our ultimate gain to be from anything other than Jesus … we’ll be corrupted as these owners were.
And we’ll also, point two, be crazed:
19 But 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.
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been in a fight since the eighth grade … but normally it takes quite a bit of prodding to get me or you to throw hands at someone… right? Like we have some natural self-control Christian or not….
But these guys, out of their desire for the gain of money, they have no such control … and when they lose that gain they go crazy.
Not only do they grab Paul and Silas … but they drag them … verse 22 implies they attacked them … and immediately they made a beeline to the nearest court room.
20 And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. 21 They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.”
So these owners get Paul and Silas to court and their words are prejudicial, hyperbolic, and brown-nosy.
Them saying, “These men are Jews” is not them kindly describing Paul and Silas’ religious or cultural background … that is a pejorative statement like someone saying, “That German guy … that Chinese woman … or this Mexican here.”
That’s the connotation of those words — “Paul and Silas are dirty foreigners.” That’s what the owners lead off with.
And then they say, “They’re disturbing the city” like … how are they disturbing the city? We haven’t read about them being in the city yet … all we know about Paul in Philippi is he hangs out by the river with his friends.
They’re just making stuff up…
And then the owners conclude their words with a sucking-up to the Roman officials … “We’re just trying to live like proud Romans here.”
To put this in our context: “The church is telling us to do things that’s unbecoming of being an American patriot.”
Like … get a life…
But then the craziness continues … because then it says they rile up crowd. 22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off [Paul and Silas] and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. 24 Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
So, the whole crowd gets involved in the craziness and the magistrates are probably freaking out about a riot so they just immediately cave to the owners’ demands, have Paul and Silas beaten …. More on that next week … and then put them in the innermost part of the prison as if they were notorious murders.
And all this craziness happens … because someone might have lost some future revenue stream.
It’s too stupid to make up.
And this is not an isolated incident … we do this, for example, watching our favorite sports teams:
THAT COACH SHOULD BE FIRED … I CAN’T BELIEVE WE LOST
CUT THAT PLAYER NOW … HE MADE A MISTAKE, NEVER LET HIM BACK IN THE LEAGUE
It’s crazier and sadder when that happens in youth sports … but it happens… you should see some of these parents or coaches…
Online video gaming lobbies are notorious for hearing some of the most ridiculous, unrepeatable things you’ll ever hear in your life.
Or look at how we talk to each other about politics on the right and the left.
We’re crazy talking politics… “Republicans are a basket of deplorables” and “Democrats are a bunch of whiny, soft, snowflakes”
… Jesus said you can go to hell just for calling someone a “fool.”
If you make money or approval or politics or winning or anything other than Jesus you’re ultimate source of gain … you’ll turn into a crazed individual.
And as sad as that is, point three, human gains will chain you up for the rest of your life.
Verses 19-21 is the last time we hear about these owners … what do you think happened to them? Do you think their lives were fulfilling and happy after all this?
They walked out of that courtroom proud … Can you just see the sunset of their lives and their mindset of “WE’RE STILL MAKING MAKING MONEY, BABY” and think, “Yeah, they seem at peace.”
John D. Rockefeller, Sr., one of the richest men in history, was once asked how much money it takes to make a man happy. Rockefeller’s famous reply was, “just a little bit more.”
Does that sound like a liberated, at peace, happy person to you … or someone chained up?
And the same thing happens if we make politics our end-all, be-all
Comedian Daniel Sloss explains it this way:
He says: “I don’t like being left wing a lot of time… [because] if you are not as left-wing as the left-wing person you are talking to, you are the enemy. They sit there like, ‘Are you anti-Trump?’ ‘Yes, I’m anti-Trump.’ ‘Are you pro-choice?’ ‘Yes, I’m pro-choice.’ ‘Are you anti-racist?’ ‘Yes, I’m anti-racist.’ ‘Are you pro LGBTQ+?’ ‘Yes, I’m pro LGBTQ+.’ ‘Are you vegan?’ ‘No.’ ‘Well, why don’t you just join the rest of the Nazis?’ … It is exhausting.” SOCIO
And you could probably craft a similar dialogue for right-wing people about gun laws and capitalism or whatever else, but the point remains the same: Making your gain all about politics and political approval and winning is enslaving and exhausting.
But whether politics or money or sports … all of these things make terrible sources of worship because (AS WE’VE SEEN) they’ll corrupt you, craze you, and chain you up for life.
But in Christ, we are not corrupted, but sanctified. In Christ, we are not crazed, but put into our right minds. In Christ, we are not chained, but set free.
And ABOVE ALL, in Christ, final point, we are contented. We are made happy and at peace when we worship Him and Him alone.
Where do we see that in the passage? Well, we see it in a verse 25:
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God
Now, certainly you can sing hymns and pray when you’re not happy … but if I just got arrested for being a Christian and I was actually upset about it … I think the last thing I’d want to do is talk and sing to God.
But Paul and Silas didn’t base their lives and happiness on whether they’re in jail or not … they didn’t idolize the wealth they’ve gained or their status in life or what ruler is sitting on an earthly throne.
Unlike the other silent prisoners in the jail … Paul and Silas can pray and sing because the source of their joy and life is not in other things, it’s in Christ — in who He is and who He has revealed Himself to be.
As Paul puts it later to the Philippian church:
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain… My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better… 7 Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. Phil. 1:21,23;3:7-10
Can’t you just picture Paul all chained up with Silas thinking or praying or singing these things?
Can you pray or sing these things? Do you want to?
So let’s come back to that original question: What do you consider to be gain? What’s success to you?
Is your hope of gain money or power or popularity? Cause we see what those things lead to … and it ain’t pretty.
Or is your gain Christ? To know him and gain him and to feel the power of his resurrection even amidst sufferings?
And you say, how do you gain Christ? Well, it’s nothing you do … it’s a free gift acquired only by empty-handed faith.
In order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ
If you want Jesus and the contentment and peace and joy he offers … all you have to do is trust Him, not clinging to your own righteousness, but accepting the righteousness God provides through Him.
And let me close with a question to you parents — the ones dedicating a child today and the ones who are not — what does gain mean to you as it relates to your child?
Is “gain” that they excel at sports or academics or get a job or get a spouse?
Or would gain to you actually be your son or daughter calling you one day saying, “Hey, I got arrested … for being a Christian! For doing something good!”
I would hope that would be the pinnacle of parenthood for you and a highpoint for your child… because it should be.
Jesus is more worthy of our time and attention than anything else…
And it’s to that end we pray for these kids and go now to a time of child dedication…