Timothy Joins Paul and Silas, 1-5

16:1 He also came to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple named Timothy was there, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but whose father was a Greek. 16:2 The brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 16:3 Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was Greek. 16:4 As they went through the towns, they passed on the decrees that had been decided on by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the Gentile believers to obey. 16:5 So the churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number every day.

Paul’s Vision of the Macedonian Man, 6-10

16:6 They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the message in the province of Asia. 16:7 When they came to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do this, 16:8 so they passed through Mysia and went down to Troas. 16:9 A vision appeared to Paul during the night: A Macedonian man was standing there urging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” 16:10 After Paul saw the vision, we attempted immediately to go over to Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

‘Authentic turning points in history are few, but surely among them that of the Macedonian vision ranks high.’ (Longenecker)

Arrival at Philippi, 11-15

16:11 We put out to sea from Troas and sailed a straight course to Samothrace, the next day to Neapolis, 16:12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of that district of Macedonia, a Roman colony. We stayed in this city for some days. 16:13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate to the side of the river, where we thought there would be a place of prayer, and we sat down and began to speak to the women who had assembled there. 16:14 A woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, a God-fearing woman, listened to us. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. 16:15 After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me to be a believer in the Lord, come and stay in my house.” And she persuaded us.

The Lord opened her heart – The gifts and skills of the preacher are not the only factors at work in the ministry of God’s word.  There is also the receptiveness of the human heart, and (crucially) the work of the Holy Spirit in opening that heart.

‘The soul’s strength to hear the Word is from God. He opens the heart to attend, Acts 16:14, yea, he opens the understanding of the saint to receive the Word, so as to conceive what it means. It is like Samson’s riddle, which we cannot unfold without his heifer. He opens the womb of the soul to conceive by it, as the understanding to conceive of it, that the barren soul becomes a ‘joyful mother of children.’ David sat for half a year under the public lectures of the law, and the womb of his heart shut up, till Nathan comes, and God with him, and now is the time of life. He conceives presently, yea, and brings forth the same day, falls presently into the bitter pangs of sorrow for his sins, which went not over till he had cast them forth in that sweet 51st Psalm.’ (Gurnall)

Thomas Watson on the means of the effectual call:

‘Every creature has a voice to call us. The heavens call to us to behold God’s glory. Psalm 19:1:Conscience calls to us. God’s judgements call us to repent. ‘Hear ye the rod.’ Mic 6:9. But every voice does not convert. There are two means of our effectual call:

(1.) The ‘preaching of the word,’ which is the sounding of God’s silver trumpet in men’s ears. God speaks not by an oracle, he calls by his ministers. Samuel thought it had been the voice of Eli only that called him; but it was God’s voice. 1 Sam 3:6. So, perhaps, you think it is only the minister that speaks to you in the word, but it is God himself who speaks. Therefore Christ is said to speak to us from heaven. Heb 12:25. How does he speak but by his ministers? as a king speaks by his ambassadors. Know, that in every sermon preached, God calls to you; and to refuse the message we bring, is to refuse God himself.

(2.) The other means of our effectual call is the Holy Spirit. The ministry of the word is the pipe or organ; the Spirit of God blowing in it, effectually changes men’s hearts:

‘While Peter spake, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word of God.’ Acts 10:44. Ministers knock at the door of men’s hearts, the Spirit comes with a key and opens the door. ‘A certain woman named Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened.’ Acts 16:14.’ (A Body of Divinity)

She and the members of her household were baptized – In nine instances Luke represents baptism as the expected response to hearing and receiving the gospel. In four of these, kinsmen, close friends, or a household hear and respond. However, neither here nor in Acts 18:8 is it stated that the members of the households believed.

‘Advocates of infant baptism eagerly seize on this verse and similar ones (Acts 11:14; 16:33; 18:8; 1 Cor. 1:16) and argue that the possibility (and in some other cases the probability) that the households included small children is high. Their opponents point out that children, and in particular infants, are never expressly mentioned. In the present case, the fact that Lydia was engaged in business strongly suggests that she was single or widowed, and the members of her household would have included any servants or dependants whom she had living with her.’ (Marshall)

She invited us to her home – ‘The conversion of Lydia was immediately followed by her offer of hospitality to Paul and his party; she was thus quick not merely to follow the early Christian practice of being hospitable (Rom. 12:13; 1 Tim. 3:2; Heb. 13:2; 1 Pet. 4:9; 3 John 5–8), but also to share material goods with those who teach the Word (Gal. 6:6; cf. 1 Cor. 9:14).’

The NT gives us little information about Lydia.  This has not stopped some scholars from exercising their imaginations.  Kennedy Thedford and Tina Pippin propose that:

1. Lydia may have had a multiethnic background.  Thyatira was home to soldiers from Numidia, Mauritania, and Carthage, and intermarriages often occurred.  There is a ‘good possibility’ that Lydia was a product of one of these marriages and therefore not a white European.
2. She may have practiced a hybrid faith.  We do not need to assume that the ‘place of prayer’ was Jewish.  Lydia might readily have assimilated a devotion to Mary of Nazareth into her pre-existing worship of Isis (who shared with Mary the title ‘Queen of Heaven’) and Artemis (who shared with Mary a similar depiction in art).
3. She may have paved the way for a matriarchal version of Christianity.  This may have come about as descendents of the believers who met in her house merged their devotion to Mary, Isis and Artemis with the concept of Sophia, the personification of wisdom in the Bible.

This, of course, is highly conjectural.

Paul and Silas Are Thrown Into Prison, 16-40

16:16 Now as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit that enabled her to foretell the future by supernatural means. She brought her owners a great profit by fortune-telling. 16:17 She followed behind Paul and us and kept crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.” 16:18 She continued to do this for many days. But Paul became greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out of her at once. 16:19 But when her owners saw their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. 16:20 When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men are throwing our city into confusion. They are Jews 16:21 and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us to accept or practice, since we are Romans.”

v16 A spirit by which she predicted the future is lit. ‘a spirit of python’, so-called after the region where where Delphi, the seat of the famous oracle, was located. Divination was roundly condemned in the OT, Deut 18:10-12.

v17 Marshall comments:

‘The story is told in a manner like that of the exorcism stories in the Gospels, in which the demon-possessed proclaim their knowledge of the identity of Jesus (Luke 4:34, 41; 8:28) as a means of showing their would be superiority over him. It seems likely that Luke attributed the girl’s knowledge to the supernatural insight of the demon-possessed. Elsewhere in the New Testament the lines between demon possession, mental unbalance, and charlatanry are equally hard to draw.’

John Stott asks:

‘But why should a demon engage in evangelism?’ He suggests that ‘the ulterior motive was to discredit the gospel by associating it in people’s minds with the occult.’

v20f ‘The slave owners were very clever. They not only concealed the real reason for their anger, which was economic, but also presented their legal charge against the missionaries ‘in terms that appealed to the latent anti-Semitism of the people (“these men are Jews”) and their racial pride (“us Romans”)’ and so ‘ignited the flames of bigotry’.’ (Longenecker)

16:22 The crowd joined the attack against them, and the magistrates tore the clothes off Paul and Silas and ordered them to be beaten with rods. 16:23 After they had beaten them severely, they threw them into prison and commanded the jailer to guard them securely. 16:24 Receiving such orders, he threw them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

16:25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the rest of the prisoners were listening to them. 16:26 Suddenly a great earthquake occurred, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately all the doors flew open, and the bonds of all the prisoners came loose.

6:27 When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison standing open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, because he assumed the prisoners had escaped. 16:28 But Paul called out loudly, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!” 16:29 Calling for lights, the jailer rushed in and fell down trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas. 16:30 Then he brought them outside and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 16:31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.” 16:32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him, along with all those who were in his house. 16:33 At that hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and all his family were baptized right away. 16:34 The jailer brought them into his house and set food before them, and he rejoiced greatly that he had come to believe in God, together with his entire household. 16:35 At daybreak the magistrates sent their police officers, saying, “Release those men.” 16:36 The jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent orders to release you. So come out now and go in peace.” 16:37 But Paul said to the police officers, “They had us beaten in public without a proper trial—even though we are Roman citizens—and they threw us in prison. And now they want to send us away secretly? Absolutely not! They themselves must come and escort us out!” 16:38 The police officers reported these words to the magistrates. They were frightened when they heard Paul and Silas were Roman citizens 16:39 and came and apologized to them. After they brought them out, they asked them repeatedly to leave the city. 16:40 When they came out of the prison, they entered Lydia’s house, and when they saw the brothers, they encouraged them and then departed.

“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” – It is sometimes thought this this enquiry had little to do with what we call ‘salvation’; the jailer, it is said, was simply looking for a way of saving his skin.  But,

• He may well have heard about the slave girl’s persistent testimony about Paul’s message about ‘the way to be saved’, v17;
• He was clearly in awe of Paul and Silas and the dramatic miracle that had taken place that night;
• Paul had already reassured him that none of the prisoners had escaped;
• Paul’s reply in v31, together with the man’s response in vv32-34 indicates that ‘spiritual’ salvation (i.e. new life in Christ) was very much what this was all about.
• All of this is confirmed by the fact that ‘he and his family were baptised’ (v33).

Marshall:

‘The question can hardly refer to being saved from punishment by his superiors over what had happened in the prison, since the prisoners were all safe; we do not have a case of reinterpretation on a spiritual level (compare the way in which ‘water’ is understood both on a literal and on a spiritual level in John 4:10–15, or the way in which ‘save’ can be used both of physical and of spiritual healing in the Gospels, Luke 7:50; 8:48). Rather the jailer is forced by the supernatural confirmation of the message to realize that he must come to terms with the God proclaimed by Paul and Silas.’

v34 ‘The account of the salvation of the jailer is full of irony: that he should receive wholeness at the hands of his prisoners; that he should get water and wash their wounds and they in turn use the water to baptize him; and of course the picture of a jailer inviting two prisoners into his house to set a meal before them is simply amazing.’ (NBC)