Quote from Forum Archives on August 22, 2005, 9:13 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

GO WILD ABOUT GOD #5/5

WORK FOR GOD
August 21, 2005
Text: Acts 16:16-34

The U.S. Army's 442nd Regiment in World War II was composed almost
entirely of Japanese Americans. One of the Regiment's members was serving
overseas with his brother while the rest of their family was interned in
a camp for Japanese Americans in the United States. His brother was
killed in action. George Saito wrote to their father, and here's an
excerpt from that letter. "I believe the War Department has notified you
of our loss of Calvin...July 7th was the immemorable day. ...On the 6th
of July his unit was attacking a hill held by the enemy...they took the
hill. ...Cal being the radio man got a call through to the artillery to
open fire on the enemy. He guided the firing on the enemy positions. His
action saved many of his buddies. The next morning the enemy barraged the
hill with mortars and he happened to be one of the unlucky ones.
...Dad...in spite of Cal’s supreme sacrifice, don’t let anyone tell you
that he was foolish or made a mistake to ‘volunteer.’ ...America is a…
good country and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise." — George Saito
(Adrew Carroll, editor, Letters of a Nation, A Collection of
Extraordinary
American Letters, Kodanska American, 1997) Tragically, three months after
sending his father this letter, George Saito also was killed in battle.
(www.remember.gov/HistoryOfSacrifice/WorldWarII/tabid/82/Default.a
spx)

Stories such as these from and about the men and women who sacrificed
their lives for the sake of opposing tyranny and advancing liberty remind
us of the cost that can be associated with belief. While the Saito family
was dealt especially hard blows in World War II, what good would it have
done had George and his brother, Cal, sat around saying, “Yeah, America
is great and needs to be defended against these horrible enemies, but let
someone else do it. Besides, our family is being treated most unfairly
just because we happen to be of Japanese ancestry. So someone else can
put their lives on the line, not us.” That is not what happened, of
course. Their particular belief that America is a good country worth
defending led them to become an active part of that defense and,
ultimately, led to them to become two of the many who gave themselves so
sacrificially for the ideals of this nation.

In the lesson captured for us in Acts 16, Paul and Silas teach us exactly
this same thing as Christians. When we are saved by believing in the Lord
Jesus, we make a commitment to work for God. We make a commitment that
our belief transcends our selfish interests and that our belief brings
about real, discernible changes to our lives. We make a commitment that
nothing will interfere with our walk with God.

Paul and Silas are in Philippi. As a result of their ministry, they have
seen households saved. One day, on the streets, a slave girl with a
spirit followed the evangelists, crying out, “These men are servants of
the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” Actually,
based on just the words of what she said, we might think that Paul would
not mind the free advertising. Even though the words of what have been
said can be passed down to us, the tone of a voice does not quite make it
across the centuries. I imagine that she could have been shouting with a
very caustic, sarcastic tone. Her words may have been accurate and
useful, but her tone and attitude may have been mocking, making Paul’s
message the object of scorn and ridicule by others.

After several days of this, Paul’s response was to cast out the spirit. I
know that we like to cast Paul as always in control of every situation,
but our Bible tells us that Paul was “troubled” or “grieved.” The verb
used is rendered “to be greatly annoyed.” Having been written this way,
it is hard for me to imagine that Paul came across as kind and polite in
this episode. He sounds irritated and gruff. Now this is no reason not to
act as we believe Jesus would act, but this does show that God still
makes holy things happen even when His people have bad days.

For Paul and Silas, trouble starts after the slave girl is healed. With
this source of their income dried up, the slave girl’s owners fabricate
charges against them. They stir up a crowd that also joins in the attack
against them. In the custom of that day, Paul and Silas are beaten. I
think that guilt was always assumed. Even if an accused was not guilty,
it was commonly held that a beating helped maintain the order.

Obviously, Paul and Silas were not guilty of the charges brought against
them. Still, they received a beating and were placed in stocks in an
inner cell. We can be sure that this was not a nice place. I have toured
the Miami County Correctional Facility. The kitchen was immaculate with
its shiny stainless steel equipment. There are recreational facilities
and classrooms and a small medical clinic. It is not a dirty place. It’s
not a holiday world; people are locked up out there. But it is not a
filthy, unsanitary place.

The jail in Paul’s day was a different matter. There were no standards of
hygiene. It would have been a most unpleasant place. On top of this, Paul
and Silas are placed in stocks. They are confined even further in the
jail. Their physical position probably pulled on the muscles and sinews
and joints. But they had no way to relieve themselves of the pain working
on their bodies.

In the human scheme of things, we would no doubt understand if these two
missionaries had forgotten about their ministries for a moment. It would
be natural for them to concentrate on themselves and do what little they
could to find a degree of comfort and to survive. Pain is pain, and when
we experience it, that is typically what we focus on. Paul and Silas
could easily be excused if, in these moments of torture and imprisonment
- and all unjustified - they had forgotten all about working for God.

That was not the case. In the midst of all this, we read in verse 25,
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God…”
This strikes me as amazing. They could have been moaning in misery. They
could have been complaining about those who treated them so badly. They
could have even been complaining that God had abandoned them. Yet, here
they are, praying and singing hymns to God.

It is rare that even Christians overcome such adversity. Because of their
devotion to and love for the Lord, Paul and Silas rose to heights
attained by few of us. I’m not trying to be harsh with anyone, but most
of us can probably admit that it doesn’t take anywhere near the adversity
Paul experienced to knock us off our spiritual track for at least a
little while. But Paul and Silas had one goal in mind: to work for God.

As a result of their commitment, they were ready to meet the needs of
another when the opportunity arose. The violent earthquake released them
and the other prisoners from their bondage. They could have escaped,
leaving the jailer fully responsible for the sentences of the prisoners,
but they chose otherwise. “But Paul shouted, ‘Do not harm yourself! We
are all in here!”

Who could have thought it? What jail wouldn’t empty out if the doors flew
open? I don’t know how they got the others to stay, but Paul and Silas
had one goal in mind: to work for God. So instead of bringing death to a
jailer, they were able to bring him and his family eternal life. “He then
brought them out and asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They
replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved - you and your
household.’ Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the
others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and
washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were
baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before
them, and the whole family was filled with joy, because they had come to
believe in God.”

Because Paul and Silas refused to quit working for God, no matter their
circumstances, this jailer and his family were saved. It’s not always
easy to overcome the difficulties that threaten to overwhelm us. Jesus
warns us about this in John 15:18-20. “If the world hates you, keep in
mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love
you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have
chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember
the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If
they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my
teaching, they will obey yours also.’”

This is a most difficult warning to accept. Still, Jesus did not offer
any compromise solutions to help his followers escape persecution. In
those times when Christians face persecution, whether locally or
widespread, the only correct answer is to follow Jesus. Paul and Silas
did just that. They remembered that the Father had not abandoned them any
more than He abandoned the Son. Their practice of faith led not only to
their release in this instance, but also to the release of the jailer and
his family from the bondage to sin and death. The third verse of our
closing hymn, “Faith Is the Victory,” reads,

On every hand the foe we find
Drawn up in dread array;
Let tents of ease be left behind,
And onward to the fray.
Salvation’s helmet on each head,
With truth all girt about,
The earth shall tremble ‘neath our tread,
And echo with our shout. (John H. Yates)

As many families learned in World War II and other wars, it is not easy
to defend a nation and a world. The stakes are high, and the personal
sacrifices can be tremendous. But those embracing the ideals of this
nation and other free people around the world choose to work for freedom.

Neither is it easy to live the Christian life. Those who rebel against
God rebel against His followers as well. But those who embrace the
salvation from God know well the lesson learned from Paul and Silas, and
confirmed in the hymn “Faith Is the Victory.” Faith-filled Christians
work for God.

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN