"Liberated"

Overview

Liberated

In Acts 16:16–18, Paul and his companions encounter a slave girl in Philippi who had a "spirit of divination"—literally, in the Greek, a python spirit, associated with the oracle of Apollo. She made her owners a great deal of money through fortune-telling, and she trailed Paul's group for days, crying out, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation." Her words were technically true, yet they were not a confession of faith. Like the demons who recognized Jesus in Mark 1:23–24 and Mark 3:11, the spirit was compelled to acknowledge the truth even while opposing God's work. Scripture warns us to test such voices: "Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world" 1 John 4:1–3. Jesus likewise cautioned that "many false prophets will arise and lead many astray" Matthew 24:11.

False prophecy is not merely an ancient problem. It remains a lucrative business today, dressed up with Christian language yet denying core doctrines or baptizing sin as part of God's good design. A "Christian" label does not guarantee a Christian message. The slave girl's proclamation drew attention, but it harassed rather than helped the gospel. Paul's response is striking: he did not call down judgment on her. Instead, in the name of Jesus, he commanded the spirit to come out—liberating her from demonic bondage and, in the same moment, from the human masters who had exploited her.

That same name liberates us. By nature we are "children of wrath" Ephesians 2:1–5, and "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23–25—held captive to sin and unable to free ourselves. But God, rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ. "If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation" 2 Corinthians 5:17–21; the One who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. In baptism you were not only forgiven—you were made new, sealed with the Spirit, given the righteousness of Christ.

Live in this freedom. The weight of wrath you deserved has already been borne at the cross. Luther counseled that when you wash your face in the morning, you remember your baptism—dying daily to sin and rising in Christ. When you stumble, turn to the Lord; he forgives, and he carries the weight. Then go as Paul, Silas, and Timothy went—unburdened by false belief and unburdened by sin—serving joyfully as servants of the Most High God.

Transcript

Have any of you heard any modern day prophecies or any modern day prophets? 0s

I've heard some where there's a foretelling of political future or a foretelling of a certain healing that is just sure to come if you just hold on a little bit longer or maybe some annoying things 5s

I saw one woman who was a prophetess and she was offering a nointings. She had five different annoying things and you could buy each one for about ten bucks or you could get the whole bundle all five annoying things for forty five dollars 20s

Modern day prophets modern day prophecy there's a lot of danger in modern day prophets. 37s

It's also a very lucrative business. 45s

A lot of promises being dangled in front of us all in the name of God. 50s

Very dangerous promises of false hope and false belief. 57s

In our story today or in our text today we meet a slave girl who is a prophet of sorts. 62s

She was a suicide. She was a fortune teller. 70s

We only have her story in these three verses verses sixteen through eighteen in the book of Acts. We don't know what happens to her in the future. 73s

We don't know what happened to her after these three verses. 82s

She's a little whisp, a flash in the pan, but she's in there. 88s

Her story is in there and why. Certainly it sets up what is to come for Paul and his group. 92s

But there's something that we can learn from her interaction with Paul or Paul's interaction with her. 100s

So let's take a look here and find out what we can learn from this experience. 108s

Verse sixteen begins one day. 112s

As we were going to the place of prayer we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of 115s

money by fortune telling. Per usual Paul and his crew were on their way to the place of prayer as we learned last week when they would enter into a town. 122s

If there was not a synagogue because he would always go to the synagogue first. 134s

If there was not a synagogue then he would find the place where the faithful and about Jews would gather to pray on the Sabbath gathering together. 138s

This is where he met Lydia, the woman, the dealer of fine purple cloth. 148s

So he would go to these Jewish people first, proclaiming salvation in Jesus Christ. 154s

And whether the Jews rejected him or not, the Gentiles would hear that message. 160s

Whether they were with the Jews which would happen oftentimes or they were rejected by the Jews and so then Paul would come and speak to the Gentiles. 166s

He was always going to the Jewish people first. 174s

So he went to this place of prayer and along the way they met this slave girl. 178s

This girl who had a spirit of divination. 184s

Now Luke refers to this spirit in the Greek as a python spirit, a python spirit. 189s

The python was a mythical dragon or serpent who would guard the oracles of the god, little gee god, Apollo. 196s

He would be at that temple guarding it. 207s

It was a spirit of a false god. 210s

A common belief at that time was that the spirit was allowed to overpower women, 214s

allowing them to tell the future to do some suicide and earn a lot of money doing it. 220s

In the ancient world magic and oracles they were used to protect people. 229s

You could use magic or an oracle to call down a curse upon someone to attack others or to win others into your favor. 235s

The magic and oracles could be used on little gee gods as well. 244s

So one could use magic or one could use an oracle to coerce or to curse the gods, little gee gods. 252s

So this girl was able to tell the future. 261s

She earned a lot of money for her earthly masters in doing so because fortune telling was a very lucrative business. 264s

But she was a slave. She was a slave to her human masters and she was a slave to this python spirit. 273s

In verse 17 it says, while she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, these men are slaves of the most high god who proclaim to you a way of salvation. 286s

She kept doing this for many days but Paul very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, 298s

I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her and it came out that very hour. 306s

This girl was under the control of a python spirit. She would follow Paul and silice and Luke and whoever was with them on this mission. 315s

And she would cry out, these men are slaves never mind she herself was a slave. She had no control over her own life. 324s

She was a slave to her human masters and she was a slave to the demonic. 340s

These men are slaves to the most high god who proclaim to you a way of salvation. 347s

Well now that seems like a pretty decent message, right? 355s

I mean that is a true message. They were slaves of the most high god and they were indeed proclaiming the way of salvation. 359s

But there was a problem with this. She was not sharing in the proclamation of the gospel. 370s

And we ask ourselves, is it anyone who speaks truth about the Lord? Is it anyone who speaks the Lord's truth? 380s

One who knows him? 388s

In 1 John chapter 4 it says, beloved, do not believe every spirit. 391s

But test the spirits to see whether they are from God. 396s

For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. 401s

And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. 413s

Her confession of the most high god is not a confession of sincere belief. Is it? 420s

Remember the demons? The demons know Jesus and call him by name. In Mark the first chapter it says, 427s

Just then there was an in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. 434s

And he cried out, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? 439s

I know who you are, the holy one of God. In Scripture it's very interesting. 445s

It seems as though the demons have this very compulsive behavior that they must acknowledge the truth of Jesus and God's work. 452s

In Mark 3 it says, whenever the unclean spirit saw him that is Jesus, they fell down before him and shouted, 462s

You are the son of God. Every time they came in contact with Jesus they would speak his name, identifying him, 469s

They knew him and they had to confess it. 480s

And when they're coming in contact with Paul and the other missionaries through this slave girl, they have to confess the truth. 485s

The demons in this slave girl were using the truth to taunt and to harass God's messengers. 497s

So her confession of them being servants of the most high god, it was not a confession of faith. 506s

In 1st John 4 it continued, this is the spirit of the anti-Christ of which you have heard that it is coming and now it is already in the world. 515s

They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world and the world listens to them. 526s

The spirit of divination was not a spirit of the divine. It was from the world and the world listened and the world paid. 535s

Jesus gave a warning in Matthew 24, he said, many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 551s

This woman offered false prophecies and she and people paid a lot of money for her to lead them astray. 560s

And it's sad but even today the business of false prophecy abounds. 571s

If you go into any Christian bookstore you will find books by authors who deny the Holy Trinity. 577s

And you will find books by authors who lift up sins of the flesh as part of God's creativity in us. 583s

A label of Christianity does not automatically mean that it is of Christ or that it is a proclamation of Christ and God's Word. 594s

The proclamation of the girl in our text, it could be construed as helpful after all. 606s

A lot of attention was being brought to her to the disciples to those who were on mission. 611s

But she wasn't helping. She wasn't helping Paul, proclaimed Christ. She followed them around for days, calling out after them, mocking them, harassing them, 620s

haunting them. The demons' words were starting to gain a lot of attention, more attention than the gospel that Paul had brought. 634s

But Paul did a very interesting thing. Instead of smiting her, instead of asking God to smite this false prophetess, he called out the demon that was in her. 644s

He liberated her from that demon. He liberated her in the name of Jesus from the whole that the demon had on her. 660s

And he liberated her in the name of Jesus from the whole that her human masters had on her. 670s

This same name that delivered this girl from demon possession and all the powers of evil. 678s

This same name is the name that delivers us from our own captivity as well. 685s

In Ephesians it says that we are by nature children of wrath. 693s

And in Romans it says that no one seeks after God and no one does good. 699s

In our own flesh we are children of wrath. We are under the power of sin. 705s

In one of our confessions we confess that we are held captive to sin. We are held in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. 714s

But those Ephesians and Romans passages don't end with that. They don't end with us being children of wrath of not seeking God of not doing good. 724s

They continue in Ephesians. It says we were by nature children of wrath like everyone else. 735s

But, but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, 743s

even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved. 751s

In Romans it continued since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are now justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a sacrifice of a tone meant by his blood. 763s

Effective through faith. We have been liberated from sin and evil. In second Corinthians it says if anyone is in Christ there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away. 782s

See everything has become new. All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ. 797s

Christ who knew no sin became sin in order to give us his own righteousness. He became my sin and he became your sin so that you may be pure. 808s

And holy before the Father. When you were baptized not only were you forgiven by his blood, forgiven by his atoning sacrifice, you were made a new creation. 827s

You were made new no longer a child of wrath but a child of the spirit, a child whom God sealed in his spirit, pouring his spirit into you, giving you the righteousness of Christ before all. 842s

I want to encourage you to live in this freedom. Live in the freedom no longer bearing the weight, the heaviness of sin, because that wrath that we so well deserved was already taken on for us upon the cross of Christ. 864s

We can live without the weight of the sin. We can repent every single day and have a new day in Jesus. 887s

Luther said, when you wash your face in the morning, remind yourself of your baptism, die daily to sin only to rise in Christ as a baptized child of God. 897s

It makes all the difference in the world to be free, to live free, to not have that weight carried with us. In our gospel text today we heard about the stumbling. We heard about the millstone. We heard about repentance and forgiveness. 913s

When we sin we turn to the Lord and he says, you are forgiven. He bears that weight for you. He bears that weight for myself so that we can live free. We can live free like Paul. We can live free like Timothy like Silas serving the Lord in that freedom no longer weighed down by false belief, 934s

no longer weighed down by our sins. So I want to encourage you. I want to lift up to you. The life that you have been given at a very costly price, yet one that Jesus counted as his joy, 961s

because he knew the outcome of that price would be to be reconciled with you and to be living with you for all eternity in complete and perfected love and purity. 986s

So go, go, go, living free, living enjoy and living as servants of the most high God. 1003s

Thank you. 1036s