a summer mission trip

Acts 16


16 One day as we were going down to the place of prayer, we met a demon-possessed slave girl. She was a fortune-teller who earned a lot of money for her masters. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved."

  18 This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And instantly it left her.

  19 Her masters' hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace. 20 "The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews!" they shouted to the city officials. 21 "They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice."
  22 A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. 23 They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn't escape. 24 So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.

  25 Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. 26 Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off! 27 The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself. 28 But Paul shouted to him, "Stop! Don't kill yourself! We are all here!"

  29 The jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

  31 They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household." 32 And they shared the word of the Lord with him and with all who lived in his household. 33 Even at that hour of the night, the jailer cared for them and washed their wounds. Then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized. 34 He brought them into his house and set a meal before them, and he and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God.


Ok, let's pretend here for a minute...

Let's say you & I go somewhere on a 2 week summer mission trip.

It's somewhere where Christ followers are in the minority.

While there, we keep bumping into this person who's demon possessed (there still are people like that today!), & this person keeps telling everyone in a loud voice that we're Christ followers & we're going to show everyone the way to new life.

Now we don't want this to go on because we're in a place where the predominant religion takes a dim view of Christ followers. We're trying to keep our presence on the down low so we can talk quietly with people about Jesus.

Well, after a few days we realize we gotta do something to quiet this demon possessed person or everyone's gonna know what's going on. So you decide we gotta cast out the demon this this person to shut them up.

Well, the folks who know this person get really made at us for casting out the demon & go tell the local government authorities about us.

We get arrested.

They then strip us of ALL our clothes - that's right - butt naked.

Then they beat us with wooden rods - severely beat us.

Then they take us to the deepest, darkest part of the jail, still butt naked & prolly bleeding badly & having a had time moving.

And then they chain our feet to the wall so we won't get away.

So, what would we do then?

Well, we prolly be calling for the embassy to be notified,
     we be yelling for an embassy person to get their butts down there & get us out,
     then we'd be threatening to have the authorities arrested, prosecuted, & put in jail,
     & we'd prolly sue for payment of medical bills & a big chunk for pain & suffering.
     And we'd NEVER go back to this place,
     nor would we EVER go on a mission trip again,
     & we'd tell everyone about our terrible experience,
     write a book about it that would end up on the New York Times bestseller list,
     appear on lots of talk shows, garnering LOTS of sympathy.
     There's prolly be a MAJOR international incident about the whole thing.
     Mission trips would quit going there.
     Everyone would be scandalized by our experience.


Yeah...


What did Paul & Silas do?

They were beaten severely, bleeding, who knows what kind of injuries they had sustained, & were chained to the wall butt naked.

They prayed & sang worship songs.

And the other prisoner were listening.


The Lord sent an earthquake, everyone was freed, the jailer tried to commit suicide, Paul stops him, the jailer & his peeps (maybe some of the prisoners?) become Christ followers.


Yeah...

It ain't in the good times that who we are in Christ is revealed.

It's in the terrible time that who we REALLY are, & what we REALLY think, simply comes out.


Think about it...