Case studies give students an opportunity to identify and apply Bible principles in real life situations. They illustrate the fact that Bible principles are timeless and are the key to faithful living in a faith-challenging world. The case studies that follow can be used in combination with Bible lessons or they can be used as stand-alone activities. They are carried out in the form of dramatic readings by the students, followed by class discussion of the “Questions for thought and discussion”.
(1) Swindlers at Philippi – Acts 16: A conscience case study
Narrator 1: The mind is a complicated thing. Not everybody’s works the same way. Take the slave girl of Philippi, for instance. She was not normal. But she sensed things that you and I might easily miss. She became a public wonder for her curious insights, some of which were amazingly accurate. Add a few greedy men to the picture who saw that they could exploit the girl’s talents for personal gain, and we have the tragic scene that Paul and Silas faced when they got to Philippi. How did the girl come to know why Paul and Silas were there? She obviously heard them preach the gospel and quickly caught the sense of who they were.
Slave Girl: These men are the servants of the Most High God. They show us the way of salvation!
Narrator 2: She was right on the money, of course, and pronouncements like this put her owners in the money, too! The girl was fascinated by Paul and Silas. She followed them everywhere and advertised their mission. But it was unwanted publicity. The apostles were not fortune tellers! And they were not part of any money-making scheme. The kingdom of God that they preached was offered to everyone “without money and without price.” They could also see that the exploited girl needed help. Paul finally took action to clear her mind and make it possible for her to understand the good news she was so vigorously announcing. He rebuked the spirit that trapped the girl’s mind, using terms common to the time:
Paul: In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her.
Narrator 1: The results were instant, and her owners were almost as quick to realize that their game was up. The girl was no longer trapped in a mental state that fascinated superstitious people … and this drained money from their pockets!
Narrator 2: But when you frustrate the greed of men, you are asking for trouble.
The Apostle Paul undoubtedly knew this when he healed the girl, but he simply refused to let life-saving truth be confused with the self-serving ambitions of men. The apostles were assaulted by the slave owners and dragged into court.
Slave owner: These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city, and teach things that are not lawful for us to do, being Romans.
Narrator 1: Really? One wonders why the slave owners hadn’t pressed these charges against Paul and Silas before the girl was healed, if that was what really bothered them. The charges were phony. They were a cover up for the real motive: revenge.
Narrator 2: What goes on in the hearts of men, anyway? Without a conscience before God, men will do anything. Honesty doesn’t matter. Can you imagine how far the slave owners would have gotten if they had told the magistrates their real motive for dragging the apostles into court? We can hear it now:
Slave owner: These men have healed the crazy girl who used to make us rich. Now we can’t swindle the public anymore! Make them pay!
Narrator 1: Human nature hasn’t changed in 20 centuries. Men are still dishonest, and they still do whatever it takes to cover themselves. The desire to have a clear conscience before God is no more common today than it was in Philippi 2,000 years ago. Unless honesty strips away our covering and lays us bare before God, we will never be candidates for the kingdom of God.
Questions for thought and discussion
- The slave girl was right. Paul and Silas did serve the Most High God, and they did show people the way of salvation. Why were her public announcements undesirable?
- Comment on the conscience and honesty of the slave owners. What causes men to be like them? How does it affect a person’s chances of salvation?
- Comment on the characteristics of a public that is taken in by fortune telling and willingly pays out money for it. How do these characteristics affect a person’s chances of salvation?
- What are the counterparts of fortune telling in modern society?
- Read Deut 18:9-15; 1Chron 10:13-14, and Isa 8:19-22 (especially clear in ESV, NIV). What’s wrong with fortune telling?
- How easy is it to strip away our public face and lay ourselves bare before God and men? What does it take to do this? Find one or two Bible passages that address the subject of honesty before God.
(2) Free at last in the inner prison – Acts 16: A conversion case study
Narrator 1: The jailer at Philippi knew about Paul and Silas. For one thing, the apostles had been preaching in the city for a while and lots of people knew about the salvation they offered — without cost! — through the Jewish Messiah called Jesus. No doubt the jailer also knew about the slave girl miracle and the charges that were brought against the apostles. Paul and Silas probably impressed the jailer as strange Jews with strange ideas, but little more. What he knew about the gospel they preached was certainly different from anything he had ever heard, but it was nothing he could take seriously. After all, he had a tough man’s job to do. The responsibilities that went along with handling criminals didn’t leave a lot of room for things like mercy and forgiveness!
Narrator 2: The jailer was a candidate for eternal life though! He just did not know it yet. The risen Lord knew it, and it was more than just revenge on the part of angry slave owners that put Paul and Silas in his prison. It was a matter of divine providence, under the guidance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Circumstances were about to make the matter of salvation vital for the rough and tumble jail keeper.
Narrator 1: The way Paul and Silas conducted themselves had a lot to do with it. It is no fun to suffer shame for Christ’s sake the way they did. But they had the faith to know that God is in control. They did not, like other men, shout threats and curses at those who beat them. And when they were cast into prison and put in chains, they responded with prayer and songs of praise. These men were strange prisoners indeed. The fact was not lost on the jailer or the other prisoners.
Paul: “I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way. In the path where I walk men have hidden a snare for me. Look to my right and see; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. I cry to you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.’ Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me” (Psa 142 NIV).
Narrator 2: Are earthquakes just the convulsions of a mindless earth? Or does the Lord Jesus, who calms storms, also cause disasters when it is in his purpose to do so?
Narrator 1: At midnight an earthquake shook the Philippian jail to it foundations. And it shook the jail keeper! It was exactly what he needed. If something doesn’t shake us up, we may never know that we need salvation.
Narrator 2: Cell doors flew open. Chains came loose from the prison walls. And prisoners went free. As if driven by a higher power and a deeper instinct, the prisoners all rushed to the inner prison rather than the obvious freedom of the streets outside. They fled to Paul and Silas whom they had heard singing and praying. They fled to the men who had peace with God, no matter what the danger or hardship.
Narrator 1: Then all was quiet. There was nothing but the dark and the anxious waiting to know if the earthquake was really over. And then the sounds and a silhouette: the jail keeper was moving in the outer prison. His prisoners were gone! It meant his life at the hands of the Roman authorities. They’d kill him for this! There was nothing left for him but a fearful looking for judgment to come.
Narrator 2: From the inner prison Paul heard the jailer draw his sword. The man was going to kill himself! Other prisoners must have heard it, too, but they didn’t say a word. Were they willing — even glad! — to remain silent while a man took his own life? What was going on in their minds? Only the man of God intervened in that split instant to give a life-saving command. It was only the man of God who had anything worthwhile to offer:
Paul: Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!
Narrator 1: What manner of spirit was this that shone forth from the Apostle Paul? Most prisoners would have rejoiced at the death of the hated jailer. Good riddance! But not Paul. This was the mercy and forgiveness that he preached about. This was the spirit of the Jewish Messiah who died to save all men. And now the jailer knew that these things had meaning for him. Mercy and forgiveness had become the realities of his experience in the midnight of his need! He, too, rushed to the inner prison, for he now realized that he would find his freedom there:
Jailer: Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Questions for thought and discussion
- How does Jesus work in our lives, in unseen ways, before we come into the Truth? Think about the way he worked in the life of the Philippian jailer before his conversion.
- How does Jesus work in our lives after we come into the Truth? Think about the way he worked in the lives of Paul and Silas.
- What is “divine providence”?1 How are the ways of providence seen in the story of the Philippian jailer?
- Does it take an earthquake to jolt people out of sleep? Is it essential to wait until a life-threatening experience or a crisis of conscience strikes a person before they commit their life to Christ? What do you think?
- Some people react negatively to life-threatening experiences. The Philippian jailer almost did. Such people react as if there is no God when things go wrong or, even worse, they blame God when disaster strikes. What is missing in the thinking of people who react this way?
- How important is your conduct — your way of life — when it comes to preaching the Truth to others? Be specific. Do you personally know someone whose Christlike conduct has had a good effect on others?
- See Matt 5:16. How do Paul and Silas interpret these words of Jesus for us? Digital copies of these case studies will be gladly provided on request.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One