We Are All Here: Suicide Prevention, Human Trafficking, & Grace In Acts 16

In this solo Radiating Faith sermon, I explore Acts 16 and the powerful connections between spiritual discernment, human exploitation, worship during suffering, forgiveness, and suicide prevention. I examine how Paul and Silas remained faithful through opposition, physical abuse, imprisonment, and uncertainty—and how their response influenced everyone listening around them.

I begin with the enslaved young woman whose spiritual condition was being exploited for financial gain. Although the spirit within her spoke words that sounded truthful, Paul refused to accept endorsement from an evil source. Her owners responded with anger when their ability to profit from her disappeared. I connect this biblical account to modern human trafficking, sexual exploitation, coercive relationships, and the difficult reality that rescuing people often threatens those who benefit from their captivity.

I then examine Paul and Silas worshiping while imprisoned. Scripture specifically tells us that the other prisoners were listening, reminding us that people observe how we respond when our faith becomes costly. Worship is not merely something we practice after deliverance. It can become an act of leadership, testimony, and spiritual resistance while we are still wounded, confined, and waiting for circumstances to change.

Finally, I focus on the Philippian jailer, who prepared to take his own life because he believed he had failed and could not survive the resulting shame. Paul intervened with the words, “We are all here.” I discuss why suicide prevention is connected to forgiveness, grace, accountability, and the preservation of life—even when the person in danger has harmed us. Acts 16 ultimately demonstrates that shame does not have to end in death, suffering does not silence worship, and one act of mercy can transform an individual, a household, and everyone watching.

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Transcript

 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Radiating Faith, the ministry subseries on the Kapono Nukes podcast. I am excited to get into the scripture today and to talk about this important section of Acts with y'all. Now, if you're watching, you can see, and if you're listening, I will describe it. I'm actually recording from a small Japanese hotel room while traveling. It's two forty-one AM in the morning, uh, in Japan. I went to record this sermon hours ago and found out, unfortunately, the hard way, something I had forgotten about Japan while traveling, is that the hotels here, like many of the infrastructure, is based off of two-prong outlets. And unfortunately, my laptop charging device is a three-prong. It's not just any three-prong, it's one in particular that is not common. In fact, the front desk had an adapter for three pro-prongs if all of the, you know, parts that you put into the outlet were rounded. I had two rectangular ones on the top, unfortunately. And it was late at night when I found out about this, and by the time I got done talking with the front desk, many places had shut down. I went to three different twenty-four-hour convenience markets where they had extension cords, they had converters and adapters of all kinds, not the specific kind I needed unfortunately. And then finally, I had to, uh, pay for transportation all the way to a twenty-four-hour place that did have it. It took me almost an hour to find it because they only had one left, and it was all the way on the bottom shelf in this discreet part of the store. It was not a good time, and, uh, now, like I said, it's two forty, past two forty AM in the morning here. Um, don't want this sermon to get stopped, though. I wanted it out today. So, you know, I've got a, a s- a strict schedule to follow and stuff like that But that's okay. We're gonna get into the Word, constantly renewed in strength and energy by the Holy Spirit, so I'm not worried about it. We're still gonna have a great sermon. Hopefully, the audio and video quality isn't too bad considering the conditions of this confined hotel space and kind of... You can't see the behind-the-scenes here, but the cherry-rigged setup that I've got going on. Today's sermon is based off of the historical account of Acts, which continues the work that Jesus Christ had begun to do, aka Yeshua, as I refer to him. Now, this is a post-resurrection-- This is actually after Yeshua goes into heaven and the disciples are sent out on their mission. You know, we know that they went, spread across the nations the gospel, most of them suffering and dying along the way. Acts is a huge account of that. Not all of it, obviously, but it contains most of that spread of the gospel. In Acts 16 in particular, the reason I'm doing a sermon on this is actually for my college class. We had to pick... I was in a, I was in a class for the historical account of Acts, and we were called to pick one chapter or passage. Could be any number of verses. I'm not sure what the minimum was. I don't even think there was a minimum, but it said, "Pick something very meaningful that you could develop upon, make questions, teach, X, Y, Z, A, B, C, that had personal meaning to you." In particular, Acts 16 called to me. There are many passages in Acts that I do relate to deeply or have experienced or, you know, is related to the work that I do. Acts 16 in particular, though, has a few elements that are critical and resonate with what I do, one of them being human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual trauma prevention and awareness, specifically the human trafficking aspect, which I've gotten into lately. Looking at that, we'll see an account of a woman, a, a girl who is a slave and who has an evil spirit within her that allows her to prophesy, and she's being exploited for money. And we're gonna see what happens with that, and we're gonna tie it to the modern-day happenings that are very similar and some of which I've worked with nonprofit organizations and individuals who have suffered through that or, you know, help rescue people in those situations. So excited to talk about that, to bring some awareness and prevention. And then also there is a what could be classified as a suicide in this historical account, rather a attempt on suicide, an attempt on suicide. And so working in suicide prevention as I do, having stopped suicides, having stopped a homicide-suicide, this is something that resonates deeply with me, and there's a very important lesson within that as well. All of that being said, I don't expect everyone to be familiar with this section of Acts. You know, it is a, uh, Acts overall is a long account. There's many different places, many different names, many different miracles, all great stuff. So sometimes people just forget some of that, and so I wanna go over it, or maybe you've never read it before. Glad if you're here. If you're not a believer, you know, you're welcome to be here and hopefully, uh, learn some things along the way. And Acts 16 in particular, we're gonna read a part of it. It's not all of it, but we're gonna read the section that, uh, we'll be relating to today and drawing from. So I'm gonna read that verbatim from the New International Version of the Bible. Paul and Silas in prison Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us shouting, "These men are servants of the Most High God who are telling you the way to be saved." She kept this up for many days. Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her." At that moment, the spirit left her. When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice." The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received those orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly, there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once, all the prison doors flew open, and everyone's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, "Don't harm yourself. We are all here." The jailer called for lights, rushed in, and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 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 household were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them. He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God, he and his whole household. When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order. And, you know, the rest of it isn't that important. I mean, it is important, uh, to the historical account of Acts, to the spread of the gospel, but for what we're looking on in particular, so I want us to just end with the jailer coming to believe in God, he and his whole household. Now Going back to the young female slave, there's a couple things I wanna harp on here that are important we're gonna unpack. First of all, what I wanna address is something that I had to personally research. You know, I, I work as a digital ministry founder and, and preacher, but I don't have all the answers at all. And there are some times when reading scripture that I am a little confused or taken aback by something, or something seems to conflict and I have to, you know, research it. And most of those conflictions, you know, are because of English language translation, not because of the actual text itself. That's why I love going back to the Hebrew and Greek, and if you're new to studying Hebrew and Greek, you'll find that it really does deepen the word so much. Now, when it comes to the female slave, what we find is that she had an evil spirit. It allowed her to prophesy, fortune tell. People would m- you know, pay for her to read their futures or to tell them the future, whatever it was, prophesy, and her owners would make the money. Obviously, it says that she was in slavery. We assume that she didn't get a cut or a commission, obviously, right? They were exploiting her. Now, she says something, though, and th- then Paul's response happens, and this is what really threw me off. She says, "These men serve the most high God. These men are telling you the way to be saved." And Paul gets annoyed with her after hearing this over and over again, and he commands the demon out of her, the spirit Why? Why was he annoyed? She was telling the truth. And this really bothered me, to be honest. And so I went and did some research, did some research, and the final verdict I found, which I think is really interesting, it says, "Endorsement from those who are sinning or wrong or from an evil source," like that evil spirit, "is not what God wants, is not what we want." Evil spirits can speak the truth. Satan spoke the Word of God, right? He didn't speak on God's behalf or speak God's Word. He recited scripture. But what I mean by that is evil spirits know the truth. In fact, their mission is to destroy and twist the truth, so they know it better than people do So endorsement from an evil spirit is not what we want because they can say the truth and lead you to evil. They can bring you down the wrong path It's not just about what you say and your actions, but it's about who you are, and that's what we're seeing right here in this situation The reason it really resonated with me, that whole situation with this, uh, young female who is in slavery and being exploited, the fact is that when Paul saves her, it is not a celebration. Her owners are only concerned with her value monetarily. They don't care about her rights as a human being, a- as a woman, as a person. All they care about is the money they were making. Now, some of the organizations that I, I've worked with or I've talked to, to include Hadassah's Hope and Avail 119 and other organizations working in human trafficking survivors and working with, uh, ministry. You know, Hadassah's Hope in particular going into strip clubs and pornographic establishments to help those women get out of that lifestyle by getting to know Yeshua and, you know, getting to have Bible study, getting medical and mental help. So a great organization that I, I've been talking to and hopefully will be working with much more in the future, uh, in, and in partnership with Avail 119. You know- The people aren't happy who are in charge of these strippers or who are their abusers or who human trafficked them or bought them from human trafficking for a specific purpose, you know? And that's not to say we're freeing people from slavery or from evil spirits necessarily, but we are trying to help convert people who feel financially trapped, emotionally trapped, you know, their mental health or education may be a barrier. And so we see that in addition to emotional attachment, right? A lot of them are in love with a man who is just exploiting them, or, or it could be even a woman, you know, whoever their perpetrator is, whoever their quote owner is. And so I really resonated with this idea of instead of being celebrated as heroes, you know, Paul and Silas are, are beaten and thrown in prison because not even when they were saying the truth, they were spreading the gospel before her. It was when they took away her monetary value in sense of what the owners were using her for. I think this is really important because when we think of the Bible, we don't think about some of these topics like the exploitation and value of survivors of human trafficking or those actively in human trafficking. That's not to say they human trafficked her, uh, but It says she was a slave. I mean, that's, that's basically human trafficking to a degree. It means someone sold her or someone took her by force. It means they were exploiting her. And instead of celebrating saying, "We're happy that this evil spirit is out of her," they said, "What we were benefiting from the evil spirit is gone now." And the worst part is we don't know if she was freed. We know that the evil spirit came out of her, and m- and, and who knows what happened once she lost her value, whether they sold her off or killed her, or maybe she was freed and converted. We don't, we don't know. We don't get those details, unfortunately. But it's, it's something to think about, you know. And it's sad to look at the historical account of Acts and see that we have the same thing going on nowadays where we have, you know, faith-based organizations or even, you know, non-faith-based organizations trying to help women and, and men, you know, when you look at child labor and work labor, because work labor is a majority of human trafficking, not just, you know, sex trafficking. Looking at the, the freedom of these people comes at a cost quote, and that cost is the value of exploitation that was being taken advantage of by, by the owners and perpetrators. And so it's really sad to see that that is still going on. And so that was one thing that as I was reading Acts, you know, I came across that and instantly thought of some of the work that I'm doing, that God is doing through me, uh, in this field and, and all these organizations that I've gotten to me or even some organizations that I don't work with or talk to but have met online and stuff like that. So it's really sad, and I think we need to recognize importantly as well in tandem with that, again, going back to the endorsement from wrong sources is not desirable, even if we're craving endorsement or want endorsement. And the spread of the gospel This goes even into even like conforming to the world rather than being transformed by the renewing of your mind, right? And that's not to say you can't put a bit of a secular spin on a sermon or, you know, worship music or something to connect with a certain audience. But there's a difference between a bit of secularness or a, a genre difference or a style difference than an evil source. And so I wanna be clear about that. But that is something that really stuck with me because sometimes, especially if we're small independent creators or churches or ministries or organizations, we just want backing. We just want followers. We just want money, whatever it is, not in a greedy or evil way, but because we wanna grow, because we have good-hearted intentions to spread the faith. But here's the deal. If it's from an evil source, we ultimately end up, you know, ruining ourselves in the long run. And sometimes we aren't using a spirit of discernment like Paul clearly had because we are just wanting that support from whoever we can get, especially nowadays where there's so much persecution and hate and suffering still as there was in that time Fast forward through the text, we see another important lesson I just want to touch upon, something that, uh, you know, I, I've tried to implement in my life more, though I'm not perfect at it, of course, which is the praises and hymns and worship while in the midst of suffering. Post-beating, p- now in prison, and there's a couple things as you look at the verbiage closely. You know, it doesn't just say Paul and Silas were singing hymns and praises and the, and the prison was open. It, it-- There's a line in there in between that says, "And the prisoners were listening." Now, that, that didn't need to be in there at all. Who cares if the other prisoners were listening? Well, we care because it shows clearly, it's mentioned there clearly to show that people are always watching and listening. Even in prison, even when we're framed up as the bad guy, whatever it may be, people were listening. Maybe some of those prisoners were listening because they needed hope. They needed to know of Yeshua because of their situation, whatever got them in prison. You know, maybe some of them were just curious Who knows what it was? But the Bible distinctly adds this in. No word or even down I've-- I know pastors who have done a whole sermon on just a comma in the Bible and what it means because everything is so articulate and perfectly crafted. It says the prisoners were listening. That line is in there for a reason. I believe it's, one, a reminder of the influence we have and of how people are listening, and two, setting an example, and three, why we need to be public about some things. Again, Paul and Silas weren't being public in the way that the Pharisees were for glorification and praise of themselves. They were doing it so everyone knew, praise to Yeshua, that the suffering was actually a good thing, that they were counted worthy of suffering to spread the gospel, to be liv-living the good life, to be leaving behind the, the old life of sin. And so I just wanna make a side comment about that phrase, you know, the prisoners were listening, and then just focus again on while they're suffering, what are they doing in the midst of it? They're worshiping, singing hymns, praising, probably, you know, praying as well before, after, during. And it's a reminder of what we're supposed to do, you know, during that period of imprisonment, during that period of post-suffering, not even knowing what is to come. And so I think that's really important, especially when you look at other people in prison question Yeshua and, you know, the faith and, uh, it was not good. And so we need to remember to always be singing pri-- uh, you know, hymns and praise and worship. And I think it's really important that it specifies that instead of praying, instead of saying they prayed to the Lord or they just kept the faith. It mentions singing, and I think that's really important because a lot of times we forget the biblical calling and duty and desire to worship, sing, and praise. You know, it is not synonymous with prayer in the sense that it is something different. It's something specifically distinguished in the Bible, so we need to be doing both. Obviously, both are important, both are acceptable, but we need to be doing both in tandem with one another and separately. I truly believe that. You know, we, we often forget that we need to sing and praise the Lord. You know, it is good for us. It's even more good for us than it is for Him You know, God doesn't need our worship or praise, and I've mentioned this before, I'll mention it again. It's because it shapes us. It, it, it helps shape what we're desiring after and what we do with our lives and what we're reflecting and becoming. Now to look at the jailer, which is probably one of the most important parts. This isn't just about suicide prevention, this is about forgiveness. Paul and Silas had every right in terms of humanity, right? Obviously, we have no rights when we look at God and justice and mercy, right? Read the historical account of Job. Who are we a- a- as mortals to question justice and what is right and wrong, right? We know what is right and wrong because God has commanded it, and he has said to forgive and love our enemies. And in our human emotions, we could have said, "Oh, good. I'm glad he's killing himself. He's the one who threw us in here and is watching us. You know, he's one of them. He's one of the enemies." But Paul says, "Stop. Wait. We are all here." Because the Roman guard had thought that he had failed his duty and, and it was more safe to be dead than to face the shame of failing, you know, the government, and that's something that we've seen historically, whether it's in Japanese culture or other parts of the world. You know, we've seen it sometimes in, in Roman culture, even in duels, in, in various lores, both fictional and real historical accounts, where death is more honorable than the shame of defeat. But the Bible calls into account that grace is better than any shame, that grace is more powerful than any shame, that life is more powerful and important than death Look at Judas, look at Saul, look at... We see these accounts of suicide in the Bible, right? It's where people were afraid or ashamed, had regret, and they take their lives. And, and, and that, the biggest sin in that is not just the destruction of life, which breaks God heart, you know, breaks God's heart, but the act of unrepentance and not seeking forgiveness. And suicide doesn't mean you're not wanting to repent or feeling repentance, but it means you're not accepting that forgiveness or mercy, right? Because if you truly believe that you were forgiven or were loved, you know, you would say, "Okay, I, I've, I have a shameful past," or, "I did something shameful. I did something sinful and terrible, but I'm gonna live with the consequences. I'm gonna take accountability, and I'm going to continue to live." Suicide is running away from that. It's trying to bury all that. Some cultures made it honorable. Some cultures made it where it was more desirable. But grace and forgiveness should always come before anything bad, and it should come after everything bad, right? And I say all that to say this: in our human minds, we could have said that jailer is a bad guy. Who cares if he kills himself? Let him kill himself. But Paul says, "Wait, stop." Paul was a man, as we know according to the historical accounts of the Bible, filled with the Spirit, a righteous man who, who repented and did amazing things for the pursuit of the spread of the gospel and everything. So if he is telling this man to stop, if he was trying to live and mirror Yeshua, then we know that he understood. And what he's telling us is that we are to forgive our enemies, and that includes intervening on something like that. Paul could have watched a guy die and said, "Well, I had nothing to do with that. I'm just a bystander." But what does Ezekiel say? We read the historical account of Ezekiel. There is no such thing as being a bystander. God calls him to be a watchman of Israel. He says, "I have told you what to go do. Now go do it, and if they listen or fail to listen," for they are obstinate people who probably won't listen, "if they fail to listen, that's on them, but you did your part. But if you don't tell them, and they continue sinning, and then they die and are condemned for it, then that blood is on your hands, Ezekiel, because I told you what to go tell them." And so the Bible speaks clearly about bystanderism and being a bystander. It tells us, "No, it's wrong." So if we see someone who is gonna commit suicide because of their shame, and we don't present to them Yeshua and mercy and forgiveness and unconditional love, then their death is our fault. And so we need to acknowledge this. Paul acknowledges that, and he's clearly showing that to us What Paul says can even have a double meaning, not in the sense of the scripture or not adding to the meaning of the scripture, but he says we are all here. Why does he say that? In the historical context and account of Acts, he is saying it because the jailer wanted to commit suicide because he felt like all the prisoners had escaped, therefore he had failed his job. Now he's gonna pursue death because either the Roman government is gonna do it, uh, you know, if they find out that all these prisoners are gone or because of the shame and burden he felt, uh, whether that was militarily or morally So Paul says we are all here to reassure him that he did not fail his job But let's take it out of context, not in a bad way. Let's go to a modern day suicide about to happen, and let's say we are all here. That's what I mean by a double meaning. If you take that exact phrase and apply it to a modern day suicide that's about to happen, it still has value and meaning. Not in the context of, hey, you failed to keep all the, the prisoners in prison, but in a different context. You're not alone. We are all here Men and women of the Holy Spirit, of brothers and sisters in Christ, of Yeshua. And I say all this because it's really powerful to think about that in the sense that I've worked in suicide prevention for a couple years now, and what we see all the time is this, that people say, "I have no one. I am utterly alone. No one cares." But Paul says, "We are all here." He said that because of the responsibility of, of the jailer, but I'm telling you we're saying it because of the love of the family and body of Yeshua and because we're not alone. We are all here together in this as humanity for one another. And so I know this sermon wasn't very detailed or, you know, anything dramatic. It's kind of those three main parts that I want us to just go over again, boom. The exploitation of people, and w- when we rescue them, it's gonna upset the offenders, the perpetrators, and those who wanna exploit them. But regardless of that, whether it's gonna get us beat or put in prison or canceled or whatever it is, hated or insulted or suffered, that is what we are to do. Paul did it, and through it he also showed us that endorsement from the wrong source is not what we are to have, and it is better to get rid of an evil spirit of endorsement than to have it continue to tell the truth but with an evil heart and spirit Secondly, praise, hymns, and worship in the midst of suffering and those who are listening and watching. We are leaders, mentors, whether we choose to be or not. People are watching our conduct and our walk in faith with Yeshua, and we need to have great actions for people to follow and reflect in their lives. And we need to be patient through all that suffering and lead by example. We need to be patient, we need to be praising, we need to be loving and trusting still. Then lastly, the jailer looking at suicide prevention. Suicide prevention is a biblical duty. The preservation of life and love is what we are called to do, and the suicide prevention isn't even about just the preservation of life, but in this very particular context, it is also a demonstration of forgiveness, of forgiveness and of group responsibility, and it's a very beautiful thing that it is better for our enemies to live despite what they have done to us than to take their own life or to suffer because of the guilt and shame they feel Remember that. Some people wish their enemies were dead, but we wanna wish not that they were dead, but that they would be resurrected in Christ, in Yeshua, as the jailer was, where he and his household was blessed. Which is another lesson right there we can unpack real quick. Blessings spread, faith spreads through your... When, when you lead by example, as the jailer clearly did when he got saved, not just from the prevention of suicide when Paul said, "We are all here," but when he asked them then, "What do I need to do to be saved?" Treated their wounds, and then was saved and blessed, and so was his whole household. That ripple effect is so powerful. So whether you're newly converted, whether you've been a leader in the, uh, religious industry or the, the f- space of faith, looking at both Paul and the jailer, they both had a ripple effect because people were listening and watching, whether that was their household or strangers they didn't know In the context of Acts, I say this to you just to summarize and to, uh, send you away to do the good work that Yeshua has called us to do, you know, as brothers and sisters in Christ, or if you're an unbeliever, to continue to research and be on this journey, I say this: Love one another. Forgive one another. Help each other when it comes to shame and guilt and fear. Don't let it eat people alive. Don't let it lead to their death spiritually and physically. Let them know that, that we are all here, we including Yeshua. And regardless of the consequences, stand strong in the faith and do what is right. Prioritize freedom over false endorsement, over evil spirits. And in the midst of all the hardship and suffering that comes from whatever it is that you're doing to help spread the faith, stay strong and continue to worship and praise. Amen.