What did you think would happen?

I don’t know if you’ve ever watched someone do something dumb, something that you couldn’t stop them from doing, but inevitably it had a negative outcome. Maybe you would ask them, “What did you think would happen?” Often in these moments it’s because someone was living without an expectation of what would happen.

It acts, chapter 16, was continuing in the story of the early church. The church began in Jerusalem, but as the book goes on, it spreads from there and outward. Is the book of Acts beginning? It focuses mostly on the life administration of the apostle Peter, but then it shifts to follow the life of the apostle Paul.

Paul is here with his mission trip partner Silas in a place called Philippi. They have an encounter with a woman who is possessed by a demon who is able to tell the future. She’s also enslaved by her master and uses her to make money.

So, when Paul casts the demon out of her, they are upset because she is no longer a source of income for them. Paul and Silas are drugged by the city leaders, they’re beaten, and put in prison.

But around midnight, as Paul and Silas are worshiping, God shakes the prison and sets them free. 

Just a short time into this story, you see something interesting about the early church. It’s interesting to me that they were not caught off guard by any of this. They weren’t surprised by supernatural things, persecution, or God‘s deliverance. They lived in expectation of these things.

When I look at the church today, I don’t see us living with the same expectation. I think the church has become a box we check or something we do because we are “good people.” 

When the church lives without the correct expectations, it hurts us. We end up missing out on all the things that God is doing around us or, even worse, we limit what God will do in and through us. 

You are the Church! As the church, you and I should live with an expectation of God’s power, the devil’s opposition, and Jesus’s ultimate victory. 

So what are the expectations we should have as the church?

We should live with an expectation that God will move. Paul cast out this demon, and he is not shocked or surprised by it. Supernatural power through God’s Spirit was expected by the early church. 

Think if a team of NBA All-Stars showed up on Saturday to play some of our kindergartners in a game. They would show up expecting to win. They would have confidence that they are better and more powerful than a team of kindergartners. 

Do you and I live like we have the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us?  

The early church expected to see God do miraculous things. Yes, they were in all of God, but they were not shocked. When God did what only God can do. The early church expected God to move in their lives. Why do we show up expecting anything less?

They also expected opposition to arise. Immediately after this girl has a demon cast out of her, there are those who do not like it. This leads to Paul and Silas being beaten and thrown in prison.

And if we are the church, God has called us to be. There will be opposition. Following Jesus doesn’t mean that we have a life that is free from struggles. Culture will not always approve of us. The world will not always receive us. The religious crowd won’t always applaud us.

I don’t want to lie to you. Following Jesus will have a cost. Following Jesus won’t always be easy. Being the church requires sacrifice. 

So as much as we expect God to move in our lives, we expect that the enemy will attack and retaliate. 

Lastly, we can see that Paul and Silas lived in expectation that victory belonged to Jesus. I love that here. In this moment, they choose to worship while in prison. 

Worship shifts our focus. It puts our eyes back on Jesus no matter what our situation looks like. 

In Jesus, we have hope. In Jesus, we have life. In Jesus, we have victory.

The church has victory when we look to Jesus and tell others about Jesus. No matter what we face or what hardship comes against us, we have the ultimate victory because our lives are found in Christ.

So what would change if we showed up corporately and individually expecting God to move? How would we be encouraged the next time that we face an opposition from the enemy if we were already expecting him to fight back? What would it shift in the midst of our trials if we really believed and expected that victory belonged to Jesus?