Acts 16:25-40 – Philippian Jailer
The Living Word With Chuck Davis
Acts 16:25-40 – Philippian Jailer
Welcome to "The Living Word" with Chuck Davis. Act 1625-40, Philippian jailer. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were open, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we all hear." And the jailer called for the lights, and he rushed in. Trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you would be saved, you and your household." And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house, and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and said food before them, and he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God. But when it was day, the magistrate sent the police saying, "Let those men go." And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, "The magistrates have sent to let you go, therefore come out now and go in peace." But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned men who are Roman citizens and have thrown us into prison. Do they now throw us out secretly?" No. Let them come themselves and take us out. The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. So they came and apologized to them, and they took them out and asked them to leave the city. So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia, and when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed. Paul and Silas end up in prison. There's an unusual response for them. "I would have been complaining, but at midnight they're praying and singing hymns to God." Remember, they're beaten. They have open wounds. They're bloody. They're in pain. But there is a witness that is being declared, first to the prisoners. But I wonder if the jailer is hearing this, given the question that he asked them. While they're praising that earthquake comes in antiquity, the suggestion of that would have pointed to a clear connection between praise and earthquake. Jailer saw the doors open, assumed the prisoners had escaped, he's about to kill himself. Remember, he would have been crucified himself for losing these prisoners. And Paul stops him, somehow he's encouraged the other prisoners not to run. What must I do to be saved? He recognizes that this is a working of a divine being beyond himself. It's one of the quickest conversions in history. We often ask the question, "How much does a person need to know to follow?" It doesn't take a whole lot here. I don't know what the jailer was listening to and Paul and Silas' praise. The text says that Paul spoke to them for a while, but in this case there is a movement very quickly to experiencing God's intervention. Interestingly, the jailer immediately turns to metal care and hospitality. For us to understand the value of this, the total impropriety and even illegality of this action of a Roman jailer towards a Jewish prisoner, quite radical. The next morning we discover that the magistrates want Paul to be released, they recognize. Paul doesn't always call on this Roman citizenship, but he does it certain times when he sees it as mission critical. For whatever reason, he sees this as one of the times. Maybe he wants to shut down the opposition that's going to happen to the church in Philippi. There's so many so what's in this passage. The biggest one for me is that praise comes before the breakthrough, or as I stated in a podcast a couple of years ago, praise comes before the breakout. So easy in times that are challenging to move to the negative. It's quite kingdom-like to stay in the positive. Again, we see Paul operating in wisdom, but also in spiritual discernment of his times. The now what for me is to lean into Peter's words to the church, be prepared at all times to give a reason for the hope that is within you, and especially in those times where it's moving against us. So Lord today, there'll be good things that come, or grateful. There are going to be challenging things that come. We want to remain grateful in those. So we pray that hope would flow when it would seem like hope should not be there. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.