English Standard Version (ESV)
16 As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18 And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
19 But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers. 20 And when they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, “These men are Jews, and they are disturbing our city. 21 They advocate customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to accept or practice.” 22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. 24 Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. 27 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. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 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. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
35 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” 36 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.” 37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” 38 The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. 39 So they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. 40 So they went out of the prison and visited Lydia. And when they had seen the brothers, they encouraged them and departed.
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Picture two men. One is locked in a jail cell, his feet bound
in chains, the door to the world locked.
The other is the jailer, the one who holds the keys, the one who can
come and go as he pleases. Two men. Which one is free?
Friends, our circumstances dictate
a lot. Trust me, this is something I
understand. I’ve spent a large portion
of the last 18 months feeling lousy. In
previous times, I’ve been depressed and anxious. In my life, I’ve struggled to cope with
stress and grief and all sorts of other emotions. I’ve wandered the land of uncertainty and
known loneliness. I’ve seen the view
from the mountaintop and have also wandered the valley floor, desperate to know
where God was in the midst of my situation.
I understand how we experience a vast array of circumstances throughout
our lives.
Our circumstances can shape
us. They can shape our moods and the
conditions of our hearts. Whatever is
going on in our lives, it has a powerful possibility to determine how we feel,
what we say and how we act. Imagine you’ve
just won the lottery—that will probably change the way many of us feel about
our lives. Imagine you’ve just lost
every penny you’ve ever had—that will probably affect the way you feel about
yourself and the world around you. Our
circumstances have great power in our lives, because we give them great power.
Philippians 4:12 is a particularly confounding
verse if you’re like me, if you’re someone who allows what is going on in the
world around you to shape how you feel about yourself and life. In it, Paul writes, “I know how to be brought
low, and I know how to abound. In any
and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,
abundance and need.” He then continues
in verse 13: I can do all things through
him who strengthens me.
It’s an amazing declaration. Paul is saying that he has experienced every
circumstance that is out there, and he’s learned how to face them all, because
he has the power of Christ within him.
His circumstances no longer have power over him—he has a greater power
within him.
Think back, for a moment, over the
previous week. Try to identify one circumstance
that powerfully affected you. Did it
change your mood for the day? Did it
alter something within you?
Now, let’s talk about Paul and
Silas. There they are, in Philippi,
proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ.
It just so happens that Paul casts a demon out of a slave girl that has
been annoying him for days, and when he does he ends up making some very
powerful opponents. The men who owned
the slave girl, caring nothing for her demonic possession, have been hit in the
wallet, and they’re unwilling to take such a hit sitting back, so they go on
the offensive, finally getting Paul and Silas thrown in jail.
Now, let me set the scene. Paul and Silas are in jail, with their feet
fastened in the stocks. This is not a
good situation, especially in a day when Christians were being killed for what
they believed. Paul should know—he used
to be the one orchestrating their arrests.
Instead, what happens?
Paul and Silas stay up all night
praying and singing. Their circumstances
look bleak, right? They are in the
innermost part of the jail with their feet bound in the stocks, and yet they are
praying and singing like there isn’t a problem in the world. They find such joy in Jesus Christ that their
circumstances do not affect them at all.
This is weird, right? We can confess this. It’s ok.
If we heard of such a thing in jail today, we’d still think it was
weird. Surely, all the other prisoners
in the jail thought it was weird. I sure
do.
But this is what Jesus means when
he tells us not to fear the one who can kill the body but has no power over the
soul. When we truly understand what
faith in Jesus Christ is all about, we are freed from fearing even the most
intimidating situations. When we grasp
that faith in a resurrected Savior is transformational because it elongates our
timeline to help us understand that our eternal life consists of so much more
than just life on earth, we can live with such a sense of groundedness that we
can sing from the depths of the deepest prison.
We can have such faith in Christ that the greatest obstacles in life can
be seen in comparison to the awesome power of God.
Not long after we see Paul and
Silas singing, the awesome power of God dwarfs the prison walls. An earthquake, which is often associated
Biblically with the presence of God, shakes the foundations of the prison and
opens the doors to the cells, also setting loose Paul & Silas’ feet. The jailer, the free man, sees this and
despairs, for he recognizes that he is not free—his life is bound by his job,
by his boss, and his failure at work means his life is over. As he is about to kill himself, Paul
reorients his vision.
The fact that Paul could do this is
rather extraordinary. Think about it—Paul
is in jail, and the doors open and the chains fall off. A man concerned first about himself would run
for it, right? Only a man who is
unbothered by circumstances around him would see this as an opportunity for
evangelism.
The jailer sees this faith in Paul,
and he is so startled by their reaction that he asks them what he must do to be
saved. Now, before this moment, he may
not have even realized that he needed to be saved, but now he recognizes
clearly the light of Christ shining in these men, and he hears the Good News: Believe
in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
This is the good news! This is the hope that should calm us, that
should center us, that should give us peace.
Notice, here, how complicated this scheme is that gets the jailer and
his family saved. God could have done
this in another way, right? But think
for a moment—what would make such a powerful man come to faith in a resurrected
Savior? Only a true understanding of his
actual lack of power, right?
But God pursues the jailer in the
only way possible that would bring the jailer to faith in Christ. God works through a slave girl, Paul and
Silas and an earthquake to bring this man to faith. And the man and his household are saved
through it.
So friends, rejoice. Rejoice in the God who goes to great lengths
to save his people. And rejoice in the
fact that you need not let the circumstances of life topple you. You are saved by Christ, and because of this,
nothing can separate you from the love of God in Jesus Christ. Nothing.
There is no greater joy, and no sorrow or grief can tear that from your
hands. So, no matter what happens to you
this week, may your heart be centered on the one who loves you enough to die
and rise for you, the one with whom your heart shall dwell forever. With every beat of our hearts, may we focus
on him, and let this lead us out confidently into a world where we don’t have
to worry about our circumstances, but are free to serve others.
Let us pray
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