I’ll be talking about Acts 16:16-40 today, but go ahead and read the whole chapter for a little more context. That and you can call me out if you notice I said something wrong.
Paul and Silas were on a missionary journey and stopped for a while in Philippi. One day while they were on their way to prayer, a slave girl started following them around. This girl was possessed by a spirit that could tell the future, or at least claimed to be able to, and her masters gained a lot of money from her fortune-telling. As she followed Paul and Silas, she screamed that Paul and Silas were servants of the most high God and were “showing us the way to salvation!” The girl followed them around for many days doing this.
I usually pause here, because if I saw someone possessed with a demon, I’d want to pray for the demon to be cast out. I often wonder why Paul and Silas didn’t just turn around and do that. I’ve heard a suggestion that maybe Paul and Silas just didn’t want to get involved right away and were waiting first. I’ve heard another suggestion that maybe they were conflicted, since the girl was technically telling the truth and essentially advertising for them. This time when I read it, I remembered that Jesus said some demons require prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:18-21 and Mark 9:25-29), so maybe they were praying about the girl whenever they went to prayer. Whatever their reason or reasons for waiting so many days, eventually a grieved, worried Paul turned and cast out the demon in the name of Jesus Christ.
Once the girl’s masters realized their money source was gone, they were very angry. They seized Paul and Silas, dragging them to the marketplace to the city leaders. The slave owners said that these Jewish men, Paul and Silas, were stirring up trouble in town and teaching unlawful customs for Romans to observe. The gathered crowd was incited against them, and the city leaders were also moved and gave the command to beat Paul and Silas with a stick, then to throw them into prison.
Beaten, bruised, and bound up in prison, Paul and Silas decided they were just going to sing praises to God. They were awake at midnight doing just that, and all the prisoners heard them. What a witness for Jesus that must have been, singing praise to the Lord while injured and incarcerated! I wonder what songs they sang. I wonder if they both sang melody, or if one sang harmony, or if they switched who sang harmony.
While they were singing there was a sudden, huge earthquake! Everyone’s bonds fell off and all the doors opened. The jailor woke up and quickly ran to be sure all the prisoners were still there, since at that time if you as a jailor lost any of your prisoners then you would be executed. The jailor found all the doors open, and knew because all the prisoners were gone that his execution would probably be horrible. To avoid a painful and possibly prolonged, torturous execution, the jailor drew his sword and readied to commit suicide. Paul quickly yelled out to stop him, letting him know everyone was still there.
I pause here sometimes, too. I don’t know who all was in prison or why, but I think that because they were all still there either the jailor had gotten there before anyone had a chance to think about leaving, or Paul and Silas had convinced everyone to stay. There could be another reason, but I’m not sure what it would be. Whatever the reason, the jailor’s life was not in any danger. The jailor called for a light, sprang in, and went trembling to Paul and Silas where he dropped to the ground before them.
The jailor then brought Paul and Silas out of the prison and very respectfully (and perhaps desperately) asked them, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” It seems he had heard what they’d been preaching and teaching about while they were in town “teaching unlawful customs.” I suppose with the girl screaming and following them around, how could you miss them? Paul and Silas responded that to be saved, the jailor needed to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. (Side note: I find it interesting that the word for “sirs” and “Lord” in this passage is the same Greek word. Go look it up.) They added that the jailor’s whole household could be saved by believing, and ended up speaking to the entire household about believing in Jesus! The jailor had Paul’s and Silas’s wounds washed and tended to, and in no time he and his household had gotten saved and were baptized! Given the way the passage is worded, it seems this all happened in the wee hours of the morning. Whether they waited until daybreak for the baptism or did it in the dark is unclear, but at some point the jailor did have Paul and Silas in his house eating a meal as everyone celebrated being saved.
In the morning the city leaders sent a message to the jailor telling him to release Paul and Silas, saying as my pastor put it, “Get out of town quietly, and let this be a lesson to you boys.” I’m not sure if the leaders had heard the news from the night yet. Though whether they’d heard might change the tone of the message, it probably wouldn’t have changed the point: “You guys can leave now.” The jailor relayed the message to Paul and Silas, letting them know they could go in peace. Paul said no. It seems he was ready to hold these leaders accountable. He pointed out that he and Silas were Roman citizens, and it was illegal for them to have been beaten and imprisoned without proper trial. They had been publicly beaten and imprisoned, and he wasn’t about to let these people privately sweep this under the rug. Paul said he and Silas wouldn’t be leaving until the leaders came and walked them out themselves.
This is another place I pause. Maybe there hadn’t been time before the beating for Paul and Silas to “pull out their Roman cards,” as my dad has put it, but why was this the first time either of them brought it up? I would have found some way to bring that up as soon as possible, because I don’t particularly like the idea of being thoroughly beaten with a stick and then thrown into a filthy prison. Maybe they had tried bringing it up, but no one was listening. Though I have heard it pointed out that whether Paul and Silas planned it or not, the leaders would probably think twice before beating and imprisoning any more Christians, just in case they were Roman citizens, too.
The city leaders came to Paul and Silas, and essentially begged them to leave town. Paul and Silas stopped by Lydia’s house (a woman they’d befriended not long after their arrival to Philippi), comforted the other Christians that met with them there, and then left town. I wonder what it would have been like to be one of the other Christians in town. I’d certainly be glad that Paul and Silas took the time to let us know they were okay and then encourage us to keep following Jesus.
I also wonder what it would have been like to be Paul, Silas, the girl, one of the townspeople, the jailor, someone from the jailor’s household, or the city leaders. But regardless of who you or I might have been in that account, there is no mistaking God’s work in it!
Related:
God’s Forgiveness – Paul the Apostle
Paul’s Passion
The Consequences of Doing God’s Will
Persecution? Hooray!
Suffering for Jesus