Friends, last week, our message was focused on Saul’s conversion to Christianity. When we first read about Saul in our scriptures, he was a pious Pharisee who was full of hatred for Christianity. He devoted his life to persecuting and arresting Christians. Then, when was on the road walking to Damascus, he had an encounter with Jesus – Jesus told Saul to stop persecuting him and his people. After this moment, Saul devoted the rest of his life to Christ and preached the Good News.
He did a 180-degree turn.
As Saul’s Christian ministry grew, and he traveled away from Israel and into the Gentile world, he began to use his Roman name, Paul.
Today, we encounter Paul, and his co-worker Silas, in the Roman city of Philippi in Macedonia. There, they met a wealthy woman named Lydia and she and her household converted to Christianity. The city did not have a synagogue, so the followers of Christianity met to pray on the shores of a river. One day, when the Christ-followers were headed to the river to pray, they ran into a problem.
Let’s enter the story in the book of the Acts of the Apostles Chapter sixteen verses sixteen through thirty-four:
Scripture Acts 16:16-34
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 these 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: “Release those men.”
The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.”
But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.”
The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed.
They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city.
After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
Amen.
Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen
Let us pray….
Message Paul and Silas – Jumping to Conclusions
We are situated about a mile away from a maximum security prison – SCI Phoenix. Skippack has been neighbors with a prison for almost a hundred years – since 1929. I have heard colorful stories from long-time church members about prisoner escapes in the past and when the prisoners farmed the fields next to the old Skippack Elementary School. But, in this day and age, SCI Phoenix would not be the first place we would go to recruit new members for our church.
Likewise, in the first century, if you were looking for the next person to join your church, you probably wouldn’t have looked in a high-security Roman prison. And, you certainly wouldn’t have picked a cynical jailer who was ready to end all.
Yet, God often uses the most chaotic, messy, and 'earth-shaking' moments of our lives to get our attention. Today, we look at how an earthquake broke the chains of a prison, and how God picks unlikely people to become God’s followers.
This morning, our scripture describes several strange events that unfolded while Paul and Silias were in Philippi. While they were doing their missionary activities, they began to be followed by a girl – persistently followed by a shouting girl. The girl was a slave and she was possessed by a Spirit who allowed her to predict the future. The girl's owners used her fortune-telling abilities to enrich themselves.
The spirit or demon that possessed the girl recognized Paul and Silas as representatives of God. The girl followed the men around and shouted: “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.”
After she followed them for days, shouting, Paul grew frustrated. As a reaction to his frustration, he told the demon to leave the girl….and it did. We would think this is good news, and maybe it was for the girl, but her owners lost their income source when the girl couldn’t predict the future.
They were angry.
They caused a scene.
The owners of the girl dragged Paul and Silas before local magistrates and accused them of causing an uproar and taking away the girl’s powers. The people in the crowd and the magistrates were locals – they were the citizens of Philippi….they were Romans….and Paul and Silias were outsiders – foreigners – aliens. It was easy for the crowd to turn against Paul and Silas.
In response to the accusers and the angry crowd, the magistrates had Paul and Silas beaten and thrown into jail….they didn’t have a trial….they weren’t represented by attorneys. They were just beaten and thrown into jail.
Paul and Silias were thrown into the deepest, darkest part of the prison and were placed in stocks. Thrown into the dark and immobilized. They must have seemed very dangerous to the authorities. While they were there, they sang hymns and religious songs. They took every opportunity to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Their positive attitude surprised the other prisoners who listened to the Christians songs and stories of hope…. Paul and Silas sang cheerful songs in a very cheer-less place.
In the middle of the night, an earthquake struck. The prison was rattled and the doors were flung open. All of the prisoners had the opportunity to escape.
When the jailor saw the doors were open, he was so upset that he decided to kill himself on the spot…..i guess dying by suicide was preferable to being killed by the Romans for derelection of duty.
Paul realized the jailor was about to kill himself, so Paul called out to him and told him to not do it. Despite the prisoners having the opportunity to escape, no one left the prison.
The jailor saw this as a miracle. And, he believed it was caused by Paul and Silias’ faith in God and Jesus. He was so impressed he took Paul and Silias into his home, cleaned them up, fed them a meal, and he and his whole family were baptised and became Christians.
The magistrates discovered they had imprisoned Roman citizens, Paul and Silias, without a trial in violation to Roman law. They asked Paul and Silas not to make a fuss and to leave their city.
And, Paul and Silas did indeed leave Philippi, but their visit resulted in many conversions and Philippi becoming one of the early centers of Christianity.
When we talked about this story at our Lunch Bunch Bible Study this week, Ned pointed out that within this story there were several examples of people “jumping to conclusions” before knowing all the facts. The owners of the slave girl jumped to the conclusion they were going to lose money when the demon was cast out of her. The Magistrates jumped to an incorrect conclusion when they thought they could beat and imprison Paul and Silas without a trial – not realizing they were citizens of Rome. The jailer jumped to the conclusion the prisoners had escaped without checking to see if they were still in the jail even though the doors were opened…he nearly took his own life before he discovered they stayed in the jail.
One of our “take-aways” from this story is a reminder that instead of jumping to conclusions, it is important to gather as much information as possible before we make major decisions.
But, on the other hand, our faith is one of those things that may quickly take hold of us – and once we become followers of Jesus, we will spend the rest of our lives gathering information to support our faith.
When Paul and Silas were brought to the prison, they were perceived by the jailer as dangerous foreigners – they were of a different religion than him, they were from far away, they were a different ethnicity (Jewish instead of Greek), and they had caused a commotion and an upset in their town. The jailer locked them up in the inner-most, darkest, dankest part of the prison and also trapped their feet in stocks so they were completely restricted.
He may have heard them while they were under-arrest – Paul and Silas sang songs of their faith. This would have seemed unusual and drawn attention to them.
But, after the earthquake, when the jailer thought he had lost control of the prisoners and almost killed himself, Paul was the one who shouted for him to preserve his life. Paul had a word of Grace in the midst of a big upset.
The jailer immediately rushed into the cell where Paul and Silas were held, fell at their feet, and asked what he needed to do to convert to their faith.
And, in reply, Paul and Silas told him: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” With that, the jailer took them to his home, cleaned and bandaged their wounds, had his whole household baptised, and fed them a meal. He believed, and his whole household was saved.
This didn’t take a lot of contemplation. The jailer didn’t study for years like Crystal has been studying to prepare for her confirmation. His family members possibly didn’t know anything about this new-to-them faith until they were brought into the room to be baptised. But, God’s grace came to them, they believed, and they became children of God and members of the Christian faith.
Belief can come in a moment…Salvation comes in an instant…but it is our work as believers to expand our knowledge of our faith – to pray – to listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit – to worship – to read our scriptures – to go to Bible studies – to learn about topics in Christianity – to practice applying our faith to our lives – to put our faith into action. We believe, and then we learn, and then we apply our faith.
The jailer maybe wasn’t who Paul and Silas went to Philippi to convert. He was probably not their target audience. But, this story reminds us that even though we may not recognize that others need to hear the message of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is working to reach all people. We must do our part to share a message of God’s love with everyone we encounter, by our words, by our actions, by our kindness, and by our love.
May we do so today and all days. Amen.
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