After being imprisoned in Philippi, Paul and Silas are freed by the power of God while singing praises in their bondage and share salvation with their jailer.

Transcript:

How do we respond when it appears we are defeated? When all appears lost? What hope can be found? Perhaps some of you, kind of like myself, are brooding types who look out on life and maybe sometimes think this is just one big long defeat.

That's what J.R.R. Tolkien, author of Lord the Rings, once observed, writing, writing to a friend. He said, actually, I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I do not expect history to be anything but a long defeat-- though it contains (and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory.

We suffer a long defeat in life, but along the way, we do enjoy samples of final victory and we hold the hope of the appearance of that final victory. We encounter a, a sample of final victory here in Act 16, as well as the hope of final victory itself. And with that encounter, we find an example to follow and an invitation to receive as we live in the midst of a long defeat. So looking at verses 25 through 27, in Acts 16, you'll recall the situation that Paul and Silas are in. They are in a jail in the city of Philippi. I'm not sure if we've got the map here. I may, we do. That's awesome. Philippi is in Macedonia. You'll recall from last week that Paul and Silas and their company were called to bring the gospel to Macedonia. And in going there, they originally received a very warm welcome by Lydia and those others who gathered for prayer outside the city gates by the river, but that as Paul and Silas were ministering there, there was a slave girl who told fortunes. And we talked about how in the original Greek it indicates she had a Python spirit, a Pithian spirit, like the Oracle of Delphi, she was demon possessed. And she was following Paul and Silas around telling, declaring that these men bring the message of salvation. And Paul became so annoyed that he cast the spirit out of her because she was trying to rob God of his own glory. It's a kind of a parasitic sort of presence that she had there.

And as a result, Paul and Silas were beat, beaten as ordered by the magistrates of Philippi, and they were imprisoned. And so now we find here in verses 25 through 27, an extraordinary series of events. It's about midnight now. We might think that they've, they've been in jail perhaps for 12 hours at this point. Wouldn't have been unusual for matters to be adjudicated by magistrates sometime in midday. So they've been in there a while. And remember, they're in stocks. They're literally sitting on the floor like this, and they're all beaten up. Now, you could do that for a little while, but the floor isn't nice and carpeted like this. It's stone, it's miserable. And so it's no surprise that they have not fallen asleep. A lot of us have a hard time falling asleep on our nice cozy beds. And so they decide the better thing to do here is to pray and to sing hymns. And now you might think that the other prisoners might be annoyed by this, but the text doesn't say that.

It says that they were listening to them. They might not have been so bothered 'cause they were probably uncomfortable themselves, but they were probably also inspired by the example of these two men, perhaps filled with wonder. They, they may have understood, you know, some of these prisoners were in prison rightly so, they've committed crimes, but Paul and Silas haven't done anything here.

Rather than despairing they're praising their God, they have about them a sort of defiant joy. It actually recalls some of the words of of Psalms, go to Psalm 42: 8. It says, by day, the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me-- a prayer to the God of my life.

In Psalm 119 61 through 62, it says, though the wicked bind me with ropes, I'll not forget your law. At midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws. So quite literally, Paul and Silas are are doing those things in this situation.

Now what follows after here is that as they are singing, an earthquake suddenly strikes. Now an earthquake occurring is not unusual on its own, but it's the timing of it, it's very providential. As these two men who've been declared to be messengers of God are imprisoned and praising their God, all of a sudden earthquake strikes, which breaks their chains, but not just their chains, the all, all the prisoners' chains.

It kind of brings back to mind the day of Pentecost a bit when we're thinking about God's presence in Acts 4: 31, it says, after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was, was shaken. And we don't know the extent to which the place that they were meeting was shaken, but this was quite a serious shaking here in the case of Paul and Silas to have this effect that the doors were opened, that they could in fact make an escape if they so desired.

And we've seen God offer this sort of deliverance before, the Apostle Peter and for the Apostle John. But in this case, Paul and Silas have not left, but the jailer doesn't know that. He's awakened by everything that's transpired, and when he sees that all the, the prison doors are open, he concludes that of course the prisoners would've escaped, and it's going to be his head if that's the case. You might recall from Acts 12:19 after God had delivered Peter from prison, it says that Herod cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Now, it was an earthquake that happened here, but perhaps, you know, he was sleeping. Maybe he shouldn't have been sleeping. Maybe he didn't, maybe the authorities would've expected that his guards would be diligent even under those circumstances. So he is in a position of despair and he figures it'd be better if I just end my life now. Now, when you consider all that Paul and Silas have suffered, you might expect them to be vindictive and not give 2 cents if the jailer killed himself, but that's not their attitude at all. They have mercy and compassion for the man. So we continue on in verse 28. Says, 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'll 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.

So just as this jailer's ready just to end it all, Paul shouts out and says, hold up, hold up. We're all here. No one has left. Now you wonder, how is it that all the other prisoners remained? You could imagine maybe Paul and Silas staying, staying, but the rest of them fleeing. I think this speaks to the influence that Paul and Silas must have had over these men, kind of reading between the lines here. They must have told them, Hey, don't go, and given everything that happened, the fact that these men were singing, praising their God, circumstances that led to their imprisonment and then this earthquake happens. We can imagine the prisoners saying, I think I'm gonna listen to those guys. Maybe they told them, Hey, if you leave here, you're gonna end up dead, they're gonna try, just stay with us. And perhaps in doing so, they earned some favor, some clemency in the face of the authorities.

However it is, they're all there. And in response. The jailer falls trembling, saying, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Now you might be wondering, why would he ask that? It almost seems kind of at first glance, maybe it seems artificial. How does he jump immediately to asking this gospel question about how he can be saved? Well, it's not an artificial thing here. Remember the context of everything that's happened. What was the message of the fortune telling girl who is following around Paul, remember in verse 17, she's saying, these men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.

The jailer knew that she was saying that, and so he's connected the dots. He's like, these guys know the way to be saved. Given everything that's happened here, I want to know what they know. Tell me. He falls at their feet trembling with this question, and their response to him is this, believe in the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved, you and your household.

They don't say that he has to do an act of penance for imprison, playing a part in their imprisonment. They don't tell 'em that, well, you better do your best to live a good life here on out given everything that's happened here. They say believe in the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved. Faith in Jesus Christ is sufficient for salvation. This is no innovation on the part of Paul. Many of you are familiar with John three 16. For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. That's what Jesus says. If you believe in me, you'll be saved. When the crowd asks him in John 6, 28 through 29, what must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus gives them this answer. He says, the work of God is this: To believe in the one he has sent.

Salvation only comes as a gift in Christ. And just to kind of take a step back here...